The Republican journal., 1901-01-10
which the unhappy lover of Leonora
the heroine of II Trovatore, languished

|
in confinement.
OF the seventy odd converts tina
flourished in Saragossa in the DAYS
when one-fifth of SPANS population
were monks and friars only two re
main that are worth visiting. Santo
Domingo-an immense old pile, now
abandoned and fast falling to DECAYS
interesting as being the first religious
edifice built with funds acquired from
the discovery of the New World. Santa
Engracia convent was built by Charles
V. about four hundred years ago. Its
special show-place is curious subter-
ranean chapel, filled to the brim with
bones and sacred relics. Rows of mar
BILE sarcophagi, covered with grotesque
carvings, line the crypt, and in them
are preserved the ashes of Christian
martyrs who were put to death by
Dicletian. The guide gravely informed
us that on certain fiesta days these
holy ashes bleed profusely. Saragossa
has many interesting churches; some
of them with multitude of slender
spires, like minarets: Others covered
with barbaric tiles like Russian sanctu-
aries; and others so unlike anything
else in Europe that they might pass for
places of worship on the lonely steppes
of Tartary. The church of Santiago,
! (St James,, dating back to 1859, occu-
pies the site of the house in which the
Apostle James is said to have lodged
when he preached here, soon after the
| Crucifxion.
| \ wearisome all-night ride brought
us within sight and sound of the Medi-
terranean, just as the. day was break
ing. In the uncertain light, the old
town of Atafulla-now a railway juno
tion-with it's three picturesque castles,
one of them clinging like birds nest
to the seward edge of the cliff, looked
ghostly enough. Presently we crossed
a fine suspension bridge over the Gaya
river and were turned out at Taragona
station, long way below the city
proper, which is perched on top of a
limestone rock, nearly eight hundred
feet above the Mediterranean. OF all old.
old towns, Taragona is the cap-sheaf;
and for moulding Notifications and
early Gothic architecture, and Roman
"remains,' and the delightful air of
having been dead a thousand years, it
stands unequalled. First, it's Clyco-
pean ruins, on the highest point, facing
the sea, antidate historic times. Under
the Romans, it became the winter resi-
dence of the Praetor with population
of over million. Pliny described it's
fertile plain and the wines that were
made here. The brothers Publces and
Cuejus Scipio resided here, 80 years b.
| c.: and Augustus made it his capital
! after his Canta barian campaigns. TWAS
from this city that his decree was issued
which closed the temple of Janus. In
that early time, when the CANS togato-
''lords of the world''-reigned in Tar
agona, it had a mint and temples to
to every god, goddess and tutelar, includ-
/ lily Ollt W UilC llBSlOl 41ltSlStO ItCO,
thus making god of him while yet in
the flesh This temple was afterwards
repaired by Adrian and some fragments
of it may to-day be seen in the cloisters
of the cathedral Then the Goths had
their turn, and Taragona became their
capital. Then the Moors, under
Tariff. made of the city a heap and
its ruins remained uninhabited for four
hundred years. About the year 100,
San Oldegar of Barcelona granted the
site to Robert Bardet, a Norman war
rior, whose wife, Sibylla, kept armed
watch on the walls during her husband s
| frequent absences and beat back the
| Moors. For many years the old town
| remained frontier fortress and moth
ing more; for Christian commerce cen
tered at Barcelona, while Moorish traf-
fics preferred Valencia. In later days
Taragona has had it's full share of
wars. 1t was sacked by Suchet in 1911 !;
and again by Soulte, and yet again by
the Anglo-Sicilian army under Sir John
Murray; while every evolution that has
ever harrassed the North of Spain, and
every foreign raid from across the Dor
der, has striven to possess this coveted
key to the situation.
We may spend week here looking
at nothing but ancient ruins. Just
across the street from the Fonda de
Paris-a handsome modern hotel-rises
remarkable Roman tower, known as
the Torrion. A few rods farther on
stands the Quartet de Pilatos- another
Roman remain" Pontius PLATE being
claimed as townsman by the Tarago-
nese. Probably the lower part of the
edifice antedates the Roman era. Au-
gustus is said to have made it his pal
ace; and after being half destroyed by
Suchet, it was turned into a prison.
No wonder it has stood SO many cen
turtles, its walls in places being more
than twenty feet thick. Outside the
city gates, on the highroad to Lerida
may be seen the best preserved portion
| Of ha on,1aI11of which