THE
AMERICAN ARCHITECT
FOUNDED 1876
THE FOUNTAINS OF VITERBO
By Samuel Chamberlain
Illustrated with Lithographs and Sketches by the Author
Dim centuries have left their marks on the present site of Viterbo. The convulsions of many a conflict have left its walls torn and shell scarred. Its formidable ramparts, studded by bleak feudal towers, still manage to enclose a goodly part of the town, and give it the appearance of a mild Avila. (This if you don’t mind a slight stretch of the imagination. ) From one angle, Viterbo rises gently out of a dusty plain, meek and calm; from another, it appears to be a fierce fortified stronghold propped on the brink of a precipice. Yet when one pene
trates the Baroque gateway, powdered with a week’s dust, which is the principal entry to the city, there remains no ferocious touch, save a glowering chateau and an impotent brick tower or two. Viterbo becomes the picture of modest tranquility. At once, you stumble on a fountain. It is the Fontana Della Rocca, the largest in the city. It glistens in the sunlight, draped with silver garlands of splashing streams, a first pleasant intimation of the fountained treasures in store farther on.
There does not appear to be a single guide in
FOUNTAIN, VITERBO
FROM THE ORIGINAL LITHOGRAPH BY SAMUEL CHAMBERLAIN
Copyright, 1928, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.
AMERICAN ARCHITECT
FOUNDED 1876
THE FOUNTAINS OF VITERBO
By Samuel Chamberlain
Illustrated with Lithographs and Sketches by the Author
Dim centuries have left their marks on the present site of Viterbo. The convulsions of many a conflict have left its walls torn and shell scarred. Its formidable ramparts, studded by bleak feudal towers, still manage to enclose a goodly part of the town, and give it the appearance of a mild Avila. (This if you don’t mind a slight stretch of the imagination. ) From one angle, Viterbo rises gently out of a dusty plain, meek and calm; from another, it appears to be a fierce fortified stronghold propped on the brink of a precipice. Yet when one pene
trates the Baroque gateway, powdered with a week’s dust, which is the principal entry to the city, there remains no ferocious touch, save a glowering chateau and an impotent brick tower or two. Viterbo becomes the picture of modest tranquility. At once, you stumble on a fountain. It is the Fontana Della Rocca, the largest in the city. It glistens in the sunlight, draped with silver garlands of splashing streams, a first pleasant intimation of the fountained treasures in store farther on.
There does not appear to be a single guide in
FOUNTAIN, VITERBO
FROM THE ORIGINAL LITHOGRAPH BY SAMUEL CHAMBERLAIN
Copyright, 1928, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.