Sujet

The Revolution in Sicily - the Cathedral and Square of the Elephant, Catania, 1860. Creator: Unknown.

Légende

The Revolution in Sicily - the Cathedral and Square of the Elephant, Catania, 1860. 'Catania, with its straight streets and white houses, has the appearance of a handsome modern town, notwithstanding its twenty-five centuries of existence. Among the most noteworthy of its buildings is the cathedral, a vast building, dedicated to Santa Agata. The front is ornamented with fine granite columns, taken from the theatre of the ancient city, and the sacristy is covered with frescoes representing the ravages of the eruption in 1669. In the square before it is a fountain [designed by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini], with an elephant made of lava, bearing on its back a small granite obelisk, terminated by a cross. The elephant was the ancient symbol of the Catanians, a fact which may account for the great dimensions of the statue and the excellence of the workmanship; but the hieroglyphics which are carved on the pedestal are illegible, and the story of its origin is lost. This extraordinary, rather than beautiful, fountain adornment stands in the centre of the square of the Elephant, formed by the townhall, seminary, and cathedral - an area superior in grandeur and extent to every other in Catania'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Notre référence

HRM23B17_095

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

45,7Mo (4,6Mo) / 42,0cm x 27,3cm / 4960 x 3219 (300dpi)

Mots clés

travel exterior outdoors unusual Italy Italian building people square religious architecture arts country fountain fountains religion art British cathedral church color lava Sicily Christianity Baroque location century Britain rebellion newspapers press print revolution concept B&W street scene tourist attraction engraved engraving Colour 19th century black & white black and white B W white and black 18th century Eighteenth Century nineteenth century tourism The Print Collector Catania Illustrated London News Risorgimento TGN ILN outside street newspaper landscape Unknown Baroque Era Giovanni Battista Vaccarini Vaccarini Giovanni Battista 19th-century Expedition of the Thousand Cathedral of Saint Agatha