Santa Sabina College History Art Tour

Versailles

On April 15th we went to the Palace of Versailles located in northern France. It was originally built as a hunting lodge for Louis XIII. It was then transformed under the guidance if Louis XIV into an immense, extravagant complex surrounded by english and french gardens. The palace was then declared the official royal residents in 1682. Its last resident were Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Versailles contains the palace, the garden and Marie Antoinette's personal hamlet. One of the grandest rooms is the hall of mirrors, which contains 17 wide arcaded mirrors opposite 17 windows.

Within the palace, each room is decorated in a baroque style to represent the king and suit the style of the time. The heavy use of decoration throughout the palace combines mythology, religion, battles, gods and beliefs of the kingdom.

Louis XIV was generally disliked by the kingdom because of his dismissive attitude, lack of compassion, greed and great ambition. Louis XIV had control of the military and religious construction throughout his rule, which lead France into many conflicts and war fare. On September 1st 1715, Europe was glad of his passing due to the extensive conflict created when he was in power.

2 kings later, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were the rulers of France. Generally Louis XVI was a good king. However was manipulated by Marie Antoinette's materialistic desires and greedy tendencies, this lead to the hatred of the royal family. At this time the people of France were living in poverty and decided to revolt against the monarchy as they wanted more, which encouraged the massacre of the royal guards and later Marie Antoinette.

On the 6th of October 1789, Marie Antoinette was awoken to the chant "death to the queen". The crowds flooded inside beginning by killing Marie Antoinette's royal guards. Louis XVI was beheaded with a guillotine and eventually Marie's death followed. This was a very revolutionary time in France because it ended the monarchy and lead to better leadership throughout the nation.

On the whole, Versailles was very informative and provided an inside look on the royal family prior to the french revolution. It challenged, inspired, puzzled and informed us and was an extremely beautiful city to observe.

By the Year 10 Elective History class!

Next on the agenda on Thursday 9 April, was a visit to St Peter's Basilica. We waited in a very long queue for 1.5 hours in the piazza as the day gradually got warmer. The queue went all the way around the piazza. Words can't express the awe one feels when stepping into this amazing space.

First stop on Thursday 9 April was a small Baroque church situated on Via Venti Septembre in Rome called Santa Maria della Vittoria. This church is most famous for Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Unfortunately, as often happens it was covered in scaffolding so here's a photo of what it usually looks like.
The interior of this church is pure Baroque in style.

Glimpses of the Colosseum

Fragments of the Roman Forum on Wednesday 8 April

On Wednesday 8 April we visited our home church Santa Sabina in Rome on the Aventine Hill. It is considered to be the best example of an early Christian church and is the mother church of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). The church is built on the site of the 4th century house of Sabina, Roman matron. Sabina was martyred in 125AD because she had been converted to Christianity by her servant Seraphia. She was later declared a saint.

On our way to Rome on Tuesday 7 April we stopped off at Ostia Antica where our guide Paolo met us. Paolo was highly informative, passionate about his ancient history and very engaging to listen to. The ancient Roman city of Ostia was in antiquity situated at the mouth of the river Tiber, some 30 kms to the west of Rome. The shoreline of the coast, due to silting over several centuries, is now 3 kms from Ostia. Ostia is Latin for "mouth", the mouth of the Tiber. The river was used as a harbour. Ostia may have been Rome's first colony, around 7th Century BC, but the oldest archaeological remains so far discovered date back to only 4th Century BC. The town continued to develop, reaching a peak of between 75,000-100,000 inhabitants in 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Most of the inhabitants were working class. A slow decadence began in the late Roman era around the time of Constantine I, with the town ceasing to be an active port and instead becoming a popular country retreat for rich aristocrats from Rome. With the end of the Roman Empire, Ostia fell slowly into decay and was finally abandoned in the 9the century AD due to the repeated invasions and sackings by Arab pirates. Because the town was abandoned and not built over much of the site remains as it was in Roman times.

After Herculaneum on Monday 6 April we headed into Naples to the Naples Museum

Highlights from Herculaneum on Monday 6 April.
Herculaneum, unlike Pompeii, was deeply deeply enough to preserve the upper stories of buildings. It was a wealthier town than Pompeii for aristocratic families. A pyroclastic surge from the eruption of Vesuvius, formed by a mixture of ash and hot gases, billowed through the evacuated town of Herculaneum at160 km/h where it reached the beach and the boat houses with a wave of heat of 500 degrees, killing instantly the people waiting to be rescued, carbonising organic material thus preserving skeletons

Some highlights of Pompeii on 4 April