Passing under the old gateway--with its portcullis still ready to
be dropped, if need be, and with the iron plates that sheathe it
pierced with bullets--as at S. Michele, the visitor enters at once
upon a terrace from which the two foregoing illustrations were
taken. I know nothing like this terrace. On a summer's afternoon
and evening it is fully shaded, the sun being behind the castle.
The lake and town below are still in sunlight. This, I think, is
about the best time to see the castle--say from six to eight on a
July evening, or at any hour on a gray day.
Count Borromeo, to whom the castle belongs, allows it to be shown,
and visitors are numerous. There is very little furniture inside
the rooms, and the little there is is decaying; the walls are
covered with pictures, mostly copies, and none of them of any great
merit, but the rooms themselves are lovely. Here is a sketch of
the one in which San Carlo Borromeo was born, but the one on the
floor beneath is better still. The whole of this part was built
about the year 1350, and inside, where the weather has not reached,
the stones are as sharp as if they had been cut yesterday. It was
in the great Sala of this castle that the rising against the
Austrians in 1848 was planned; then there is the Sala di Giustizia,
a fine room, with the remains of frescoes; the roof and the tower
should also certainly be visited.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249