The tower now rises to a height of 269 ft., and it was intended to have added a spire of about 90 ft. to this; but unless it had been more gracefully managed than is usual in Italy, the tower is certainly better without it. There is nothing to suggest a spire in the part already executed, nor have we any reason to believe that Giotto understood the true principles of spire-building better than his contemporaries. PORCHES. Another feature very characteristic of the Gothic style in Italy is to be found in the porches attached to the churches. Generally they are placed on the flanks, and form side-entrances, and in most instances they were added after the completion of the body of the building, and consequently seldom accord in style with it. One has already been illustrated as attached to the church at Asti (Woodcut No. 493); another (Woodcut No. 501), belonging to the church of Sta. Maria dei Fiori at Florence, is an integral and beautiful part of the design. One of the most characteristic specimens of the class in all Italy is that attached to the northern flank of the church of Sta. Maria Maggiore at Bergamo (Woodcut No. 520). The principal archway and the doorway within it are circular in form, although built in the middle of the 14th century, and are ornamented with trefoils and other details of the age. Above this are three trefoiled arches, the central one containing an equestrian statue of a certain Duke Lupus, at whose expense the porch was probably built, and above these is a little pagoda-like pavilion containing statues of the Virgin and Child. The whole design is so unconstructive that it depends more on the iron ties that are everywhere inserted to hold it together than on any system of thrusts or counterpoises, which a true Gothic architect would certainly have supplied. [Illustration: 520. North Porch, Sta. Maria Maggiore, Bergamo. (From Street’s ‘Brick and Marble of the Middle Ages.’)] The two main pillars rest on lions, as is universally the case in these porches throughout Italy, though rarely found elsewhere. Like most of these Italian porches, this one will not stand criticism as a purely architectural object; but its details are so beautiful and its colours so fascinating that it pleases in spite of all its defects of design, and is more characteristic of the truly native feeling shown in the treatment of the pointed style of architecture than the more ambitious examples which were erected under direct foreign influence. CIVIC BUILDINGS.