Italian castles and country seats . ed, and more; forcombined with its historic interest are the gloriousnatural beauties of its situation on the top of thegreat jagged Monte Titano, which on the east com-mands a glorious view of the sea twelve miles away,on the north the picturesque valley of the Mareccia,on the west the mountains of Montefeltro, and onthe south the distant peaks of the Apennines areclearly to be seen with Monte Nerone rising in themidst. There is a rather pretty legend of a young Romanmatron who was converted to Christianity by a youngstone-cutter from Dalmatia, afterward kn
Italian castles and country seats . ed, and more; forcombined with its historic interest are the gloriousnatural beauties of its situation on the top of thegreat jagged Monte Titano, which on the east com-mands a glorious view of the sea twelve miles away,on the north the picturesque valley of the Mareccia,on the west the mountains of Montefeltro, and onthe south the distant peaks of the Apennines areclearly to be seen with Monte Nerone rising in themidst. There is a rather pretty legend of a young Romanmatron who was converted to Christianity by a youngstone-cutter from Dalmatia, afterward known as SanMarino, to whom she gave the isolated crag as a saferefuge wherein the holy man could continue unmolestedhis religious devotions at the time of the persecutionof the Christians under Diocletian in 366 Whetherthe legend be really true, no one can know, but cer-tain it is that a convent or monastery existed here asearly as 885. At first the miniature state consistedof the rocky cone of Monte Titano alone, but later[52]. o \ AND COUNTRY SEATS in the fifteenth century its territory was extended toinclude a part of the surrounding plain and the castlesof Faetano, Fiorentino, Montegiardino and Serravalle,through an alliance with the Piccolomini Pope, Pius II,and Alphonso of Aragon, King of Naples, against theMalatesta. Fortunately for the tiny colony, it wasalways able, through the cleverness of its citizens andon account of its situation, to make itself a sort ofbuffer state between the great and powerful feudallords, the Malatesta on the one side, and the morecultured, but still more powerful, Dukes of Urbinoon the other; though with the latter power the repub-lic was always on friendly terms. When Napoleoncame here he thought this tiny plant of freedom shouldbe allowed to grow. To the great man, whose desirefor improvement for everything with which he camein contact has been given that vaguely misunderstoodterm, ambition, it seemed that the wee republic shouldbe giv
Size: 1177px × 2123px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectitalydescriptionandt
