In the meanwhile the news of this disaster had spread all over Europe, and help began to arrive from various quarters. The Empire, France, Spain, and several of the Italian States sent contributions in money, building materials, and men to help clear away the ruins. The Pope was the first in the field, and sent a body of troops to maintain order, and Giulio Cerruti, the engineer of Castel Sant’ Angelo.[480] The latter was sent to report on the advisability of transferring the population and the seat of the Government to Gravosa, but although he declared that that spot was very suitable, the majority of the survivors were still too much attached to their old home, ruined as it was, to desire to settle elsewhere. The proposal was dropped, and in fact, when the citizens came to take stock of the situation, they found that things were not quite so hopeless as they had at first appeared. Some five thousand people had been killed, but there must have been more survivors than the 625 mentioned by the anonymous author of the _Relatione_, if we accept Razzi’s estimate of the population at 30,000 in 1578. It may have decreased to some extent during the ensuing ninety years, but even in 1667 it must have been much more than 5600.[481] The damage done to the buildings was less than might have been expected. It is true that the Venetian Provveditore of Cattaro, who happened to be at Gravosa at the time, wrote that “with the exception of the public granary, the dogana, the fortifications, and the lazarets, all the buildings, both public and private, including the Palace, the churches, and the monasteries, were ruined and destroyed”; while Vitale Andriasci stated that “nothing of the city remained standing but the fortresses and the circuit of the walls, which were injured in many places, and a few dismantled houses.” But these writers were probably excited by the awful spectacle and fell into exaggeration. The Duomo was so greatly damaged that it was necessary to rebuild it from the foundations. The upper story of the Rector’s Palace was severely, but not hopelessly, injured. The church of San Biagio suffered considerably, but survived until destroyed by fire forty years later. The Dominican and Franciscan monasteries, including their towers, remained almost intact; while the Sponza, the clock-tower, the churches of St. Nicholas, the Ascension, St. Luke, the Saviour, the Annunciation, the granaries, the lazarets, &c., were in no worse condition. Of the private dwellings, those in the Stradone all fell down, and were rebuilt later; but many of those on the slopes of the Monte Sergio survived, as is proved by the numbers of fragments of Venetian Gothic which may be seen to this day. The general aspect of Ragusa is thus fortunately still what it was before the calamity.