I live in the city that was devastated by pandemic of the Black Death several times in the history.

It's hard to walk on the streets of the old part of the city and ignore the fact that few hundreds years ago, there were thousands and thousands of people dying on the same streets. This deadly disease was always following the wars and it was conditioned by bad hygiene and undeveloped health care that stagnated during Middle Ages. But now, scientist claim that the cause was a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis and the same caused many different types of plague.
The Black Death came to Europe prom Central Asia by the Silk Road. It came to Mediterranean region somewhere around 1343 with merchant ships. In 14th century the plague killed between 30% and 60% population in Europe only in 14th century. In that time , the estimated world's population was around 450 million and the Black Death reduced that number to 350 million. It's hard to imagine now that 1/5 of world's population disappeared because of the same disease and how the world looked back then trying to fight something that it doesn't understand. You've probably watched many science fiction movies with a virus which is spreading all over the world killing the most of the population. And that was only a movie, but back ten, it was the reality.
As the world didn't understand it's dangerous enemy, people tried to find explanations, so many people were accused for the witchcraft, the church took the most of the control over the people and any strange or unusual behavior was considered as an act of devil. So, along with many, many people who died because of the plague, many people died for nothing, only because someone was suspicious to someone.

There were two "peaks" of the Black Death in my city.

The first was in 1348-1349, during the war between Venetian Republic and the Kingdom of Hungary. And it was my city that stood between those forces, inhabited by Croats who had a million problems with famine, conquerors on both sides and they didn't have their own king for more than 250 years. The plague infected both armies and it can be said that the real winner of the war was the plague.

During 1348 and 1349 the plague reduced the population of city of Šibenik from 9 000 to 2 000. The corpses were burnt and people somehow manage to defeat the pandemic.

In next 250 years the plagued returned for 30 times but with affected less of the population and made less damage... but, there was an other "peak", even higher than the first one!

It was in 1649, just after very important battle in which people of Šibenik defended the city and defeated the largest army of Ottoman Empire that even came in front of the city walls.

But the situation before the battle caused that many people from the nearby towns and villages came in Šibenik seeking protection. Many people on small space without proper hygienic conditions and, somehow, the bacteria came back!

The first victim died on June 8th 1649 and nobody believed that the cause was the plague. There were fair days in the city and many people came to trade. In next few days a thousand people died by the plague. And still, people didn't believe that, they actually accused the first victim as a werewolf who comes by night and infects people. So, they dug out his remains and beheaded him, but the number of deaths was still increasing!

People were dying on the streets and nobody was removing those corpses. The streets were full of them. People who weren't infected didn't come out. Some of them escaped on the islands.
In the summer 1649, more than 12 000 people died on the streets of Šibenik. Many people didn't die because of plague, but because of hunger. The food supplies in the city were stopped. From 150 noble surnames, only 10 remained still alive after the plague. After the plague, the city was robbed by those who asked for it's protection.

It took many years for city to recover. We are all honored to be descendants of those who survived the Black Death. Thank you!