Letters of an Architect, From France, Italy, and Greece. Volume 2 [of 2]

by Joseph Woods

The tombs are successions of vaulted chambers, partly built of brick, partly cut in the rock, and frequently placed over one another, in two, three, or even four stories. A wall seems to have been uniformly erected in front, in which a small square opening was left to each vault. There is a fragment of Greek building in the church of San Pancrazio, but the lower part has suffered, because the stone is reputed a remedy for fevers: we may observe some other remains of little consequence, but probably Roman, in the same neighbourhood. There are also some specimens of early Gothic in Taormina, in which the doorways are of a singular, but by no means unpleasing style. The opening is square, with a small console within each upper angle; and round it is a wide face, perfectly plain; beyond this are clustered shafts, and the abacus of the capital is continued over the doorway; over this is a pointed arch, with the same peculiarity of a broad flat member between the opening and the mouldings.

The rocks about the theatre, and I believe in general, those on which Taormina is placed, are calcareous. It seems, by what I could distinguish of it, to be a gray, hard limestone, not at all crystalline, with white veins, but in the hills behind, and in a ravine which I passed after leaving the place, I observed also an argillaceous rock with a shining surface, somewhat unctuous to the touch. The inhabitants say that there are mines of copper and lead in the neighbourhood, but not now worked.

I had bargained for two dollars per horse from Catania to Taormina, and there I agreed with the vetturino, that if he would stay one day at his own expense, I would give him two dollars per horse more to Messina. This you see is four dollars per horse for three days, or one and one-third dollar per day, which I apprehend is about the fair value of the service; but of course a long journey for a single day deserves higher pay.

On the 3rd of August we left Taormina. After descending the hill, the road lies principally along the shore; except that at Alessio we have to climb over a rocky point of red and gray limestone with white veins; and towards Messina, a plain of some extent intervenes between us and the sea. The beach is composed of sand and small stones, except at the openings of the ravines, where the torrents have brought down large, rounded fragments, among which the horses pick their way as well as they can; the magnificent royal road not being discernible. These blocks consist of masses of a grit stone, passing into breccia; of clay-slate, of mica-slate, and of granitic stones, the latter frequently in great quantity, but I saw neither this, nor mica-slate, in sitû. There are also blocks of decomposing granite, lying on the limestone, on the north side of the promontory at Alessio. The hills to the left are frequently broken into pyramidal buttresses.

Messina, like Catania, bears traces of the earthquakes from which it has suffered, but a longer interval has elapsed, and there are no houses propt up, though there are many half ruined. The cathedral is a large building of Norman times. The front displays a sort of Italian Gothic, with a little modernization, the whole forming a very poor composition. In the flank is the ornamented window, published from Mr. Smirke’s drawings, in the Archæologia, which has excited so much controversy; but it is evidently an addition, and probably of the fifteenth century. The inside is divided into three naves by two ranges, each of twelve antique columns. They are not all of a size, but on an average may be considered as about five diameters apart. These are the spoils of more ancient structures, but the capitals are of the date of the church. The bases are all Attic, badly shaped, but without any indications of the Gothic taste. Two are new, and one of these is decidedly the worst in the church. In the choir, the half dome is covered with an early mosaic. The effect of this arrangement, i. e. of a double colonnade leading to an enriched recess, is as usual, very fine, though many of the details are bad. A well proportioned range of pilasters and arches of the cinque cento occupies part of the side-aisles, and there is a good tomb of the same date, and also some altars. Two of these are alike, each of two columns, whose distance apart is about two fifths of their height; behind each column is a pilaster, and both columns and pilasters are covered with carving, and the niche between them is surrounded by two bands of ornaments, but these are for the most part lightly marked, and the whole forms an elegant composition. Another altar of the same period, and similarly enriched, would perhaps not be inferior, if some panelling in the back wall were not objectionable. Yet here the columns are their full height apart. Proportion is no doubt of great importance in architecture, but it is not only one proportion which will please. When I first entered the church, it was the evening of a festa. The end altar of each nave was splendidly illuminated, and the long, half-obscure avenues, each leading to a blaze of light, produced a sublime effect. Yet the columns had begun to receive some tapestry of spiral stripes, and the capitals were shrouded with canopies of crimson damask fringed with gold, preparatory to the fuller decorations of the following day; and these in some degree disturbed the harmony of the scene. Of these capitals, one or two are ancient Corinthian, of good style, but damaged; the others are Gothic imitations of an early date, that is, with distinct leaves and no running foliage. The guide books in Sicily do not condescend to notice Gothic antiquities, and we do not readily find the histories of these buildings. Some of the churches present a great deal of inlaid work of marble and hard stones, and we may sometimes see one part of a building thus highly finished, while the rest is merely whitewashed. The pictures in general seem to be very bad.

