The Washington times., 1901-09-08
IN OLD BOLOGNA.
The Curious Churches and Towers
One Sees There.

One Sees There.
| VIII the class of geography please
stand up and tell all that it. knows about
! Bologna? 1t will not take long, unless
! some member of the class mas been there.
a place at orce more interesting and less
! known it would be hard to find OF
course. your correspondent judges the
rest of the world by himself. All that
he kew about the place before he got to
| it was that it gave its name to a kind 81
| sausage. and he was not even absolutely
clear that this delicious Wand was not
named after some other of the various
| French Boulognes The only reason why
he got to Bologna at all was that the
trains between Florence and Venice ran
at such inconvenient hours that it SEEM
ed almost necessary to spend a night in
| Bologna. But, after d casual glance at
the place, going away the next day was
not to be thought of.
The most striking feature of Bologna is
| its queerness. 1t seems to take a delight
in doing things differently from the rest
! of the world. After going to a hotel and
| being assigned to a room up one fight
| of stairs down one fight OF steps and
| around six corners, the pilgrim betook
| himself to the cathedral, having found
| that the cathedral. in a town where there
| is one, is usually a good starting point for
| sightseeing. Here, as it chanced to be
| the day of the saint to whom the cathe-
dral Is dedicated, II was his fortune to
| see portion OF an elaborate service, pre-
! sided over by cardinal, who, unfortu-
| nately, did not wear his name on his hat
| and is, therefore, unidentified. The con-
gregation was made UP largely of persons
who seemed from the uniformity of their
dress and their habits of walking in pro-
| cessions. to be the inmates of number
of asyiums for pretty girls, but their
| presence in no way detracted from the in
| terest of the occasion.
The cathedral itself is not fascinating,
probably because in the building and the
decoration of il the Bologn,-s neglected
their customary principle OF originality.
1t looks as If they had tried hard to make
themselves a little copy of St. Peters in
Rome, and the comparison of the two is
by no means favorable to the church ot
Bologna. But there are other churches.
That of San Petronio was begun with the
purpose of beating the cathedral of Flor
ence in size and beauty. Now, the cathe-
dral of Florence is not easy to beat in
size, or beauty either. yet the builders of
San Petronio accomplished some part of
nave OF their church Is more beautiful
| than the nave of Florence. but with It's
nave San Pertonio reigns and ends The
church is not much to look at outside.
while the exterior of the Florence cathe-
dral is it's glory. San Petronio failed of its
object, on the whole. 1t was to have been
something over 600 feet long, and that
| would have surpassed Florence by at least
forty-four feet but the building stopped
when the nave was only 3si feet long. be-
ing 172 feet shorter than the cathedral of
Florence, and having yet no transepts
and no choir. But 10 is great church
just as 1t standsi and shows the good in
tentions of the Bolognese.
There is more genuine oddity in Santo
Stefano, which is seven separate churches
Joined in one. Just for the sake of orig
inality 1t bears a pulpit on its outer wall.
1t must be convenient device for
preaching at the people who refuse to
come to church. Even II you come to
Bologna you will have to take somebody's
word for the exact number of churches
which compose Santo Stefano. for when
the custodian shows you around you will
be sure to lose count, and then there are
rooms which you do not know whether
you ought TO count as church or only as
chapels. Only three OF the seven front on
the street; the rest are behind them and
under them and among them One of
them is in the crypt, and In this there is
small pillar. with an inscription on 1t
which says that it is of the exact height
of Saviour. 1t is about five
feet eight inches high. In another OF
the churches is the tomb OF st. Petronius.
a copy Of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusa-
lem. Near this is a little court called the
atrium of Plate, and in one of its walls
is set g bit of marble from Pilates bal
cony.
At the beginning of the twelfth century
the Bolognese took to building towers.
Not TO have them like other peoples tow
ers, which usually stood up straight they
built them on a slant The Tore Asineln
was built in 1109. 1t is 800 feet high and
four feet out of plumb. If there are two
of you, you can go to the top of 1t. One
person alone Is not allowed to go, but
you can hire somebody to climb with you
for a small sum. However, the notion of
climbing at all did not appeal strongly
to ono who had recently been to the top
Of Giotto's tower. which pointed toward
the zenith of the burning Italian sky.
There was nothing in that experience to
make one care to ascend another tower
pointed toward the monday sun. instead
OF toward the exact zenith.
1t is true that Bologna has an annual
mean temperature two degrees lower than
Florence. just for the sake of being differ
ent, and that is blessing In the second
degree to Bologna, but, after all. 1t must
be remembered that it is only slight
difference in a mean temperature, and
even here the weather makes one feel al
If one were thinking and understanding
with fried brains. 1t may be hot in New
York, too: it sometimes is. But there
your brains seem to be stewed; here they
are fried in oil. II is the difference of
American and Italian cooking
But this is Il depression. The other tow
er. the Tore Garisenda. was begun in /
NO. and was never finished, and a lucky |
thing, too, for it is 1853 feet high and 10 |
feet out of plumb and it looks as II 1t |
could not possibly be built much higher |
without tipping over. II is true that the |
pisans did. sixtyifour years later, begin |
a tower which leans even more. but the
Bolognese could not foresee that and aft
er all, invention is one thing and imita-
tion is quite another even supposing that |
the Pisans meant their tower to lean at
all. as is by no means certain.
There is fountain In the Piazza del
Nettuno. with an inlage of Neptune and
some mermaids, dolphins. and children.
II is nearly $50 years old and far too queer
to attempt to describe. Bologna is queer
through and through and the queerest
thing of all is that the class in geography
knows so little about it--Bologna Letter
in New York Tribune