The Battered Plates Of Iron That
Cover The Wooden Doors Are Marked With Many A Bullet.
Then we keep
under cover for a short space, after which we find ourselves at the
foot of a long flight of steps.
Close by there is a little terrace
with a wall round it, where one can stand and enjoy a view over the
valley of the Dora to Turin.
Having ascended the steps, we are at the main entrance to the
building - a massive Lombard doorway, evidently the original one.
In the space above the door there have been two frescoes, an
earlier and a later one, one painted over the other, but nothing
now remains save the signature of the second painter, signed in
Gothic characters. On entering, more steps must be at once
climbed, and then the staircase turns at right angles and tends
towards the rock.
At the head of the flight shown p. 98, the natural rock appears.
The arch above it forms a recess filled with desiccated corpses.
The great pier to the left, and, indeed, all the masonry that can
be seen, has no other object than to obtain space for, and to
support, the floor of the church itself. My drawing was taken from
about the level of the top of the archway through which the
building is entered. There comes in at this point a third small
staircase from behind; ascending this, one finds one's self in the
window above the door, from the balcony of which there is a
marvellous panorama.
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