Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/400

384 ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. Part II. in the year 1076, for the church of Monte San Angelo ; and is conse- quently contemporary with the doors of Sta. Sophia, Novogorod, and. San Zenone, Yerona, and so similar in design as to form an interesting series for comparison. Other churches in the same style as those mentioned above are found at Canosa, Giovenazzo, Molo, Ostuni, Manduria, and other places in the province. Those of Brindisi, from which we should, expect most, have been too much modernized, to be of value as examples ; but there is in the town a small circular church of great beauty, built a])parently by the Knights Templars, and afterwards possessed by the Knights of St, John. It is now in ruins, but many of the frescoes which once adorned its walls still remain, as well as the marble jiillars that supported its roof. Being at some distance from the harbor, the Knights of St. John built another small church near the port, which still remains nearly unaltered. 814. Plan of San Donato, Zara. Scale 100 tt. to 1 in. Circular Buildings. One of the best known, as well as one of the largest examples of this class of buildings in Italy, is the baptistery at Pisa (seen partially on the left hand of Woodcut No. 799). Internally it is, as nearly as may be, 100 feet in diameter, and the walls are about 8 feet 6 inches in thickness. The dome itself, how- ever, is only 60 feet in diameter, and is supported on four piers and eight pillars. These serve to separate the central space from the aisle which runs round it, and which is two stories in height, but singu- larly ill-proportioned and clumsy in detail. The worst part of the design, however, is the dome, if dome it can be called. Internally it is conical in form, and thrust through an external hemisplierical dome in a manner more clumsy and unpleasing than any other example of its class. Externally, these defects are to some extent atoned for by considerable richness and beauty of detail. It had originally only one range of blind arcades, with three-quarter columns, surmounted by an open arcade ; an arrangement exactly similar to that of the two lower stories of the «15. Section of San Donato, Zara. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.