Six columns on the inside of the Church of the Vergine Annunziata della nazione Catalana, and a few fragments on the out, are said to have been taken from a temple of Neptune. At San Giovanni Battista della nazione Florentina there are six columns, which are supposed to have once belonged to a temple of Hercules; but they are probably from different buildings, since three are of granite, two of cipollino, and one is of marmo Greco; the bases are Attic, but with rather deep hollows, and were probably made for the church. The side doorways have an ornament seemingly made for them, which is completely Roman, and not ill executed, while it is applied to a disposition of the parts which we should call Norman.

The mountain behind Messina is said to be 3,500 feet in height. It is the usual storehouse of snow; but this failed last winter, and they were obliged to import it from Calabria. The mountains there form a more solid and continued mass, but they break down in pyramidal buttresses like those of Sicily, and the nearer ones have the appearance of a similar, sandy, or gravelly composition. The principal range retains the snow till the beginning of June, and may therefore be about 6,000 feet in height. The harbour of Messina is said to be too deep, part of it being as much as forty fathoms.

I engaged a place in a speronara to Palermo for eight dollars; it was called L’Addolorata, which appeared rather ominous. An awning at one end would protect a few passengers from the sun, and I was to share this part with only one companion; but the master, whose name was Santo la Camera, cheated me in that, and in everything else that he could. To endeavour to elude his share of the bargain, and yet claim the full execution of mine, seemed not to be against his moral code. The distance is one hundred and ninety miles, and it is usually performed in two days, or at most three, always coasting along the shore. The speronara is an open boat, above 40 feet long, and I suppose 10 wide in the broadest part; the first 4½ feet from the stern is a space allotted to the steersman; the awning extends for about as much more; next are benches for eight rowers, and towards the prow a single mast, to which they contrive to fix four sails when the wind is gentle and favourable. In the covered part I found two companions. The first a cavaliere, who was always called eccellenza, and treated with great respect by the rest of the party; the other a priest, whom the captain of the vessel assured me had previously paid for his journey from Palermo to Messina, but now on his return gave nothing for his passage; but he himself informed me at first, that he paid four dollars, afterwards he said six. I believe they were both lies to serve a countryman, as my inquiries were evidently directed to ascertain the justice of what I paid myself; and afterwards, when I reproached the captain with being paid twice over for the use of the cabin, the truth made its appearance. The space immediately before the awning, and between the benches, was filled up, and mattrasses and rags were spread for four women, two men, and three children, all of whom the captain had taken out of charity, i. e. on their paying for the passage; the crew consisted of seven men and three boys, and one other passenger was stationed in the prow.

We left Messina on the 9th and rowed all night against the wind: of course I saw nothing of these celebrated straits beyond what I had enjoyed from the neighbourhood of Messina. The northern coast of Sicily is very mountainous, higher ones rising inland beyond those which skirt the shore. The latter expose a mixture of wood and cultivation, and there are frequently small cultivated plains at their feet, forming altogether a delightful appearance. Ætna I did not see, I believe because hid in the clouds, but the nearer hills present such a continued barrier that it could only have been visible from a few points. About twenty-five miles from Palermo is the wide open valley of Termini, the ancient Himera, and this was the only considerable opening I observed, but we might have passed others in the dark; for partly rowing, and partly sailing, we continued our course without intermission. On the right were the Lipari Islands, all mountainous, and almost all inclining in form to a single truncated cone, or to a combination of cones; nevertheless there are some which, from their shapes, I should suspect not to be entirely volcanic. We reached Palermo on the evening of the 11th.