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Erfurt latrine disaster (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 1 month ago by als@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The Erfurt latrine disaster (German: Erfurter Latrinensturz, lit. 'Erfurt latrine fall') occurred on 26 July 1184 in the German city of Erfurt. Henry VI, then the King of Germany, was conducting a Hoftag ("court day") with local nobility on the second floor of a building. The combined weight of the assembled attendees caused the floor of the building to collapse through the ground floor and into the latrine cesspit below. Sources say that approximately sixty attendees died, some of whom drowned in human waste after falling into the cesspit.

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[–] silverchase@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

The Holy Shit.

[–] teft@piefed.social 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Ever been in an outhouse? Imagine your meeting room being right over that. Man, the middle ages were fucking gross.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago

Outhouses actually aren't all that bad if you maintain them properly, which involves tossing wood ash down on a regular basis to keep a high pH. I mean, it's not a toilet with running water, but I wouldn't rank it anywhere near the top of the worst things that I've smelled.

[–] als@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They were meeting on the second floor but the beams were rotten so it broke. The weight of everyone and the debris then also broke the ground floor and some of them fell into the cesspit.

[–] teft@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

Ever been near an outhouse? You can smell them from a ways off. Even two stories up it was probably a pretty rank meeting room.

[–] violetsoftness@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

oh yeah time patrol had to cordon off the whole month that this happened in due to tourists

[–] dataprolet@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago

Erfurt could use another one of those.