This Explains A
Peculiarity In The Aspect Of The Place, Noticeable As Soon As One
Begins To Walk About; It
Is like a town either half built or half
destroyed, one knows not which; everywhere one comes upon ragged
walls,
Tottering houses, yet there is no appearance of antiquity.
One ancient building, a castle built by Robert Guiscard when he
captured Catanzaro in the eleventh century, remained until of late
years, its Norman solidity defying earthquakes; but this has been
pulled down, deliberately got rid of for the sake of widening a
road. Lament over such a proceeding would be idle enough; Catanzaro
is the one progressive town of Calabria, and has learnt too
thoroughly the spirit of the time to suffer a blocking of its
highway by middle-age obstructions.
If a Hellenic or Roman city occupied this breezy summit, it has left
no name, and no relics of the old civilization have been discovered
here. Catanzaro was founded in the tenth century, at the same time
that Taranto was rebuilt after the Saracen destruction; an epoch of
revival for Southern Italy under the vigorous Byzantine rule of
Nicephorus Phocas. From my point of view, the interest of the place
suffered because I could attach to it no classic memory. Robert
Guiscard, to be sure, is a figure picturesque enough, and might give
play to the imagination, but I care little for him after all; he
does not belong to my world. I had to see Catanzaro merely as an
Italian town amid wonderful surroundings.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 100 of 152
Words from 26245 to 26500
of 40398
