Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1904-10-20

| the fringe OF the POntlne marshes,
| has an eloquence in it's walls and a
| profuse poetry in it's innumeraDle flow
| ers.
The loneliest and saddest-looking
OF all the cities of Italy with which
l am acquainted, during lengthy ex-
perience, is Ravenna, situated amidst
the marshes on the shore OF the Adrl-
attic sea. One of the numerous writ
ers who have recently undertaken 10
make Ravenna known to the outside
world considers that her high for
tune was owing to her submerged ter
ritory, when the rest of Italy was
swamped beneath the waves OF bar
barian invasion; and that the pes
thence which walked the streets and
came from her unhealthy surround
ings guarded her from molestation.
The terrible sadness of Ravenna is
not conducive to a heightened stay
here; and most people leave it after
a couple of days, but the attractions
that the city holds out to the ordina-
rily wellread traveller are not only nu-
merOus, but peculiarly interesting.
Here, as you study what this city has
preserved in the many centuries OF
it's comparatively peaceful existence
for it seems to have been spared the
invasions that rendered other cities
desolate-you come close to the origin
or the vast bulk of our modern art.
When the special Christian art of
Rome, which began and developed in
the Catacombs, was brought to
sudden cessation by the invasion of
the Eternal City in the beginning of
the fifth century, the tale was taken
I'D in Ravenna. No memorials of this
period, to any appreciable extent, are
to be met elsewhere. What would
otherwise be a gap in the art of the
Christian world, from the fifth to the
eighth century, is furnished by the
churches of this lone city by the
marshes of the Adriatic.
What the ancient cities of Chassis
and Ravenna were like can be seen in
the mosaics that adorn the walls of
the sixth century basilica of
SAINT Apollinare Nuovo. There
is seen the port of Chassis,
with it's walls and towers. and
the buildings within their inclos-
ure. Here on one side the wide sea
is visible, and there are ships close
under the city walls. In the repre-
sentation of Ravenna there is seen
the palace of Theodoric-a long build
ing two stories in height, rooted with
red tiles and supported by high ar
cades. A portico with triangular
pediment forms the center of it, and
three great doors give entrance to this
splendid residence. Between the col
umns hang rich curtains and garlands
of flowers. In the pedment of the
principal door shine mosaics, above
the curves of the arches IN the ar
cade are delightful little figures of
winged Victories carrying green
wreaths, and their light and grace re-
mind one of the celebrated dancers of
Pompeii.
The richness and abundance of
mosaic decoration is quite overwhelm-
ing, and the eyes grow weary with
perpetual examination of mosaics, and
daZzled with the brilliancy of the
| lights reflected from the backgrounds
| and the jewel-like colors of the adorn-
ments. Of this St. Vitale, an old
| chronicler has written that nowhere
| in Italy does there exist church COM
| parable to this for beauty and ability
OF construction. And even to-day, amid
the many marvels which Ravenna has
to show to the traveller, st. Apollinare
| in Classe and St. WHALE are the most
marvellous and attractive of all.
| The lonely and sparsely inhabited
streets, and the desolate country in
| the neighborhood of the Pineta, or
pine forest, are haunted by the shad-
| ows of the poets who have adorned
their lands language in Italy and in
Lngland-Dante and Byron. The his
torical background to the grand spec
tacle of story and ruined monuments
of Ravenna is lighted up by the mem
DRY of these poets.
1t has been said that when Dante
was living at Ravenna he would spend
whole days alone among the forest
glades of these melancholy pine woods
the divine forest, thick and living"
Here he must have been inspired to
the description he gives of the forest
in the "Purgatorio." Sad as a for
saken home, as dead love, as vanished
hopes, this melancholy wood, with the
branches thick at the treetops,
stretches away for miles, and stagnant
pools and slow-fowing canals are seen
between the openings of the trees.
Here snake glides past close to your
feet as you walk along, and, warm
though the day is, you shudder at the
sight as If from sudden chill.
Strange fat plants that look luscious
with poison juices grow abundantly.
The distant fiat horizon is scarcely
broken by dim, far-away belfry.