Six Wonders of the World.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

Six Wonders of the World.

One of the world's most magnificent cathedrals is that of San Marco or Saint Mark ab Venice.

It is an immense building of great uge with five great glittering domes set high abovo tho city and tho winding wators of its many canals, which seem to float like shining bubbles in the misty-blue air of the Adriatic. Hundreds of lifesize statues of saints adorn tho oxteiioi of the cathedral, and weird stone gargoyles in fantastic and often repulsive shapes of bird and beast peer down from every niche. Abovo tho carved bronze doors of the main entrance are four gigantic bronzegilt horses,' looking like lifo itself with their trampling feet and gleaming muscular necks arched proudly. About 900 A.l). those horses were put up there as a sign of some triumph or victory, and tliero the four remained until tho eighteenth century when the conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte had them taken down and removed to Paris. There they were erected in a public plane as a sign of his conquest 'of the Republic of Venice. It is said that the Venetians rover rested until nearly twenty years later the massive bronze chargers were brought back from Franco in triumph and restored to their place over the cathedral doors. Only once since that time havo they descended from their lofty perch and that was during the Great War when they wero removed for safety, as it was feared they might suffer injury from nir raids. In 1923 they wero again restored lo their places and there they stand today, looking down on tho light and lifo and colour of tli/e moving crowds in St. Mark's Square, with their proud heads raised, their golden hoofs seeming to be pawing the air, their golden manes flying, while tho swarms of pigeons which build their nests in tho niches of tho cathedral, and flutter about the square, settle down upon their heads and bucks unrebuked. There is a legend that Ihe actual body of St. Mark tho Evangelist rests under the altar of St. Mark's, having been stolen from a church at Alexandria in 829 A.D., and conveyed by ship to Venice with great secrecy, fhus it- was that the greatest church in Venice camo

By ISABEL M. CLUETT.

SAN MARCO AT VENICE. 11.

to be called by the name of St. Mark, and the standard and the coinage of Venice from that day have been marked with the winged lion of St. Mark. The church within is almost indescribably beautiful, with walls and pavements inlaid with glowing mosaics, red and blues and gold, emerald and purple. So vast is the cathedral, so many its shrines, side-chapels and lady chapels opening off the central navo that it is not ono church, but many. • The dark lofty stono arches so high, high above the heads of mortals are studded with soft lights like distant stars; there aro beautiful fresco paintings on the ceilings and many more on the walls painted by glorious old Italian musters centuries ago, and yet their glowing colours aro si ill rich and delicate. The many altars are hung with costly fabrics and richly-woven tapestries and blazing with, hundreds of burning candles in chased gold and silver candle-sticks lighting up the jewelled crucifixes and golden vessels and images of the Mother and Babe in many coloured robes. Hundreds of lofty pointed stained glass windows seem to blaze too with gorgeous hues. Ifero and there are giant groups of marble statuary wrought by some of the greatest sculptors tlio world lias ever seen. From all over the world through mnnv centuries, treasures have been brought to enrich the cathedral of St. Mark, gold and gems and priceless brocades and silks, and immortal works of art in pictures and carvings. And yet so majestic and dignified with the passing of the centuries is this magnificent building, with its age darkened pillars and soaring arches and shadowy roofs that all this lavish richness of colouring is softened into harmony with the solemn gloom of the echoing cloisters, and the glimmering candle-lit shrines where humblo worshippers kneel and make their offerings of gilded wax candles or coloured paper flowers. It would take many days to sco all the beauties and wonders of this great cathedral and at any hour, day or night, ono visits there, one finds devout worshippers kneeling on the stone floors murmuring prayers or thanksgivings, dipping fingers in the holy water slotips and crossing themselves, or entering the narrow cell-like confessional boxes with their dark curtains, to confess their sins. And always is the deep resonant roll of organ music or the sweet chanting of incense-bearing choir boys in their lacetrimmed surplices carrying tapers and banners before the robed priests, and the solemn chiming of sweet-toned bells, mellow and deep or fairy-light and delicate that blend together in perfect harmony.