Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/349

 SLOAN'S ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW AND BUILDERS' JOURNAL. AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY. CONDUCTED BY SAMUEL SLOAN, ARCHITECT: ASSISTED BY CHARLES J. LUKENS. "ol. I.— Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S6S, by Samael Sloan, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. MONTHLY REVIEW. THE CATHEDRAL OF MILAN: EXTERIOR. AS our October essay, upon the Origin of the Gothic Style, had direct reference to this celebrated fane, a short description will not be amiss. Near the centre of that portion of Upper Italy, whence springs the penin- sula composing the chief expanse of the entire country, yet well inside the main body of the continent, — some seventy- five miles north by east of Genoa, and about forty south, a trifle west, of the fork of the Lake ofComo, that inverted letter Y, whose arms seem stretching out lovingly, as if to embrace, although they come not near it, — in the same general latitude, say 45° 30' north, with Yerona, Padua and sea-washed Venezia — forming almost an equilateral triangle, of eighteen miles base, with the famous battle-fields of Pavia and Lodi — to the west, within easy spy-glass of Mont Blanc ; and with the outliers of the Pen- nine, the Lepontine and the Rhsetian Alps, in full view, on the northern sweep of the horizon, — upon a beautiful and fertile plain, between, though not neigh- boring, the rivers Adda and Ticino, which supply its canals, but directly upon the Olona, — stands the book-mart and third city of Italy, very ancient, yet ever youthful Milan. — Milan, — which, — founded by the Insubrian Gauls, B. C. 400, inhabited and embellished by many of the Roman Emperors, graced by the student life of Virgil, second only to Rome in population and extent, — sacked by Attila, A. D. 452, in the invasion which caused the rise of Venice, — taken in 1162, and, through the jealousies of the surrounding cities, utterly razed b%' Frederick I. of Germany, with the ex- ception of the Basilica of Sant' Ambro- gio,* and a few other churches, that alone marked its site among the ruins, its inhabitants being dispersed in four sur- rounding villages, — refilled, with all the survivors, and restored, in 1167, after the great Lombard League, by the very places, which counseled its destruction, imperial, royal, republican, royal, again top of each of the folding doors, shown as part of the gates, 'which St. Ambrose closed against the Emperor Theodosius after his merciless slaughter of the Thessalo- nicans. The remarkable event itself took place at the gate of the Basilica Portiano, now the church of San Vittore al Corpo. (289)
 * This Church contains two small panels, one at the