Torre de san felipe. Zaragoza (work "views in spain")in the plaza de san felipe stands a very singular building, used as a belfry, called el torre nuevo, a name now somewhat inappropriate, as it was erected so long ago as the year 1594. It leans in a fearful manner towards a church on the other side of the street, but has hitherto betrayed further tokens of slipping from its foundations, having stood unmoved upwards of two centuries. It is built of brick, curiously ornamented, and has a flight of 280 steps leading to the top. From the upper balcony we observed a group of country people gazing at the noble prospect around them, and looking down upon the throng which had collected in the streets to see the procession of the rosario. At first sight of this curious edifice, the question "how came it so?" instantly occurred to us; but we found it not so easy to obtain a solution, for the critics of zaragoza seem as much divided in opinion as those of pisa; and though their tower is not so old by four centuries, the cause of its declination is involved in equal perplexity. It is not improbable that the foundation may have sunk during its erection, and that the architect carried up the remainder of his work as a triumph of his art, counterbalancing the inferior side, in order to prevent the fabric from oversetting, in the same manner as the antiquaries profess to have discovered in the construction of the pisan tower. Date: 1823.
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