Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-07-16
TRANSFORMATION OF ROME.
Changes in the External Appearance Of
the Ancient City.

The yicissitudes Of Rome have passed
into a proverb, for no Western city so
well illustrates by its history the in
stability Of human AFFAIRS. Thess
vicissitudes have not ended. Indeed,
there has seldom been an epoch in the
two thousand years during which Rome
claims to have lived, which has seen
larger and swifter changes In the eA-
ternal aspect, as we'll as in the SOCIAL
and political life of the city. than those
which strike the visitor who compares
what he beholds now with that wnIeh
he beheld twenty or thirty or forty
wears ago. So far as externais go, the
lat fifteen years have brought about
treat alterations than even the preceo-
ing fifteen, though it was in that earlier
nerfod that the rule of the Pope ended
ana the reign OF the House Of Savoy In
Rome began. Swift as has been the
Rrowt1l OF the great manufacturing
towns in Germany, England. ana
America. the changes in Rome nave
been no less striking, though the scale
may be less large. They are three
fold changes. New quarters have been
added. The older parts of the modern
city, the parts which date, broadly
speaking, from the fifteenth, sixteenth,
and seventeenth centuries, have been
Transformed. And the Oldest parts OF
all. those which belong to the repupn-
can and earlier imperial ages OF the
ancient city, have been SO largely, II
still imperfectly, explored and lald
bare by excavations that their aspect
is very different from that which anti
ouarian studied in the middle of the
last century, and wholly different from
that which Turner sketched and which
INSPIRED the verses of Byron.
~These three acts of changes deserve
to be considered separately. Taking
the additions first, it is hardly too
much to say that, since 1870, the area
covered by houses has been increasef
by one fourth. The space covered by
those beautiful Ludovisi Gardens
Which were SO delightful feature IN
all general prospects over the city, IS
now filled by new, wide streets llned by
tall, lf1andsomej and perfectly dull
houses. Other streets. also with tall
but somewhat less pretentious houses,
have arisen on the gardens and heids
which law on the Esquiline and Cael1an
Hills between Sta. Maria Margiore and
ST. John Lateran. A still larger mass
OF houses-partly detached or semi
detached villa-like residences, partly
high blocks Of tenement dwellings in
habited by the poorer classes-has
sprung up in the region called the
Meadows of the Castle (Prati a
Castello) to the north of the Castle OF
st. Angelo and to the northeast of the
Vatican. Here the speculative builder
has made supply outrun demand, ano
many of these houses stand tenantiess
a dismal sight. Nor is this all. AT the
opposite side of the city, thickly SCI
houses line the streets which run Out
INTO the Campagna from the Porta Pla
aiid the Porta San Lorenzo, SO ,tha'
considerable suburbs now cover wha'
had been perfectly lonely and sllen
region from the days OF the emperor
Constantine to those of Pope Leo the
Thirteenth. Building still goes on IL
these districts outside the wall O.
Horiorius, and no one can say how IA
Rome fmay push herself into the coun
try towards Tivoli. : '':'t
$50 .rf,lch for additions. Within tn
old town, the cutting of new broa
Streets has completely altered the ap
pearance of some of the most densel
peOpied parts. Nearly the whole o
the famous Ghetto, that Jewish quartz
which was the most compressed and in
tricate tangle Of lanes in the mediaeVa
! city, has been demolished. A broa
land stately street leads from the Capl
toll end of the Corso to the railway sta
ton at the top Of the Quirinal hill; an
the huge marble monument to KIM
Victor Emanuel, which is being erecte
on the slope of the Capitol. begins I
overtop the neighboring edifices. AM
will. when it has been completed, forr
prominent and inharmonious ob)ec
in the general view. Three new bridge
have been thrown across the T1ber an
the Tiber itself Is now buried for grea
mart of it's course by new enbankmen'
which rises above the channel and ma
caused the destruction of many OF IN
old houses which abutted on the mar
ain. Much has been gained for healtf
foundations need hardly be feared Il
the future. Malaria has PRACTICAL!
Disappeared; typhoidal fevers are les
frequent; the death-rate has been 2
much reduced that Rome now rank
among the most healthy of Europea
capitals. But this gain has been &C
companied by a notable loss OF plctur
esdiie beauty. The suburbs spreadlp
out beyond the walls increase the bui
Of the Town, and, by adding feature
less districts. lessen the distinctly
character which the domes. and towers
and masses of ancient ruin gave to IN
smaller area in all those panorami
views from the tower of the Capito
/. from st. Peter Montorio. from the TO-
Of Monte Mario. from the ball OF 81
Peters itself, which were. thirty year
ago, one of the chief joys and most dur
able recollections of a visit to Rome
/ The new thoroughfares and. still more
the new quarters on the Caelian III,
and the Castle Meadows, are. like al
the new quarters of European ciueS
absolutely monotonous and uninterest
ing. One is apt to think that it IS ag
ana decay that make buildings pictur
esuue; but one cannot believe that "a,
/ ter five hundred years these 'receh.l!
erected streets will be any less dull ai''
tame than they are today. Here am
there in Europe one finds single mn
buildings, stately and dignif1ed'
marked by little originality, erected
,fhhf, tho Ia Of forty wears. But the ar