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| Campanile, Venice & Venetian Towers, Barcelona |
Today, The Grandma has gone to visit Montjuïc Mountain in Barcelona. She likes walking across this magic mountain because it offers lots of activities. You can visit the most beautiful gardens, interesting museums and theatres and incredible monuments. One of the most significant monuments when you are arriving to Montjuic Mountain is the Venetian Towers that welcome visitors to Montjuïc.
These Venetian towers were built for the Universal Exposition in 1929 and they are a tribute to St Mark's Campanile, the most popular tower in Venice -Venèsia in Venetan-, that collapsed on a day like today in 1902.
The Grandma loves Barcelona with the same intensity she loves Venice. Both cities are incredible places with an ancient history to know, to learn and to conserve.
Every time The Grandma thinks in Venice, she remembers her old friend Corto Maltese and the wonderful moments they spent together in the city of the canals.
St Mark's Campanile, in Venetian Canpanièl de San Marco, is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, Veneto, located in the Piazza San Marco. It is one of the most recognizable symbols of the city.
The tower is 98.6 metres tall, and stands alone in a corner of St Mark's Square, near the front of the basilica. It has a simple form, the bulk of which is a fluted brick square shaft, 12 metres wide on each side and 50 metres tall, above which is a loggia surrounding the belfry, housing five bells.
The belfry is topped by a cube, alternate faces of which show the Lion of St. Mark and the female representation of Venice, la Giustizia or Justice. The tower is capped by a pyramidal spire, at the top of which sits a golden weathervane in the form of the archangel Gabriel.
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| The collapsed Campanile, Venice (1902) |
The Campanile reached its present form in 1514. The current tower was reconstructed in its present form in 1912 after the collapse of 1902. The initial 9th-century construction, initiated during the reign of Pietro Tribuno (887–912) and built on Roman foundations, was used as a watch tower or lighthouse for the dock, which then occupied a substantial part of the area which is now the Piazzetta. Construction was finished in the twelfth century, during the reign of Domenico Morosini.
Adjoining the base of the campanile is the loggetta built by Sansovino, completed in 1549 and rebuilt in 1912 after it had been destroyed by the fall of the campanile. One of the models for the tower was the St. Mercuriale's Campanile, in Forlì.
The Campanile suffered damage by lightning on many occasions. It was severely damaged in 1388, set on fire and destroyed in 1417 and seriously damaged by a fire in 1489 that destroyed the wooden spire.
The Campanile assumed its definitive shape in the sixteenth century thanks to the restorations made to repair further damage caused by the earthquake of March 1511. These works, initiated by the architect Giorgio Spavento, then executed under the direction of Bartolomeo Bon of Bergamo, added the belfry, realized in marble; the attic, on which was put the sculpture of the lion of Saint Mark and Venice; and the spire, in gold leaf. The work was completed on 6 July 1513, with the placement of the gilded wooden statue of the Archangel Gabriel in the course of a ceremony recorded by Marin Sanudo.
More information: Basilica San Marco
In the following centuries numerous other interventions were made to repair the damage from fires caused by lightning. It was damaged in 1548 and 1565. In 1653, Baldassarre Longhena took up the restorations. The Campanile was damaged by lightning again in 1658. More work was done after a fire caused by a lightning strike on 13 April 1745, which caused some of the masonry to crack, and killed several people as a result of falling stonework. The Campanile was damaged by lightning again in 1761 and 1762. In 1776 it was equipped with a lightning rod. In 1820, the statue of the angel was replaced with a new one by Luigi Zandomeneghi.
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| The collapsed Campanile, Venice (1902) |
In July 1902, the north wall of the tower began to show signs of a dangerous crack that in the following days continued to grow. Finally, on Monday, 14 July, around 9:45 am, the Campanile collapsed completely, also demolishing the loggetta.
