THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, , I'OHTLANft SUNDAY noi.ra.w. AUGUST, if, .IS07
JT C f peWM; flwo of a beautiful
' i woman, Venice, queen of the Adrt
- atic, pearl of the sea, most lovely of
the cities, is thought to be dying.
One by one, the jewels that bedeck hcr
crown are falling; the' roses and lilies of
architecture, which were given by those
who loved her as their mother city, are fad-
'. f 1 ' '.ilt,f..;.."..V.,.',.!.L!
tng ana snriveimg; me queen, (viy h,w;:,
ing to her end in a salt tea of tears,' . v
Since the fall of the Campanile in-'
1002, other buildings have fallen; along "
She Grand Canal many palaces, rotting and
crumbling, have been condemned; towers' '; 1
and lofty columns are bending; walls' and.
priceless mosaics, are cracking; floors are , ,
sinking. Today scaffoldings cling about . .
the walls of St. Mark's Cathedral, the
Church of St. John, and St. Paul and the
Frari are in the throes of constant repair, . .
while the walls of the Palace of the Doges
are being braced. '
t" Frantically an army of engineers, ar .
chitects and carpenters are busy bracing
walls, strengthening, foundations, filling in
, crevices, propping up floors. Was graft in
, the olden days responsible for the threat
ened collapse of the present? Did the 1
v builders of the city think more: of filling . ,
ineir pociicis man oj erecting an enaurtng
1 maWm Pra ill : : -; n
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berated through tte' city, fell into crumbling , decay.' A crude was found in the groat arch of
the Apocalypae in tit Mark's. iiio iinaae ox
Sighs was orackod, and liable at any minute to
' crumble Into the canal beneath it Then windows
began falling from the Church of St. John and
St. Paul the great church built in 1284, where
. the doge every year in state attendod serrioe in
honor of the victory of Venice over the, xurks.
v'. in .zauuur.'tna t'amnanue destroyea tne i.ia -dj ir.M-', .n . u
f-imS 'tfiA-SSS: that they would carry other build;
.ruins.
. The Campanile, sentinel of Venice, gave its
yarning. v , 11 , . .
For days the, people wept over the fall pf
the great tower; stores were closed, and houses
draped in mourning. But it was not the fall of
.' the tower alone which was deplored us through
a veil suddenly rent, the people of - Venice saw.
with startled eyes, the prophecy of doom.
To save the city the experts agreed hat
of the buildings would have to be demol
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rw ?flln1a J a mnA - oiimniflfwi IflTtrfitv . naaji Art: nAmtflrs D&inted. scuiDtorfl hewed ill bonnff Cathedral of ot.,-Mark and the Dosres v - m
monument to their geniusf - iVo J f o from debris floating down the rivers Po, Adige, stone and poets dreamed. Venice rose in power, Palace., ilad it struck the Palace of the Doges,, the-Abbatia-was ordered, and reluctantly 'and "
(luuiTMwueuvv . j. ...j .. j ""'"r r " .V" v j sadly tne .uario raiace was conaemnea.
were men, good and bad; Borne people rejoiced famous structure. Md if, on the other hand, , Fortunately, 'the owner of the palace, th
and others wept. Venice was happy, Venice the stone tower had struck the facade ofbt. 'r a i t$,-PV.,i .lt. Rh
was sinful. Venice was gay' arid mad.- But she. : Mark's Italians' hold their' breath at '.the .
was beautiful , - ' - thought.. ?r KniMm Pi WiWa. It will . takn '
Uk. tto waterfowl.' . Xho faU . ?? the Campanile around Venice , . .notieT 0 cit, on ar
m . . . ... i .. .... !' .... 'V.' A mamma . .Wm.am ' . KK. ' KArtAfl . T rt inH ''.!''.. . . " ... - ... .
unT duhi ineir nens among ino ocean wvm; b bcuoh w ua.uausn,, u-o v
engineers busy , trying to save Venice
say this is true.
O Venice! Venice! When thy marble walla'
Are level with the water there shall be
A cry of nations o'er tby sunken halls
A loud lament along the sweeping sea. ' .
Byron.
T TPON 11? islands the city of Venice 'was
"I I , built not upon - rocks rising rigidly
and pecurely from the waves, but upon
mud and claythick, leathery islands
of mud, rising from an insecure base of sand..
