DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0476
chap, lvii.] ANCIENT WALLS AND GATES OF PERUGIA. 459
which Perugia is equally wealthy, except, it may be, a
five minutes' call, on their road to Rome, at the Grotta
de' Volunni, which has become a somewhat fashionable
lion.
The walls of Perugia are in many parts ancient, agree-
ing in character with those of Chiusi and Todi, and com-
posed, like them, of travertine—a material which preserves
the sharpness of its edges in a remarkable degree, so as to
give to a structure composed of it an appearance of much
less antiquity than it possesses. Some portions of these
walls are fine specimens of ancient regular masonry. On
the west of the city they may be traced for a long distance,
rising to the height of twenty or thirty feet, falling back
from the perpendicular, and banded near the top with a
projecting fascia. Behind the cathedral are also some fine
fragments of rusticated masonry. At the Porta S. Erco-
lano is a portion, forty feet high, in courses of eighteen
inches, very neatly joined. This gateway is of ancient
construction as high as the imposts, which now support a
Gothic arch. The same may be said of the Arco di
Bornia and the Porta Colonia. The former was originally
spanned by a flat lintel of cuneiform blocks, like the gates
of the Theatre of Ferento; and has a fine fragment of
ancient walling on either hand.6 The Porta Colonia is
skew or oblique, and has some ancient masonry in front.
The Arco di San Luca has also a Gothic arch on much
earlier foundations, which the cement, unless subsequently
applied, marks as Roman.7
6 On one side it flanks the approach " The Porta di San Pietro is evidently
to the gate, and is in receding courses ; Roman, modernised, as set forth in the
on the other, it rises to the height of inscription attached to it. The Arco di
20 feet beneath the modern buildings. Maesta, or de' Buoni Tempi is Roman
The largest block I observed was S feet below, Gothic above. The Arco della
by 2—very small in comparison with the Conca seems wholly medieval,
colossal masonry of Cortona.
which Perugia is equally wealthy, except, it may be, a
five minutes' call, on their road to Rome, at the Grotta
de' Volunni, which has become a somewhat fashionable
lion.
The walls of Perugia are in many parts ancient, agree-
ing in character with those of Chiusi and Todi, and com-
posed, like them, of travertine—a material which preserves
the sharpness of its edges in a remarkable degree, so as to
give to a structure composed of it an appearance of much
less antiquity than it possesses. Some portions of these
walls are fine specimens of ancient regular masonry. On
the west of the city they may be traced for a long distance,
rising to the height of twenty or thirty feet, falling back
from the perpendicular, and banded near the top with a
projecting fascia. Behind the cathedral are also some fine
fragments of rusticated masonry. At the Porta S. Erco-
lano is a portion, forty feet high, in courses of eighteen
inches, very neatly joined. This gateway is of ancient
construction as high as the imposts, which now support a
Gothic arch. The same may be said of the Arco di
Bornia and the Porta Colonia. The former was originally
spanned by a flat lintel of cuneiform blocks, like the gates
of the Theatre of Ferento; and has a fine fragment of
ancient walling on either hand.6 The Porta Colonia is
skew or oblique, and has some ancient masonry in front.
The Arco di San Luca has also a Gothic arch on much
earlier foundations, which the cement, unless subsequently
applied, marks as Roman.7
6 On one side it flanks the approach " The Porta di San Pietro is evidently
to the gate, and is in receding courses ; Roman, modernised, as set forth in the
on the other, it rises to the height of inscription attached to it. The Arco di
20 feet beneath the modern buildings. Maesta, or de' Buoni Tempi is Roman
The largest block I observed was S feet below, Gothic above. The Arco della
by 2—very small in comparison with the Conca seems wholly medieval,
colossal masonry of Cortona.