. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. divided intoapartments of varying size and shape on the three floors, communi-cating with each other by ample staircases on either side of thecentral hall. (Fig. 319.) The palace stood in the midst of pleasuregrounds. Opposite its main entrance was a fish-pond surrounding asquare pavilion which has now disappeared, but which was presum-ably much like that of the Cuba, which still remains.^ The palace of the Cuba (from El Kubbah, the dome) built by thesecond William about 1180, in the midst of a ch
. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. divided intoapartments of varying size and shape on the three floors, communi-cating with each other by ample staircases on either side of thecentral hall. (Fig. 319.) The palace stood in the midst of pleasuregrounds. Opposite its main entrance was a fish-pond surrounding asquare pavilion which has now disappeared, but which was presum-ably much like that of the Cuba, which still remains.^ The palace of the Cuba (from El Kubbah, the dome) built by thesecond William about 1180, in the midst of a charming park adja-cent to the southwestern gate of Palermo, and which has now disap-peared, has much the same architectural character as the Zisa, and avery similar plan. It is somewhat smaller, measuring on the groundone hundred and fifteen by fifty-eight feet, with a height of fifty-fivefeet, and with a rectangular projection in the middle of each blind arcades of the Zisa are repeated here, but in a single rangecovering the whole height of the wall, and the parapet bore an Arabic. Fig-. 320. La Zisa. Interior Decoration. inscription ascribing glory and honor to William IL, the best ofkings, of whom no castle can be worthy, and giving the date of the ^ Mothes, p. 551; Salazaro, ii., pi. xxiv. See, also, Dantier, i., p. 227. 120 ARCHITP:CTURE in ITALY building as 1182. Small grouped windows are set in the blindarches, but so irregularly placed that no clear notion can be formedfrom them of the interior disposition of the apartments, beyond thegeneral division of the space into a square hall in the centre occupy-ing the full depth of the building, and smaller rooms on each side asin the Zisa. The basement wall of the palace, of rough hewn stone, bearswitness to its original position in the midst of a great basin of water.^This building and its adjacent grounds are now degraded to the usesof an artillery barrack. Of the various pavilions with which the grounds of the Cu
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectarchite, bookyear1901
