Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-05-02
GRACEFUL " IS
COMPLETED At LAST
venetians Rubbing Their Eyes
Over Fine Structure, Des-
troyed 10 Years Ago.

Rome. Special: AS the Nenetians
stood about the utter ruins of their
c~onlpanilc, just 10 years ago. to them
it seemed irrevocably lost. gone glim-
merins through the dream of things
that WERE In those first moments the
disaster appeared irrclnediable, hut
still there is their tower today. refash-
toned just as before. and they rub
their eyes almost thinking it all Il bad
dream.
The campanile fell on the morn
ing of July Ia. 1902. and already i'm the
spring of the next year work had been
begun on the new structure. hut not
heior" much time had been lost and
angry passions reused over the form
1T should take and where it should
a%nrients, when one of their great
buildings was Destroyed. did not erect
another just like ii in it's place. but
built the best which living architects
could produce. They also said that the
old tower had broken the symmetry
OF the pia@za and that thus the site OF
the Now structure should be else
where. The other party was for an
absolute reproduction OF the old tower
and in he old place. and it won the
day.
1t WAS soon discovered that matters
might have been much worse thar they
We're: the c~almpanilc was indeed Il rub
bish heap. but out of that rubbish came
wv iiiiISS ptIIS CIttNt0 Oul IVt
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 Theo-
d"sius. the angel which stood on the
top was little injured. and so on.
Use Old Foundations.
After careful examination. 1t was
decided 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 i'm 1903 tho Count of Turin, with
Pope Plus X, then Patriarch of Venice.
to bless it. layed the cornerstone of the
reincarnation, in the center of the
original foundations. Around them
wore driven. over an area of ~ feet.
dore. the piles being. more or less.
nine inches in diameter and 1919 feet
long. l.arch has two qualities which
makes perfect piles: they harden. al
most petrify. i'm the peculiar clay Of
Venice. and they are straight. They
averaged ~ to every three square
feet. making Il total enlargement OF
eco Square yards. and We're driven in
by a $40 pound weight. raised four feet.
six inches to absolute resistance.
However. the work presented many
difficulties. as for instance. during the
driving, the northwest corner showed
a depression of half "a foot. due to n
difference of soil. so longer piles had
" w 9Sl'Cttu ilu run tIiIOuSH Il SANDY
deposit into the clay below.
On this bed OF piles were placed
is 30 feet high and is made of gilded
copper with the extremitics i'm bronze.
The total cost of the reconstructed
tower as it now stands completed has
been about $225,15O. almost entirely
contributed by Venice and the province
of Venice.
The Inauguration takes place on
April %, coinciding with the opening
OF tho great %bi-annual lnternationl
Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture,
which will take place on April 23.
1t Is difficult to understand what the
campanile meant to Venetians and.
therefore. what it's temperance sig
nifies to them. 1t was begun as far
back as SIS, and was "a watch tower To
signal the arrival of the enemy, of
course, from the sea. In 1923 it had
already been transformed into "a bell
tower: in 1417 1T was provided with a
marble belfry, and in 1917 boosted an
angel as It's crown of glory, which was
later destroyed and replaced by the
present colder one. In all these cen
turtles the c%alnpanile has been the pro-
lection of the city. through 1t no enemy
could approach unexpectedly, while the
peal OF bells called the citizens to arms
or to thanksgiving. as the case might
be.