DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0131
Ch. III.
THROUGH ITALY.
109
On the other side, a bold semicircular front
adorned with pilasters and crowned with two
domes, fills the eye and raises the expectation.
Before it, on a pedestal of more than twenty
feet in height, stands an Egyptian obelisk of a
single piece of granite of sixty, terminating in a
cross of bronze. These accompaniments on each
side, give the Basilica an air of unusual grandeur,
and it must be allowed that the interior is by
no means unworthy of this external magni-
ficence.
The principal entrance is, as usual in all the
ancient churches, through a portico; this portico
is supported by eight pillars of granite, and
adorned with corresponding marble pilasters.
The traveller on his entrance is instantly struck
with the two magnificent colonnades that line the
nave and separate it from the aisles. They are
supported each by more than twenty pillars, of
which eighteen on each side are of white marble.
The order is Ionic with its regular entablature,
the elevation of the pillars is thirty-eight feet, the
length of the colonnade about two hundred and
fifty. The sanctuary forms a semicircle behind the
altar. The altar is a large slab of marble
covering an ancient sarcophagus of porphyry, in
which the body of the founder formerly reposed.
It is overshadowed by a canopy of bronze, sup-
1
THROUGH ITALY.
109
On the other side, a bold semicircular front
adorned with pilasters and crowned with two
domes, fills the eye and raises the expectation.
Before it, on a pedestal of more than twenty
feet in height, stands an Egyptian obelisk of a
single piece of granite of sixty, terminating in a
cross of bronze. These accompaniments on each
side, give the Basilica an air of unusual grandeur,
and it must be allowed that the interior is by
no means unworthy of this external magni-
ficence.
The principal entrance is, as usual in all the
ancient churches, through a portico; this portico
is supported by eight pillars of granite, and
adorned with corresponding marble pilasters.
The traveller on his entrance is instantly struck
with the two magnificent colonnades that line the
nave and separate it from the aisles. They are
supported each by more than twenty pillars, of
which eighteen on each side are of white marble.
The order is Ionic with its regular entablature,
the elevation of the pillars is thirty-eight feet, the
length of the colonnade about two hundred and
fifty. The sanctuary forms a semicircle behind the
altar. The altar is a large slab of marble
covering an ancient sarcophagus of porphyry, in
which the body of the founder formerly reposed.
It is overshadowed by a canopy of bronze, sup-
1