File:The historical monuments of France (1898) (14764264025).jpg

Identifier: historicalmonume1955hunn (find matches)
Title: The historical monuments of France
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Hunnewell, James Frothingham, 1832-1910
Subjects: Architecture Cathedrals
Publisher: Boston : Houghton, Mifflin and Company
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
those succceeding, and rebuilt around an abbey that arose there.
It became a port where pilgrims to the Holy Land embarked.
It has a church that has been styled the ne plus ultra of By-
zantine art, that was begun in 1116. The religious wars that
scourged the country in the fifteenth century left it badly in-
jured ; afterward it was almost destroyed. The western front
remains, and shows extreme elaboration of its style, with three
superbly sculptured porches, joined by walls that with them
form, as has been said, a single and enormous bas-relief,
shown in the following plate. A lower, or an under, church
(eleventh century ?) remains. We can, when farther on, take
more note of its style, — the Romanesque.
AiGUES-MORTES is Westward, almost two hours ride by rail.
It stands among the marshes near the sea; and although much
reduced in its importance as a military or commercial place, it
is now a remarkable and well-preserved example of a mediaeval
seaport. It has walls and gates, constructed in the thirteenth
Text Appearing After Image:
MONTPELLIER. — NARBONNE. 21
century. The most marked object is a rounded tower, said to
be ninety feet in height and sixty-five feet in diameter. It is a
landmark visible far out at sea and over the extensive lowlands
that stretch northward from it. In the lower story is a large and
dimly lighted hall, above which is a room with passages, used
as a prison for the Protestants after the Edict of Nantes had
been revoked. The style of the defensive works shown here
can be described as well or better in connection with a visit to
its masterpiece at Carcassonne.
MONTPELLiER is another interesting place upon our route. It
is a large provincial city, with few early monuments, indeed,
but with important modern structures. Chief among the latter
is the vast arcade of its grand aqueduct, built of buff stone, a
hundred years or more ago, and over half a mile in length. It
shows in an imposing manner, very rare now, how the Roman
aqueducts once boldly strode into a city. The Cathedral, re-
cently restored, is old and curious

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