1802 Vrancea earthquake
The 1802 Vrancea earthquake occurred in the Vrancea Mountains of today's Romania (then Moldavia) on 26 October [O.S. 14 October] 1802, on St. Paraskeva's Day. With an estimated intensity of 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale, it is the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Romania and one of the strongest in European history. It was felt across an area of more than two million square kilometers in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, from Saint Petersburg to the Aegean Sea.In Bucharest, the earthquake had an estimated intensity of VIII–IX on the Mercalli scale. It toppled church steeples and caused the Cotroceni Monastery to collapse.