Venice: The Meeting of East and West - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 89

of brick. On the brick, cut stone served as the visible foundation of the palace. Checking
the pilings for structural integrity and ensuring that the clay packing remains sealed are
most effectively done by draining the canal. The considerable cost tempts palace owners to
delay inspection, sometimes endangering the palace. Modern technology offers an alternat-
ive to canal draining and piling repair. Where conditions permit, huge screws (augers) can
be driven through the ground floor, directly into the canal bed.
CHURCHES
Churches must surely be counted among the splendors of Venice. Sightseers who vow to
visit one church every day will spend more than a hundred days redeeming their pledge.
Churches display the architectural style and technology of their era and the wealth inves-
ted in their construction. Churches built in the Gothic style of the Middle Ages present a
tall, three-part facade divided vertically. In the central facade is a rose window high above
the center door. Pointed Gothic arches frame doors and windows. Examples include Santa
Maria Gloriosa Dei Frai and San Giovani, Bragora. The most admired church in the Pal-
ladian style (classical pillars supporting the architrave and statues atop the roof) is San
Giorgio Maggiore. Baroque style is displayed in full ornamentation in the Church of the
Derelitti. And beneath the Renaissance domes of Santa Maria della Salute is a profusion of
neoclassical details and orders. Broad steps carry the visitor from the water's edge to the
platform on which the octagonal Basilica stands. The total effect, as Henry James said, is
compelling: “Some great lady on the threshold of her salon…. With her domes, and her
wide step disposed on the ground like the train of a robe and scrolls, her scalloped but-
tresses and statues forming a pompous crown.” [83] The three most visited and photographed
churches of Venice are San Giorgio, the Santa Maria della Salute, and on the square that
names it, the Basilica of St. Mark.
ST. MARK'S SQUARE - PIAZZA SAN MARCO
The many squares of Venice are called campi ( campo , singular) from the Latin word for
field. Square, or piazza , is the word reserved to honor St. Mark, as in Piazza San Marco ,
and its two adjoining smaller piazzette . Surrounded on three sides by some of the most
elaborate buildings in the world, the vast space of St. Mark's Square throngs with visitors,
strollers, gossipers, and vendors, not to mention the ever-present pigeons. Much the same
sight greeted Napoleon, prompting him to call the square the drawing room of Europe.