With strong piles the builders reinforced
the island bases, and ' upon them laid .the
foundations of their buildings huts, . palaces,
churches. A city rose magically above the waveB,
and as magical as was its building was the bud
ding of art, the unfolding of a jflower which no
where else in the world had ever bloomed in
such magnificence. "
the Brenta and the Piave in the fifth century
"after Christ, native tribes, fleeing over the moun
tains of Italy before Attila, the . terrible king
of the .Huns, builded houses"' and huts. In the
terror - of warfare and persecution Venice . was
born. . , '
.Then, as the centuries passed, the woaiderful
flower boomed. There rose the Campanile, the
Palace of the Doges,' St. Mark's, with its lacy
traceries of stone and its shimmering domes;
the Grand Canal became a moonlight dream as
lovers glided, to the sound of mandolins' and
guitars, in gondolas on the waters; as men and
maids 'passed up the marble steps of the
churches to marriages, and mothers passed from
baptismal rites with babies in their arms.;
Across the 400 bridges passed hundreds of
souls, - and those that : passed laughed blithely,
full of the joy of life. One bridge they called .
t- Bridge) t f Sighs, and over it many moved
on to the great annihilation.
As ' centuries passed art seemed to Bur'
mr the ocean waves: 10 a. sense 01 ner.uanirer. . dub u-kuu iv iwwn, -.; v ;- v .
Anywhere the sands were shifting, as the wind- - toward her'safetv. - The municipal ' authorities r ""t v.'V.
Blew from the north or south where that they came . low " avl "J? ' ; iBTj.:;' -:,t . 1)0 reconstructed. This Will; be at a OOSt OX
. Had to make sure tne ground tney siooa upon;
Rose, like an exhalation from the deep, - -
a vast meiropou -
, That is it ''an exhalation from the deeSp."
-, Long after the doges died Venice . grew, in
beauty;: she remained, the ; mistress of the
' waters, a woman city of imperishable charms. .
' But of comparatively recent 1 years there
. 'came f orewarnings of. an approaching end. The
. heart of Venice her foundat
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and folpgists went to work. ' ; - - f VeniceMhe" work of demoji. !
And then they discovered a terrible tb. . and. reconstruction, is going; on. There if'
The mud islands on which the ' bud. in h(jart$ f theae Venetians, and;
.''.Jwi sooner does a beloved landmark fall than
7 tuBuuiimui. .-, t to reglirrftct it elsewhere.' They wU
h"vi!U T,1 TjUrr was & their ty, and many declare thattUi
m : Experts found that the Ducal Library was . i foretold doom.
in danger, and. -at once orders , were given xor , , ftffiTa 1TI(i J5fflffl,itv t.Berera
ulted roof ox
iniurinc' tho rare mosaics.
Both the churches of St. John and St Paul
Wations-bigaxitade- ; the removal of the 300,000, volumes. :The . .
w . m - m .'' . . I1 T Jl . .... IIO 1 13 J3t. Ill TiliM tiU a Ullull . T M1U Mi
cay.-' in lu came tne nrst snocK, tne tocsin 01 -, Mary contained tne unmani Breviary, me mosi fi. , t " vTs , -,-, ,
i o. - ji. . j. i v : u ':n i. ;... Dl. mars B wiinout .injuring uic w i
alarm me vaiuauiifj, iiio .(freaii. wwer : wiuui -1 uoautixuiij luuuuiuabcu uibuubui u viarcuvo.
rose 300 feet in the air, with a tf emor , heaved - As the experts continued their investigations
back and forth, "and, with-a "crash thatrever- . iore alarmingly apparent became the signs of
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end thn Frari must be watched oonst&ntlv. In
. fear of sudden collapse, the statuesthe winged '
' victories and symbolic figures cave been re-
- moved from the Church of St. John and St. Paul.
In the- Frari the Panthenor, of Venice,
which contains the ashes of great admirals and
generals of the republio the statues have been
"' dismantled. - Board fences have been put up be ,
fore the mausoleum of Canova, the chair and the
, sacristy. Even the pictures of "The Virgin," by
, Bellini, and the works of Tievola have been taken
, from the ceiling. . ' . ' ' . . - -
- Professor Otto Wagner, of the Academy of
' Fine Arts.yienna, declares that the piles upon
'which the buildings of the city were ereoted are
. rotting. And there is absolutely no hope, he de .
" clares, of saving the city. ..Professor Hippolyte
Jambord, of the University of Paris, also has de- i
, clared that the city is doomed.
' i . Shortly after the ' Campanile : fell, 0. n.
- Blackall, awell-known Boston architect, made
. an examination of the foundations oi the oity
" with Signor Qiacomo Boni, the "most eminent; '
' architect of Italy. , 1 , " f , . . '
Mr. Blackall said that the city reposed on
layers of alluvial clay, the first stratum of which
.: .vanges from a few inches to 100 feet in depth. -l
'. This lies immediately over a bed of sand. -
It is believed that dredging operations in the
- Grand,Canal and the Giudecca several years ago "
caused a shifting of the sand. But Still further .
. back is thought by many to lie the real reason.
There were srrafters amoilar builders in the owftv" '
. days as well as now. and to their avarice may be v
' Ann. l. n.MM ,K -V.' tVn i I7.
Jferhaps liyron wrote propneticaiJy : .
Venlpe, lost and won.
Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done,
-Sinks, like a seaweed. Into whence ah rose, .
A