New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-06-14
THE NEW CAMPANILE.
No Serious Difficulty in Rebuilding the
Toner.
From The Pail Mall Gazette.

From The Pail Mall Gazette
Signor Luca Beltrami, who has been lntrusteo
by the municipality of Venice win the Iecoh-
struction of St. Marks Campanile, is one OF tne
most DISTINGUISHED architects and art critics IN
Italy. AS authority on 1taIan MedietHSil ~,it
Renaissance architecture he Is Almost W!thou !1
rival and this fact, together with MS "Iue
practical experience, should enable MN 10 ac-
complish his task in the most satisfactory IMAM
ner He is most sanguine about the result ana
is convinced that there will be no serious uIIh-
Guilty in rebuilding the famous tower eAdctIy do
it was. In the first place. it Will, IN ms OPINION;
be necessary to widen the founda lions anu
basis The former only five metres deep,
while the Campanile itself was one hundreu
metres in height. 1t is not possible TO deepen pen.
them because they are built Immediately over
the wooden piles which support the city Exam
pies of buildings with such shallow foundations
in proportion to the height OF the superssr 49,
by means uncommon in ItaIy; the rem EN-.
pie Of Agrippa, in Rome, is case in point But
it will certainly be advisable to make the tower
somewhat lighter, if possible. Ine outSlue
walls will be reproduced identically; the only
alterations will be in the construction OF the
bell chamber, which was mostly of marble, ana
extremely heavy.
With regard to the materials of the old Cam
panile, Signor BeItrami finds that it was orig
inally built of Roman bricks and fragments OF
Roman cement of great solidity; but the Vene-
tians in the Middle Ages made use OF new
cement for repairs, composed OF lstrlan lime,
which has proved far less solid. In order that
the stability of the new building should be above
suspicion Signor Boni, who has hitherto super
intended the excavations, has been trying to
produce a kind of brick which shall be equal
in solidity to those used by the Romans, and
believes that he has succeeded. This admixture
of Roman and medieval brickWork frequently
occurs in Vence. and the earlier material has in
varably proved to be of greater strength. The
Roman bricks used were usually taken from the
ruined city of Altinum the mainland Signor
BeItrami does not think that the collapse of the
CampaniIe due to the subsOil having sunk
but is now studying the question in order to be
quite sure. The level of the Piazza San Marco
has been slightly raised in the course of CEN
turtles, so that the Campanile as 1t existed be-
fore it's fall was actually seventy centimetres
lower than it was in the sixteenth century. when
the bell chamber added. But in the recon-
struction the question of height will depend on
the state of the foundations. If these prove to
be satisfactory, the base will be widened and
the tower will be rebuilt it stood lately, with
out the additional seventy centimetres. If, how
ever it is found advisable to reconstruct the
whole of the foundations it may be possible to
raise it to it's original height. The question of
the loggia of Sansovino is closely connected with
that of the foundations. and Signor Beltrami in
tends to rebuild it on the same base the Cam
panile which will be an advantage; when it was
a separate base, although built up against
the tower. the static movement of the latter
weakened its stability. In reply to an inter
viewer who asked him if there would be any
difficulties in reproducing both the tower and
the loggia in every detail he said there was
none as all the necessary elements drawings,
plans. elevations etc-have been preserved. As
regards the loggia, the bronze figures have. fort
unately. been very slightly damaged. and the
fragments of the terracottas be easily put
together again. Signor Belt-arni will not ex-
press any opinion as to how long the reconstruc-
ton will take but the work has already been
begun