The Campanile signified to the Venetians the greatness of Venice. It was used as a watch tower before the year 1000. Then in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it became a bell tower also. Its bells rang out at the first hint of danger to warn the citizens of the republic. During later times these bells announced the taking of Constantinople by Dandolo to a waiting and expectant crowd; the victory of Lepanto, which made Venice master of the East; the establishment of her fights of sovereignty against Rome. They clanged when Martin Paliero, the traitor Doge, was beheaded. They tolled a dirge when the peace of Campoformio ended the Venetian republic forever. When the lagoons were united to the Italian mainland they rang out in announcement. When the Campanile fell the Venetians were shocked and broken-hearted. There was some question as to whether it could be reconstructed; but the Italians were determined that it should be. In its fall the bell tower inclined toward the north and open piazza. If it had fallen in any other direction, either the Library of Sansovino, or the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Cathedral, or the royal palace would have been destroyed. In fact, some of the debris fell very near St. Mark’s; but did not disfigure it in the least. The old foundations of the Campanile were used as a nucleus for the new. The shaft outside is a perfect model of the old bell tower; but by modifying the inside the weight has been reduced 20,000 tons. The nucleus of the first Venice, before it was made the seat of government of the republic, is said to have been the little district about the great bridge over the Grand Canal, which still retains the name Rialto. But as soon as the island group of Rivo Alto became the capital of the Venetian republic a palace for the Doge was erected near the open mouth, on the site that its successor still occupies. This earliest palace was probably built about the year 800. It was burned down in 976 and again in 1106. The present magnificent building was a slow growth over three centuries. As a whole, the Doge’s Palace as it now stands may be regarded externally as the characteristic typical example of fully developed Venetian Gothic. It is built of brick, and is lined or incrusted with small lozenge-like slabs of variously colored marble. The interior of the Doge’s Palace is of much later date than is the exterior. On the walls of the chief council chambers are oil paintings by many Venetians, among them Tintoretto’s masterpiece “Bacchus and Ariadne,” and the huge picture of Paradise, the largest oil painting in the world. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 27, SERIAL No. 27 [Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VENICE] _VENICE_ _The Bridge of Sighs_ THREE