Italy : handbook for travellers. First part, Northern Italy and Corsica / by K. Baedeker.

  • Karl Baedeker
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Italy : handbook for travellers. First part, Northern Italy and Corsica / by K. Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    42/494 (page 12)
    near tlie Place uux Clerca, with quaint decorations in the style of the 10th cent. On the grouiid-lloor of No. 4 in the same street Napoleon once lodged when a sous-lieutenant of artillery. On Aug. 29th, 1799, Pope Pius VI. died in captivity at Valence. His bust with basrelief by Canova is preserved in the old Ro- manesque cathedral. The Museum, with collections of art and natural history, is insigniticant. On the Rhone-promenade stands the monument of General Chumpionnet (d. 1800J, the conqueror of Naples, who was a native of Valence. The town is connected with the r. bank by a suspension-bridge. Branch line hence to Grenoble (see p. 31) in 31/2 hrs. On the height above St. Peray rises the Chateau de Beaureyurd, erected, it is said, by Vauban in the form of a mimic fortiess, now converted into a vast depot for the highly esteemed produce of the neighbouring vineyards, the reputation of which is hardly in- ferior to that of Champagne itself. Stat. JJEtoile is picturesquely situated on the hill. Then Stat. Livron, where a branch line diverges r. to Privas. A short distance farther the influx of the Drome is observed on the 1.; the line crosses this river at stat. Loriol and again approaches the Rhone. Stat. Montelimurt. The ancient castle of the once celebrated family of the Monteil d'Adhtmar rises on an eminence from the midst of mulberry-trees. The line here quits the Rhone, the plain on the r. expands. The silk-culture has been successfully prosecuted in this district since the campaign of Charles VIH. against Italy in 1494. About 12 M. to the S. E. is situated the Cfidleau] de Grignan, once the seat of the son-iu-law of Madame de SMgiU, burned down during the Ke- volution. Tlie window at which the illustrious letter-writer is said to have sat is still shown. Wad. de Sevigne died here in 1696 in her 70th year and was interred in the neighbouring church. On the r. bank, fatther on, lies the episcopal residence of Viviers, once capital of the Vivarais, with a conspicuous eccle- siastical seminary. The railway runs to the 1. in the plain, by Chateauneuf, Donztres and Pierrelatte; opposite the latter is Bourg St. Andeol, with a handsome suspension-bridge. Next stat. La Pulud; then La Croisiere, which is also the station for Pont St. Esprit on the r. bank; the long stone bridge of the latter, with 26 arches, was constructed in 1265—1310. To the S.K. towers the majestic Mont Ventoux (6813 ft.). Stations Mondragon, Momas, Piolenr, and, situated 3 M. from the Rhone, the small town of T. o T. 1 1^ Orange {*H6tel des Princes or Poste, R. 2, B. 1 , i'. o, A 3/4 fr 1 the Arausio of the Romans and once a prosperous place of considerable importance. In the middle ages it was the capital of a small principality, which, on the death without issue of the last reigning prince in 1531, fell to his nephew the Count of Nassau, and until the death of William HI. (d. 1.02), ktng