ILLUSTRATED NOTES.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4310, 13 November 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

ILLUSTRATED NOTES.

PICTURESQUE WATERWAYS OF VENICE. The romantic, and beautiful "city on the sea"' lias undergone very little change for nearly 300 years. Venice, with its canals, bridges, churches and palaces, is perhaps the most interesting of all European towns. The famous Doge palace, which extends along the Mol o, Mas once the seat of the Venetian Government (see sketch No. 1). Unilfc originally in 820. it was no Je>s than three times damaged by fire, and

was completely destroyed by fire in lf>74. when the present palace was built. The celebrated Bridge of Sighs, with all

its terrible memories, connects the palace with the prisons, from which those condemned prisoners were conducted across the bridge to the palace to hear their sentences, and back again to execution. The Rialto Bridge, which crosses the Grand Canal, is a single marble span of ninety one feet. On the

island of the Rialto Venice first existed as a city. The cathedral of St. Mark's, one of the most imposing of all the various examples of ecclesiastical architecture in the world, was originally a chapel to the Ducal Palace. Built in 828, it was burned clown in 976; the rebuilding was begun ill 977, but it was not finished for nearly 100 years. Our second sketch shows the Grand Canal, the principal thoroughfare of Venice. The canal traverses Venice from north to south, and along its banks are to be feen many of the churches, palaces and other .sights. It is intersected in all directions by 150 smaller canals, the

water streets of Venice. Our third sketch (which, together with the other two, is taken from the "Graphic"), shows an evening study on the Grand Canal. As everybody will know, Venice being a city of canals, the chief means of locomotion is by gondolas. which hava been called the hansom cabs of Venice. Their number is decreasing every year, and motor launches are taking their place.