A Little
Further On, At Luinate, There Is A Fine Old Lombard Campanile And
Some Conventual Buildings Which Are Worth Sparing Five Minutes Or
So To See.
The views hereabouts over the lake of Varese and
towards Monte Rosa are exceedingly fine.
The driver should be told
to go a mile or so out of his direct route in order to pass
Oltrona, near Voltrone. Here there was a monastery which must once
have been an important one. Little of old work remains, except a
very beautiful cloister of the thirteenth or fourteenth century,
which should not be missed. It measures about twenty-one paces
each way: the north side has round arches made of brick, the
arches are supported by small columns about six inches through,
each of which has a different capital; the middle is now garden
ground. A few miles nearer Angera there is Brebbia, the church of
which is an excellent specimen of early Lombard work. We thought
we saw the traditions of Cyclopean masonry in the occasional
irregularity of the string-courses. The stones near the bottom of
the wall are very massive, and the west wall is not, if I remember
rightly, bonded into the north and south walls, but these walls are
only built up against it as at Giornico. The door on the south
side is simple, but remarkably beautiful. It looks almost as if it
might belong to some early Norman church in England, and the stones
have acquired a most exquisite warm colour with age.
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