Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-20
VENICE AGAIN HAPPY
CampaniIe Is Restored to All
Its Former Glory.
DOORS ONLY REALLY NEW
Old Bricks, Columns and Statues
Used in Reconstruction.
WORK HAS COST $225,15o

Structure Begun in 8SS and Rebuilt
in Past Ten Years to Be Dedi-
Gated April IS.
forcign Correspondence OF The Star.
ROME, April 10, 1912.
AS the Venetians stood about the utter
ruins Of their Campanile just ten years
ago to them 1t seemed irrevocably lost.
gone glimmering through the dream of
things that were In those first moments
the disaster appeared irremediable. but
still there is their tower today, refash-
Toned just as before, and they rub their
eyes, almost thinking 1t all bad dream
The Campanile fell on the morning of
July IA, 1902, and already in the spring
or the next year work had been begun
on the new structure, but not before
much time had been lost and angry pas
sions reused over the form it should
take and where 1t should stand. One
party argued that the ancients when one
Of their great buildings was destroy ed
did not erect another just like 1t in its
place. but built the best which living
architects could produce. They also
said that the old tower had broken the
symmetry of the piazza, and that thus the
site of the new structure should be else
where. The other party was for an alb
solute reproduction of the old tower and
in the old place and it won the day
1t was soon discovered that matters
might have been much worse than they
were. The Campanile was indeed a rub
bish heap. but out Of that rubbish came
wonderful things-bells cracked but not
destroyed. pieces Of marble showing the
designs and shapes of what had been,
old bricks bearing the names of all the
emperors. from Nero to Theodosius; the
angel which stood on the top was little
injured and so on
Old Foundations Used.
After careful examination II was de-
cided to use the old foundations (too
small for the weight which they had
been made to carry for SO many hun
dreds of years. as they were perfect
So In 1903 the Count of Turin with
to bless 1t, laid the corner stone OF the
reincarnation, in the center of the origi-
nal foundations. Around them. were
driven. over an area of twelve feet, 3076
fresh hardwood piles, from Galore, the
piles being. more or less, nine inches in
diameter and twelve and half feet long.
Larch has two qualities which makes
perfect piles: they harden, almost petrify,
In the peculiar clay of Venice, and they
are straight. They averaged twelve to
every three square feet, making a total
enlargement Of 300 square yards, and
were driven in by a 57O-pound weight
raised four feet six inches, to absolute
resistance.
However, the work presented many
difficulties, as, for instance, during the
cd q
depression of half a foot. due to a diff
ference of soil, SO longer piles had to be
selected and run through a sandy de-
post into the clay below.
On this bed of piles were placed large
blocks of stone cemented together. which
when finished, it was estimated, would
hold weight of $4,000 tons. while the
completed tower is about 10000 tons.
This work took two years. and a year
after the structure was already eighteen
feet high. Work was then suspended for
over a year, due to disagreements, SO
that the end of 1908 arrived before the
shaft was finished
Doors Only Are Really New.
All this time artists were working over
the decomposition of the beautiful Log
gia di Sansovino, which stood at the foot
of the tower. work of wonderful perse-
verance, as, for instance the celebrated
group of the madonna, with Christ and ST.
John, In terra Gotta, was broken into
1900 pieces, which have been patiently
picked out of the debris. and, with even
more patience, fitted together in such a
manner that what is really patchwork
appears perfect whole; that is, the Ma
donna and Christ. but St. John was so
reduced to dust that not one piece was
found.
The four bronze figures which stood in
the inches are now there as before, and
the marvellous gates, which were literally
torn apart into fragments, have been re-
constructed, piece by piece, perfect mo-
sale, an impossibility but for old prints
which gave the designs. The marble pill
lars are practically the original ones,
and where the missing chips and pieces
could not be found the necessary material
was taken from the inside Of the pillars
themselves. The only really new things
are the doors, which are of wood, but on
the old model.
The tower as it now stands land as it
was when 1t collapsed) is go feet high
the shaft, an absolute reproduction, is
composed of about 100000 copper col
ored bricks. each handmade over a wood
fire, according to antique measurements
Each was tested before being put in place.
and, If not absolutely perfect, was re-
jected.
Reconstruction Cost $225, $50.
The belfry looks out over the same
enhancing view. one OF it's pecularities
being that not a canal can be seen, anG
holds the recast bells and the one old
one which escaped injury, the ''Maran-
gona," the largest of all, which was
brought from Crete centuries ago. Over
the belfry stands the original golden an
GEL She Is thirty feet high and is made
of gilded copper with the extremities in
bronze The total cost of the recon-
structed tower as 1t now stands COM
Melted has been about S225 150 almost