CRUMBLING VENICE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11481, 14 January 1903, Page 7

CRUMBLING VENICE.

ANOTHER TOTTERING EDIFICE.

United Pre«s Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright. (Received January 13th, 9.25 a.m.) ROME, January 12. Two arches of the Procurato Vecchio are badly cracked, and a portion of the facade is detached. It is feared that subsidences oi buildings will extend throughout Venice. Some time ago Signer Boni, who presides over the Technical Commission which has been reporting on the state of public building in Venice, discovered that each pillar of the Proeuiatio Veochiio —the arcades to the left as one faces the Basiuea—has to support no less a weight than 3500 kilos, which it is said is the maximum weight that it can bear. It was nescessary, therefore, that the supports, both of wood and of metal—the former of which have been carved and cut away by the inhabitants of the houses and shops which they serve to support — should ba strengthened. It was also found necessary to insist on the removal of all articles of furniture of great weight, of statues, and, indeed, of everything that was very heavy. Even these precautions, it would seem, have not proved sufficient. Th© chief dangers which threaten the destruction of the beautiful 'buildings of Venice- as a whole were explained some time ago in a leading article in "The Press." Most of the buildings, like the Campa/nile of St. Mark, are built on piles of white poplar wood, driven into the mud, and these ar« in process of decay. The dredging of the lagoon and the tideway for the hug© modern ships which visit the port, and the wash of the penny steamboats up and down the, Grand Canal are f urtiher elements of danger.