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VAUD, PAYS DE.- VENICE..
Its fountain is celebrated for the loves of Petrarchand Laura.
Vaud, Pays de. A canton in the west of Swit-zerland, bounded on the west by France, and on thenorth and south by the lakes of Geneva and Neuf-chatel. Its independence as a distinct canton wasnot finally guaranteed till 1814.
Vendee. A department in the western side ofFrance. It is bounded on the east by the departmentof the two Sevres, and on the west by the Atlantic.It has a territorial area of 2600 square miles, and apopulation of about 290,000 persons. This depart-ment has long been celebrated for the loyalty of itschiefs, and more especially for their devotion to theBourbon dynasty.
Venezuela. A province of the Caraccas, boundedon the north by the Caribean Sea, on the west by Mara-caibo and Varinas, and on the south by the Orinoco.Much of this vast district has changed both namesand masters repeatedly since it was separated fromSpain, but its independence appears now to be fullyinsured. The Orinoco forms its principal river, andthe whole country produces cotton, sugar, cocoa,coffee, and tobacco, in great quantities.
Venice. A celebrated city of Italy, situated nearthe northern extremity of the Adriatic. It was builtin the fifth century; and from the smallest beginningsit rose to such eminence as to become one of themost important states in Europe. For several cen-turies, until the discovery of a passage to India bythe Cape of Good Hope, it became immensely opu-lent by engrossing most of the trade to the East.
Venice has seventy churches, thirty-nine monas-teries, twenty-eight nunneries, and seventeen hospitals,and the religion of the people is that of the churchof Rome.
St. Mark’s patriarchal church is the cathedral ofVenice; it is situated in the grand Piazza, and isaccounted one of the richest and most magnificent inthe world. The Venetians pretend that they possessthe body of the Evangelist Mark ; and in the treasuryof relics they believe they have the original copy ofthe Gospel written by that inspired Evangelist’s ownhand.
The architecture of the church of St. Mark is of amixed kind, mostly of the Gothic order, yet many ofthe pillars are Grecian. The outside is incrusted withmarble; the inside ceiling and floor are all of themost beautiful marble, as are the numerous pillars,and the whole is crowned with five domes. But allthis expense and labour has been directed by a verymoderate share of taste. The steeple of the cathedralstands insulated from the church, built of brick, square,twenty-five feet broad on each side, and threehundred and fifty feet high.
The front of the cathedral, which looks to thepalace, has five brazen gates, with historical basso-relievos ; over the principal gates are placed the fourcelebrated bronze horses, gilt with brass, and of in-comparable workmanship, said to have been executedby the famous Lysippus. They were given to Nerothe Roman emperor, by Tesides, king of Armenia, tobe put to the chariot of the sun, for adorning histriumphal arch, after he had conquered the warlikeParthian8. The fiery spirit indicated by their coun-tenances, and their animated attitudes, are perfectlyagreeable to their original and fanciful destination.Nero placed them on the triumphal arch consecratedto him. They were removed by Constantine the Great
to the Hippodrome at Constantinople, and remainedthere till the capture of that city by the French andVenetians, in the beginning of the thirteenth century,when they were conveyed to Venice. ’
They were taken by the French soon after theirsuccesses in Italy placed Venice in their power, andremoved to a prominent situation in Paris. A newpolitical mutation, however, caused their restorationto Venice in 1815.
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One of the most interesting edifices in Venice isthe Bridge of Sighs, represented above. It is thusdescribed by Mr. Hollier in his Journal of a Tourthrough this and other countries, a work whichstrongly exhibits the most desirable qualifications ofa traveller—acute, persevering, and impartial ob-servation. “ Our next walk was to the Bridge ofSighs, and then down to view the dungeons. TheBridge of Sighs was, without question, a very correctappellation for that miserable path, which led thepoor unfortunate objects of tyrannical hatred or super-stition to such a Tartarus of woe as is there witnessed.Descending by a steep and narrow stone staircase,just wide enough to admit one person at a time towalk, we arrived, after traversing a passage of thesame dimensions, at some holes, ranged in rows alongthis horribly confined place, and withal so low itsobliged us to stoop our chins nearly to our knees toenter them,and when in, we found itimpossible to standupright; some of them were all but dark, the greaternumber of them completely so. And below theseanother range, inferior in every sense, more close,more loathsome, and into which neither the light norbreath of heaven could possibly enter, as they aresituated below the level of the canals. Surely thepoor creatures destined to be inmates of these abodesof wretchedness must, on entering them, have bid afinal adieu to hope in this world.”
The Bridge of Sighs is the avenue from this prisonto the palace. It is a covered bridge or gallery, con-siderably elevated above the water, and dividedby a stone wall into a passage and a cell; it wasinto the latter that prisoners were taken, and therestrangled.