This splendid old church has well been described as “a stupendous pile
of oriental magnificence.” A thousand years do not cover the whole
period of its existence. It is adorned with the columns and gems of the
east, and no wonder, for every Venetian captain of a ship and every
traveler of that nation was required to bring home something to adorn
this temple: Greece and Constantinople, Palestine and all Europe, have
contributed to its embellishment. It is totally unlike almost every
other temple. It has round arches and regular domes, and from every part
of them, there look down upon you, in permanent mosaic of gold and
colored stones, and even precious gems, colossal images of the Saviour,
of the virgin mother, of apostles and saints, and of multiform beings of
religious allegory, so numerous and various, and so fresh, rich, and
gorgeous, that you are quite bewildered, and involuntarily drop your
eyes to the floor, where you are almost equally dazzled by the precious
marbles, and jaspers, and serpentines, and verd-antique, and red
porphyry, disposed in endless variety of most beautiful patterns, as if
it had been the work of a magician artist. You read there also the
instability of human glory in the worn and mutilated condition of parts
of the pavement, and in the waving hollows and upward curves which prove
that its foundations were laid in the sea. You again lift your eyes, and
in the permanent mosaics (for no perishable frescoes or oil paintings
are here) you read in large and distinct historical figures the early
Bible history of our race, and the annals of the patriarchal families.
Around the church, hang rich lamps of silver and gold. Huge candles and
lights perpetually burning, symbolize the immortality of the soul.
Passing out of the church, precious columns are on your right and on
your left, columns of marble and porphyry brought from Constantinople,
and Jerusalem, and St. Jean d’Acre. Lifting your eyes again to the roof,
you there see domes, and dome upon dome; minarets and carvings in
arabesque, and other rich forms of oriental architecture, with images
and statues innumerable, standing as sentinels on all the cornices and
angles, and in the niches.