File:Famous castles and palaces of Italy (1912) (14595935649).jpg

Identifier: cu31924015211398 (find matches)
Title: Famous castles and palaces of Italy
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: D'Auvergne, Edmund B. (Edmund Basil)
Subjects: Castles Palaces
Publisher: London, T.W. Laurie
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
head ofwhich is in the Vatican; hence, as now, a wide andlofty passage, in those days paved with mosaics andadorned with, pilasters, wound upwards in a completespiral to the sepulchral chamber of the founder in thevery centre of the building. You look down into thatchamber and see it bare and empty; the marble hasbeen stripped from the walls and the pavement oftravertine, and the urns have long since gone from thefour niches. On the middle perhaps stood theporphyry urn of the founder. Probably the ashesof Antoninus Pius were deposited here also, and thoseof his wife Faustina. For the remains of Lucius Verus,and what was mortal in Marcus Aurelius, room hadmost likely to be found in the adjacent chambers. Thecolumbaria filled rapidly in those days; and in the year211 the bronze doors of the Mausoleum closed finallyon the urn of Septimus Severus, brought here fromthe far distant north. No more the winding corridor echoed to the chant ofthe mimes and the blast of the funeral trumpets. For
Text Appearing After Image:
2: < 5 ^%^ K hoc&< <O . s i W ^Q „, o X H SANT ANGELO AND THE VATICAN 17 two hundred years all was still in that abode of dustand ashes. From without the statues of the gods andheroes looked down on a world which was forgettingthem and upwards at clouds that were fast gatheringover Rome. Sixty years after the death of Severus,the barbarians were ravaging Umbria; and stoutAurelian was attending to the defence of the imperialcity. He built a wall from the Flaminian Gate (nowthe Porta del Popolo) along the left bank of the Tiber,and for the protection of the JElian bridge he did notscruple to make use of the jSllian tomb. He joinedit to the tower by walls, with towers, running from itseastern angles, and pierced the enclosure with a gate,to which he removed the bronze door of the sepulchreitself. Thus one of Hadrians successors may be saidto have begun the work of spoliation, and possiblyremoved some of the marbles and statues from the ex-posed face of the monument. Years

Note About Images