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Bk. II. Ci-i. IV.

TOWERS.

579

height only 110; but notwithstanding this there is great dignity in
the design, and, in a city where buildings are not generally tall, its
height is sufficient to give it prominence without overpowering other
objects,—a characteristic which renders these Roman towers not only
beautiful structures in themselves, but appropriate ornaments to the
buildings to which they are attached.

The chief interest of these towers is derived from the numerous
progeny to which they gave birth : for though there is scarcely an
instance of a square Romanesque tower beyond the walls of Rome
during the period in which this style flourished, the form was seized
upon with avidity by the Gothic architects in all the countries of
Europe; and whether as a detached campanile (as in Italy), or as an
integral part of the building (as we soon find it employed on this
side of the Alps), it forms the most prominent, and perhaps also the
most beautiful, feature in the aspiring architecture of the Middle
Ages.

There is certainly no architectural feature which the Gothic archi-
tects can so justly call their own as the towers and spires which in
the Middle Ages were so favourite, so indispensable a part of their
churches and other edifices, becoming in fact as necessary parts of
the external design as the vaults were of the internal decoration of
the building.

It is true, as before remarked, that we neither know where they
were first invented, nor even where they were first applied to Christian
churches—those of Rome and Ravenna being evidently not the earliest
examples ; nor have they any features which betray their origin—at
least none have yet been pointed out, though it is not impossible that
a closer examination would bring some such to light. They certainly
are as little classical, in form or details, as anything that can well be
conceived ; and belong to an undefined Romanesque style.

Those of which we have already spoken are all church-towers
—ccimpaniles or bell-towers attached to churches. But this exclusive
distinction by no means applies to the Gothic towers. The tower of
St. Mark at Yenice, for instance, and the Toraccio at Cremona, are
evidently civic monuments, like the belfries of the Low Countries
—symbols of communal power wholly distinct from the church, their
proximity to which seems only to arise from the fact of all the princi-
pal buildings being grouped together. This is certainly the case with
a large class of very ugly buildings in Italy, such as those attached to
the town-halls of Florence and Siena, or the famous Asinelli and
Garisenda towers at Bologna. They are merely tall square brick
towers, with a machicolated balcony at the top, but possessing no
more architectural design than the chimney of a cotton factory.
Originally, when lower, they may have been towers of defence, but
afterwards became mere symbols of power.

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