THE NEW CAMPANILE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10060, 30 January 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE NEW CAMPANILE.

The famous campanile of St. Marks, at Venice, which fell in a, mass' of ruins, July 14, 1902, is being restored in. its original form. With infinite pains,: the Venetians, who regarded this tower with a sort of veneration, set to work .to rebuild it in a more stable manner than the original. The cause of tlie campanile's fall was. the sinking, of the foundation on the muddy marshland of the sunken island on which St.. Marks is built-. There is' probably a sinking also of the whole island archipelago, on which Venice is situated, as indicated by the collapse and'cracking of many of.the famous old! palaces. .Bat St. Mark's foundation was probably deficient, in the first place, especially, that- part on which the. lofty campanile or. belli tower stood This,consisted of stonework laid on piling. But the not been driven deep enough to go down through the thin mud and penetrate the hard'i cla-yey gravel beneath.. In order to render, absolutely secure the new" foundations of the campanile .the bearing platform has been extended." Four thousand larclr piles, thirteen and one-half -feet long, were driven down. ,into tfie hard stratum, completely surrounding and . reinforcing . the old piles. .Larch was chosen, ae tills wood has been found. to ; serve* the purpose for several centuries in other Venetian, buildings,. and-is .still in, , good condition. .The view, also shows: tlie position, which the reconstructed, loggetta- ,o£: Sansonino will occupy..-^,. The circular,. incline /which was a. remarkable feature,of the. old build-ing'and,-up.,which. Napoleon rode liis. horse; has been,, -rebuilt ; , \yith., some / alterations. In,the oia. campanile the .-weight- of ;.the inclined way tended.,to press, towards:.the four, walls, of the tower,, but ! inj.the .new. construction ,the stairway is really,7 built of -tie bars,, which Jio-ld the walls, of the' tower together, instead.. of pressing , them out. ... ~ ... ... The old campanile, as .in so many of the belfries of Venice, had am inner wallbuilt."up within the -outer visible. wall, and in the new. ,work , the same, ; double . iya-11 principle ihas been retained ;,with ,-tliis differenoe,. tihat the inner wall- is .of the same thickness, throughout,. and.; is-,pierced.-,, by only , one arch. , -. T!he materials-: of wiich ' the , ie constructed' , ha-ve been very carefully, selected in order to avoid! harsh color -contrasts. .-The stone for - the tower has been . obtained.,, from Istr-ia,, whence came the original.material.. .-Corners, ajd,d : sliarp edges.-,adjoining portions, of, edifice, Jhave been. softened : tjO| imitate-the time-worn appearance of .the old -church. How - difficult: .it t is , to ; duplicate, ajj the old -materials. may be. imagined,-, c w£en.:i't-,is remembered!, that'-'the old.: campanile was . begun:-.in ,902, and, was .not,, finished:;,until the sixteenth .cehtiby.--. t v..' -i -Despite'its cele"bnty, the old .tower was part : was. practically.. ;a plain mass. of. brickwork., and!-the rbelfry looked 'crushed -by 'the massive-'superstruc-tnre.; •.-The new., tower rsrili-.be. way an improvement on. the. old:; ibotluin stability and beauty. . The. scaffolding,on ' which the • masons work is • of a. novel -kind. It is .-really-a travelling, Toof .and! gallery. It .consists", of. a .platform, held in.-,place-% four-:'slender, steel rods, one on, .each, .side of .'the. building. ~ , THe -platform and temporary roo£: are' pushed upward as the work advances to-

ward the ultimate' height 0f""325 feet. Itwill be slightly taller than the twenty-sir-storey St. Paul building in New York, which is 308 feet-high;. . The qost of the hew structure will be 360,000 dols. The new lantern for the tower mil follow We old one in outward appearance, but it will 1 be much lighter than the one built by Buono in the earlfy part of the sixteenth century. The copper sheathing of the spire will be carried-on iron rafters, and the cornices of the spire will he of dressed stone of exactly' "the same pattern as -in the old campanile!.'> The angel at the top of tlhe spire is. to be replaced, but 'in order to lessen the strain which such, a large figure would setup during, a- toe£vy gale., the, figure \\:jll be attached to a pivoted rod, which will have a'weight at its lower end*.' The figure of the angel will thus move like a pendulum during a heavy wind. The re-" building of tlhe campanile of St. Mark's is only onei of the pieces of reconstruction work now under way or which will have to be undertaken soon to prevent the complete collapse and subsidence of Venice. The capitals on the Doges Palace, adjoining St. Jfarkop, are 310 longer level, the fine mosaics which form a carpet for St-. Mark's wave in curves. ~ Some old houses oil "the Grand Canal are out of' tie. perpendicular and have been condemned. by 'municipality, as their-fall involve that of the neighboring -palaces. -Tlie repairs begun a few years ago just saved: the Casa d'Oro.

The Patace Dario on the Grand Canal, while being pulled down, helped: to destroy the curious cloistered abbey of Abbrazia. Fortunately the Pa-lace Dario belongs to an,",ard : ait. lover of Venice, the Comtesse de la Baume Pulvina, who had every stone of. the facadte, the. marbl'e of the windows, and the arabesques of the pediment numbered so that the palace will! reappear with its old facade exactly as it used to look.

Ominous scaffolding has also appeared in tlhe two largest and most beautiful churches in Venice, San Giovanni e Pauio and the Frari. San Giovanni contains the tQmbs-.of.the. Doges,, and .the .Frari .is. a sort of Pantheon of the igreat generals and admirals of the Republic. , The weight of the magnificent marble:.monuments of the Venetian nobility standing in Sail Giovanni has, become a danger to the church.. Enormous . cracks, have appeared, in. the walils, necessitating the removal' of the .great tombs.' of the Doges. The same lamentable sight .is seen at the Frari. whore the tombs, of the generals and. 'admirals have been moved. Still other buildings are disfigured by scaffolding where attempts are being made to save the .historic structures fr.om collapse.