BY ADRIATIC SEA AND SHORE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 85

BY ADRIATIC SEA AND SHORE.

SS.t. Edith Suable Gbossjiann. VI.— BRINDISI (Continued). The church at Casale and also the Chiesa del Cristo have front flats, with pointed roofs, no projections, but pointed porches below. One peculiarity is the use of alternate narrow bands of white and of black marble. At the top in Casale these are arranged horizontally ; then comes a row of perpendicular strips, ended by one horizontal line of white, then zig-zag ; and so on in a variety of lines straight or waved. Architectural readers will, I hope, pardon . my untechnical terms, but this is the effect on the ignorant. The Chiesa del Cristo has one sculptured block of a beautiful pinkish colour. Another peculiarity in the Chiesa del Cristo is a rose window, filled in, not with glass,' but with differently -coloured stones, arranged in ornamental pattern. The side walls have buttresses. There was probably a monastery or at least some monastic building attached to both these churches, for there are the remains of cloisters, -now utilised in the one case for stables and the houses of the poor ; in the other for a fine large dairy. In the Via Lucia is a etill more curious church — or, rather, a double church, one church above another (one underground, the other on top of it). The church above looked much more modern than the other. The pictures certainly are not so old as those below, though the old woman who guided ve — followed by the usual squalid troop — said that they were. One of them is' a Madonna whose face shows a sweetness of expression rare in mediaeval pictures. Another is San Nichola- — none other than our old friend Santa Glaus, who was Bishop of Bari, and also patron saint of children. He is represented with the three babies standing up in a tub, while the saint brings them back to life again. There is also a Santa Ljucia, looking ecstatic but desperately uncomfortable while the,, soldier draws his sword upon her. There is a very ghastly and realistic ancient crucifix preserved in this church. As it was only a few days after All Souls' Day — "jour dcs morts," — there was a blackdraped catafalque in the church, impressively funereal. The subterranean church — Santissima Trinita — is more remarkable. It is a kind of crypt, though more complete. As we had an exceptionally dark day, it seemed like a cave or tomb. It gave the impres&ion of great antiquity. The inside roof is supported by four marble columns, with Byzantine capitals, each one different from the others. One ends in an adaptation of the acanthus leaves ; another has faces sculptured amongst flowers. There is a largealtar of solid stone, the only one left of three similar altars. On the walls, and especially in the niches of the shrines, are the mouldering remains of frescoes^. These nust be very old, before Raphael and probably before Cimabue, for the drawing is in the very early style, with stiff formal treatment of the hands and features. One narrow dark passage up stone steps, dusty and thickly hung with cobwebs, led to a large, deep hollow, which our fuide said was need for the bones of the dead — though what dead we were left to imagine. Another similar passage led into a pitch dark recess or chamber, which, we were told, had been a library. But it does not seem likely that a place almost devoid of light should be chosen for reading in. Our old wonyin carried a lamp to show us over these places, as. indeed, she " needed to do, although it was eai-ly afternoon of an Italian autumn day. This- old church is evidently unused and rarely, if ever, visited, for we emerged covered with dusty cobwebs, and the old woman brushed us down with a clothes brush before we went our way.

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