Wanderings in Corsica: Its History and Its Heroes. Vol. 2 of 2Gregorovius, Ferdinand
History
Wanderings in Corsica: Its History and Its Heroes. Vol. 2 of 2
Gregorovius, Ferdinand
Corsica (France) -- Description and travel; Corsica (France) -- History
Farther on, towards the edge of the rock, lies San Domenico—a beautiful
church of the Templars, whose emblematic triangle is still visible
on the walls. It is a graceful structure, of the purest Gothic
proportions, and only wants the overlaid façade to have a pleasing
effect outside as well as in the interior. Unquestionably it is the
finest church in Corsica, next to the ruins of the Canonica at Mariana.
Its snow-white octangular tower, which the Pisans began, resembles
an indented fortress-turret; it is incomplete. In the church, I found
many monumental tablets of Knights-Templar and of Genoese nobles—among
others, that of a Doria. Cardinal Fesch sent a few pictures to it,
but they are of little value. Far more interesting are the little _ex
votos_—the votive pictures on wood, which Bonifazian citizens who have
been delivered from some impending danger have dedicated to the Madonna
and St. Dominic. There are many pirate-scenes among them, right vividly
delineated. The third church—San Francesco—is small; but it possesses
great interest as containing the only spring in Bonifazio. Elsewhere,
the Bonifazians content themselves with the rain-water collected in
cisterns, drawing their main supply from the large, deep reservoirs into
which one may descend by stone steps—a meritorious work of the Genoese.
Most of the old cloisters in Corsica belonged to the monks of the
order of St. Francis. These gentlemen had settled in great numbers on
the island, and their saint himself, they say, was once in Corsica. He
visited Bonifazio; and as the citizens of this town are accounted the
most religious in the whole island, I shall relate the legend in the
words of my friend Lorenzo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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