Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/81

* VENIAL SIN. 55 VENICE. dying in a state of venial sin aro not excluded forever from lieuv(!n ; but tlie soul dcpartinf^ from life so stained with venial sin is compelled to undergo a imrilication in purgatory. VEN'ICE. A port of Italy, the capital of tlio Province of Venice, l(i4 miles by rail east of JJilan, situated on 120 small islands in the la- goon between the mouths of the I'iave and the Po (Map:' Italy, G 2). The railway enters over a causeway 2'/j miles long. The city is seven miles in circumference. A long narrow line of low sand dunes {lldl, fortified by masonry) pro- tect it from the open sea on the east. The la- goons are classed as laguna viva, where the tide rises and falls a little over two feet, and the sliallow laguna niorta, where the water remains about at one level and is somewhat stagnant. At times the winds cause the waters to rise sev- eral feet, so that even the main squares of Venice are submerged. The climate is warm in summer and more or loss raw and foggy in winter. The mean annual temperature is 50%° ¥. The city is, however, much frequented as a vrinter resi- dence, due in part to its freedom from noise and <lust. The annual rainfall averages 30.1 inches. Venice is the most uniqxie and lioautiful of cities. It lies like a mirage of marlile in the waters of a sea where, under the Italian sun, the constant shifting and massing of lights are magical. Venice outwardly and richly reflects the fact that it had a great school of art. In architecture and in painting it shone par- ticularly, and alwaj's distinct from the main- land. It represents in full flower the transition from the Byzantine ideals to the Renaissance tlirough the Romanesque and the Gothic in its numerous notable palaces, public edifices, and churches. These structures are distinguished by their many loggie and coloimades, by their wealth of exterior decoration and colored sur- faces ; while the interiors are enriched by the brushes of the superb Venetian colorists — Bellini, Giorgione, Palnia Veechio, Titian, Paris Bordone, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese. Venice yielded but slowly to the rococo invasion. Sansovino, Palla- dio, and Sammicheli were the prominent figures among the Venetian architects. The city, with its weather-stained facades, its many decaying edifices, and indolent existence, afTects one with an indefinable but fascinating sadness and lethargy. It contains about 10,000 buildings. Its foundations are piling. Over 150 canals curve among its houses and serve for streets and are spanned by some 400 bridges, nearly all of stone. The famous black gondolas and small steamers take exclusive place of horses and vehicles. But the city is also thoroughly penetrated by paved streets and tortuous, pic- turesque lanes, and abounds in small squares (campi). Venice mainly lies in a compact form, with the Grand Canal (q.v. ) zigzagging mag- nificently throigh its centre from the niilway station in the northwest to the Doge's Palace in the southeast. A large arm of the city extends east. Along the south side of the city, and separated by the wide Canal della Giudecca (nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth), is a long inhabited island called the Giudecca. The great centre of interest is the far-famed Piazza of Saint Mark (for illustration, see Saint Mark's), with the cathedral and also the Doge's Palace occupying the eastern por- tion — the latter abutting upon the broad Canale di San Marco. West of the Doge's Palace is tlu> open space called the Piazzetta, reaching to the water. West of this is the long Procuratie Nuove (or, in its extended form, the royal extends the long Procuratie Vcechie, and on the west of the Piazza stands the .trio, dating from IHIO. This Piazza presents notably three distinct types of architecture, Byzantine (the cathedral), Italian Gothic (the Doge's Palace), and Renais- sance (the Procuratie). The Procuratie were the residences of the nine Procurators, high dig- nitaries of the ancient city. The old wing dates from MlKi, the new from 1584. Along these two buiUlings and the Atrio (Nuova Fabbriea) runs a continuous arcade containing shops and cafes. At night the square is occupied by a picturesque throng of promenaders, and when the band plays and there is moonlight the whole seems like the scene of an enchanted dream. A feature of the Piazza by day is the immense flock of pigeons which throng aboiit any one willing to feed them. At the cathedral end of the Old Procuratie is a curious clock tower, built in 1490, and forming the portal over the entrance to the busy Merecria. On its top, in the open, are two lironze colossi which strike the hours on a large I)ell. The royal palace is interesting for the section which formerly contained the library, a superb edifice, the work of Sansovino, facing the Piazzetta. It is distinguished by the colonnades and columns, the lighter Ionic gracing the upper part. The caryatides, metopes, and, in the fine interior, the ceiling frescoes by Venetian masters, fix the at- tention. At the corner of the library rose the famous Campanile of Venice, which fell July 14, 1902. It was a detached square structure, 322 feet high. Its origin is traced back to 888. A new one will rise in its place. In front of the cathedral stand three ancient splendid pedestals the masts of which formerly bore the colors of the Republic. Adjacent, on the north side of Saint Slark's, is the tomb, supported by lions, of Manin, President of the Republic of 1848. On the front •gallery of Saint Mark's stand the four beautiful gilded bronze horses ascribed to Nero's triumphal arch in Rome. They were carried off by Napoleon to Paris, but restored in 1815. On the south side of the cathedral, in the Piazzetta, arc two ancient square pilasters with Greek inscriptions, which have stood here since the middle of the thirteenth century. The Pietra del Bando is near, a block of porphyry whence the decrees of the Repidjlie were announced. At the. opposite end of the Piazzetta rise the two granite columns brought from the Orient in 1180, surmoinited by figures of Saint Theodoi-e on a crocodile and the Winged Lion of Saint Mark. The interior of Saint Mark's (q.v.) is chiefly memorable for its wonderful mosaics. The Doge's Palace (q.v.) holds many of the finest pictures in Venice. In the rear of the palace, and crossing a narrow canal from the second story, is the noted Bridge of Sighs (q.v.), connecting with the prison. The bridge was completed in 1005, and is architecturally attractive. The prison is used nowadays, but the horrible places of confinement under the palace ceased to exist in 1797. The mole separating the palace frOTU the lagoon con- nects with the wide and bu.sy Riva degli Schia- voni. This marble quay, a favorite place of the
 * ialaee) ; while along the north side of the Piazza