View PDF version of this page

on the garden side is upheld by eighteen pillars set in order in the middle, each of them is 32 palms febiek. The capitals are Corinthian: the columns themselves of fair height. They make a kind of arcade, learing wide spaces, through which you enter the garden, between one column and the next. The ornaments of the arcades are all broken, but you can see their style. The inner side is an unbroken wall, and there are full sixteen feet between it and the columns. A door on the left leads into a fine room, which looks newly built, with six large windows giving a pleasant view of the sea. It is ninety feet long by thirty-two wide. It has a fine arched vault supported by fourteen pillars, seven on each of the longer sides, and is closed at each end by an unbroken wall. Notice the pulpit. Two rooms beyond are in ruins. Then one can mount thirty-six steps to a great passage full of wild plants, und seventeen more to reach the roof of the great hall, and again twenty to the top of the convent walls. One sees other rooms, mostly ruined : the view both towards the sea and landwards is very fine. I came down to the vestibule of the convent, and then descending on the left a flight of twenty-one steps came to a room 32 feet broad and 66 long, with a well built vault upheld in the middle by two pillars, three times the height of a man. One might fancy it all built five or six years ago. Beyond is another room of the same style, and outside a little court through which you pass to the door of the church, it has a fine entrance gate, with walls adorned with mosaic, fatally damaged. I noticed also a large stone with letters of so strange a form that I could make out neither words nor sense. The church, excluding the choir, is about 60 feet long and 46 bread. In the middle are four pillars of ordinary stone and of fair height. The walls are adorned with six or seven ancient paintings. Beyond the choir is another room. It is indeed a pity that this convent is not inhabited, for it is rich in conveniences, and the site is as pleasant a une as co tld be found. The village, which consists of very few houses, is called Casafani. St ernia, with the castle of which 1 spoke, is but three Italian miles from the convent. •About three o'clock we remounted, and following nearly the same track over the hill, we reached the plain, and in the evening Nicosia, efter passing several villages. In the morning, the sixth day of our excursion, I went to see the city. I found many fine buildings, palaces almost, but little inhabited and worse cared for. Four ancient churches, used by the Turks as mosqnes, are in good condition. S. Sophia, the principal, is large, larger f than the church of the same name at Fama gusta, and architecturally very beautiful. It has three doors, a fine portal marks the chief entrance. The vault and its arches rest on sixteen columns. There are the remains of one ancient tower, and another recently built or at lenst of a modern style. No Christian may enter the building, but they may approach it and examine it from outside as much as they will. Close by is another fine building, almost entire, with a vault resting on two columns. I think it was formerly a church : now it is a bazar or market. There are other ancient remains, but the city is of no importance, and the houses generally commonplace. The wall is low, but nearly entire, the ramparts in-significant, with three gates. There are cannons lying about, dismounted and unused. The Greeks have their own quarters. Outside the city are many palm trees. Silk stuffs and very good dimities are made there. Soon after noon we left Nicosia. The mountain in which are the petrified oysters is near Nicosia, but at some distance from the high-road. Our road lay through hills and several villages, and we passed a large square building the circuit of whose walls is yet visible. At last we came to a small church and reached Lamica at sunset. After a rest we went to Chiti. This once famous place now consists of a few wretched houses. Some people pretend that it was the first home of the goddess Venus : others say the VAX BRUYN. 239

View PDF version of this page