Only the caretaker's cat was killed. Because of the Campanile's position, the resulting damage was relatively limited. Apart from the loggetta, only a corner of the Biblioteca Marciana was destroyed. The pietra del bando, a large porphyry column from which laws used to be read, protected the basilica itself. The same evening, the communal council approved over 500,000 Lire for the reconstruction of the Campanile. It was decided to rebuild the tower exactly as it was, with some internal reinforcement to prevent future collapse, plus installing an elevator. Royal Privy Councillor and scaffolding specialist Georg Leib of Munich was the first to donate his scaffolding to rebuild St. Mark's Campanile, on 22 July 1902. Work lasted until 6 March 1912. The work was carried out by the construction firm of G.A.Porcheddu.
The new campanile was inaugurated on 25 April 1912, on the occasion of Saint Mark's feast day, exactly 1000 years after the foundations of the original building had allegedly been laid.
The original Campanile inspired the designs of other towers worldwide, especially in the areas belonging to the former Republic of Venice.
More information: Timeline
Almost identical, albeit smaller, replicas of the campanile exist in the Slovenian town of Piran and in the Croatian town of Rovinj; both were built in the early 17th century. Other, later replicas include the clock tower at King Street Station in Seattle; North Toronto Station; Brisbane City Hall, Australia; the Rathaus (Town Hall) in Kiel Germany; the Daniels & Fisher Tower in Denver; the Campanile in Port Elizabeth- South Africa; Sather Tower, nicknamed the Campanile, on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley; 14 Wall Street; and the right-hand bell-tower of St. John Gualbert in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, a landmark skyscraper located at One Madison Avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, US, was designed by the architectural firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons, who based the external form and shape of the skyscraper on this Campanile.
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| The collapsed Campanile, Venice (1902) |
Replicas of the current tower sit on the complex of The Venetian, the Venice-themed resort on the Las Vegas Strip, its sister resort The Venetian Macao, in the Italy Pavilion at Epcot, a theme park at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and in the nearly empty New South China Mall in Dongguan, China. There is a mill chimney in Darwen, Lancashire which is modelled on the Campanile in St. Mark's Square, Venice, called India Mill. Another one is in the Venice Grand Canal in Taugig City.
The Venetian Towers in Barcelona, Catalonia, are modelled on the Campanile. The Custom House Tower in Boston, MA is modelled on the Campanile.
The Italianate-style tower at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, New York, is modelled on the Campanile.
The Sretenskaya church in Bogucharovo, Tula region, Russia is modelled on the Campanile.
More information: Visit Venice-Italy
Each of the five bells of the campanile had a special purpose. The Renghiera or the Maleficio announced executions; the Mezza Terza proclaimed a session of the Senate; the Nona sounded midday; the Trottiera called the members of the Maggior Consiglio to council meetings and the Marangona, the biggest, rang to mark the beginning and ending of working day. They are tuned in the scale of A.
The Campanile is currently undergoing a major set of building works that are forecast to last a few years. Like many buildings in Venice, it is built on soft ground, supported by wooden piles. Due to years of winter flooding, Acqua Alta, the subsoil has become saturated and the campanile has begun to subside and lean. Evidence of this can be seen in the increasing number of cracks in the masonry. In order to stop the damage, a ring of titanium is being built underneath the foundations of the campanile. The titanium ring will protect the campanile from the shifting soil and ensure that the tower subsides equally and does not lean.
Galileo Galilei famously demonstrated his telescope to the Doge of Venice Antonio Priuli on 21 August 1609 from the Campanile. There is a plaque commemorating this event at the viewing area of the tower.
The 1902 collapse of the Campanile plays a role in American novelist Thomas Pynchon's 2006 novel Against the Day, in which an aeronautical battle between ambiguously fictitious airships results in the spectacular fall of the structure.
More information: Veneto Inside
To build a city where it is impossible to build
a city is madness in itself, but to build there one
of the most elegant and grandest of cities
is the madness of genius.
Alexander Herzen
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