Identifier: brickmarbleinmid01stre (find matches)
Title: Brick and marble in the Middle Ages: notes of a tour in the north of Italy
Year: 1855 (1850s)
Authors: Street, George Edmund, 1824-1881
Subjects: Architecture, Medieval Architecture Architecture, Gothic
Publisher: London, J. Murray
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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suppose, by thevery considerate directors of the railway company. The railway from Yerona to Mantua crosses acountry which is thoroughly uninteresting in point ofscenery ; it carried us on well into the great plain ofLombardy, rich, teemingly rich, in its produce, butflat, arid, and sultry to a degree. This was altogetherone of our hottest days, and took us fairly into a kindof district in which the heat is most oppressively felt. On the road we passed Yilla Franca, a small townwhich has a rather striking castle, with battlementedwalls and a good many square towers still very fairlyperfect; the whole built in brick, and with battlementsfinished square at the top, and not forked like thoseat Yerona. We reached the station at Mantua by twelve oclock,but, as this was very far from the city, it was nearlyan hour later before we were fairly landed at one—1forget which—of the two abominably dirty and badinns to which sojourners in Mantua have to submit withthe best grace that they can.
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Chap. IX. MANTUA: THE DUCAL PALACE. 183 Mantua is nearly surrounded by water, two largeshallow and unwholesome-looking lakes giving it thisfar from pleasant kind of isolation. Over a long-mediaeval bridge between these waters the way intothe city from the terminus lies. One of the lakes ishigher than the other, and accordingly twelve mills,each adorned with a statue of an apostle, are formedupon the bridge, and give it its name of Ponte Mulina. The general air of Mantua is very dreary and un-pleasing, perhaps, indeed, one degree less forlorn in itsappearance than Padua, but possessing little attractionto an architect. The chief architectural feature of thecity is the Ducal Palace, which contains, in the midstof a mass of Renaissance work of the poorest and mostunsatisfactory kind, some remains of very noble pointedarchitecture. The finest portion is a long building of vast height,and retaining more or less of pointed work throughout,but especially remarkable for the exquisite characte

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