Omaha daily bee., 1910-05-22
VENICE CAMPANlLE RESTORED
An Exact Copy OF the Fallen Tower
Built OF Modern
Material.


Travellers who visited Venice after the
great campanle collapsed eight years ago
seemed to agree that the removal of the
great tower improved the appearance OF
the Piazza d San Marco immensely. The
Doge's palace, the facade of St. Marks
the buildings bordering on the square were
no longer dwarfed and their just proper
lions could be admired The salient point
in the view of Venice from the sea, how
ever. was lost with It, and the Venetians
themselves. accustomed to a tower on the
spot for eleven centuries and to that parti-
cular campanile for over 700 years, were
nconsoable. So it was decided to rebuild
and the completion of the new tower, which
is almost at hand, is announced and de-
scribed in the London Times of a week
ago.
Externally the new campanile will be
as exactly a copy Of the one 1t replaces as
the ingenuity and patience of man can
make it. The foundations were carefully
examined, as a matter of course, after the
old campanile crumbled. IL was found
that of the five courses of stone. which
originally showed above ground half had
sunk below the level of the square in 1000
years, and 1t was thought best to leave
that as 1t was. The ground has been
strengthened all around, however, and a
broader base made for the tower under
ground. The utmost care was taken to
obtain bricks of the same size and color
as those in the old structure, so that from
the outside the campanile will seem to the
Venetians Identical with the one it replaces
On the inside, however, cement and iron
work have been employed to secure greater
lghtness and cohesion. If in the course
OF time the new campanile should give
way, it will not crumbe in heap as the
old one did, but will fall in a solid mass
and smash whatever stands in its way.
The brick work is all done and the work
men have nearly finished the stone work
of the bell chamber. The arcade of four
arches on each side is almost completed,
and three of the verde antico columns
which were only slightly damaged in the
fall have been put back in their former
places; the capitals and lions heads In
the spandrs they were obliged to copy
from the fragments of those destroyed. On
the east and west side of the square attic
above the bell chamber will be set up the
figures OF Justice, which came down un-
harmed with the old campanile; the
other two sides will be erected the lions
of ST. Mark which the French tore down in
Bonaparte's time. The pyramid that crowns
the campanile will be built of iron and
cement instead of brick, so as to insure
lghtness, but it will be covered with the
old copper plates and will look the same
from the exterior.
The graceful loggetta Of Sansovino will
still decorate the base Of the campanile. 1t
was broken up but not ground to dust when
the tower fell, and the pieces have been put
y,,ith mfr
gence Even his terra Gotta group of the
Madonna and Child, which was smashed
into thousand pieces, has been patched
up. all but the figure of st. John which be-
longed to it, and which was beyond even
Italian mendng.
Only one of the bells of st. Mark escaped
destruction The other four were cast again
at the expense of Pope Plus \, who was
| patriarch of Venice when the campanile
fell, and are now ready to be put in place
! How deeply the Venetians are attached to
| these Is shown by an incident recorded by
! the Times correspondent. When the bells
were finished last spring they were taken
to the campanile workyard in order to be
tuned. As soon as the music of the chimes
was heard from lip to lip ran the cry:
The bells of San Marco! The bells of San
| Marco! from the Merceria, the Molo, the
Riva, everybody began to run, and IN rev
moments the piazza was full of an eager
| and enthusiastic crowd"
The bells will not be up this Easter, as
was hoped, but they will be ready to ring
out on st. Marks day in 1911. The campa-
nile will be fully completed before next
year is out, and visitors to Venice will be
then unaware, except from the guidebook,
that anything ever happened to the old
| al, fpr
| New York sun.