352 THE REPUBLIC OF RAGUSA
with mouldings and a sculptured group of the Virgin and Child in the tympanum. To the right is another group on a font. In the front of the church a platform spreads out, where a portico must formerly have been, as there are the bases of six large piers.
   Of the lay buildings in Ragusa besides the Rector’s Palace we may mention the clock-tower in the Piazza, and the fountain at the Porta Pile. The latter was built by Onofrio of La Cava on the completion of his great aqueduct, and bears the following inscription :—
P. ONOFRIO I. F. ONOSIPHORO PARTHENOPEO EGREGIO N. I.
ARCHTITECTO
MUNICIPES.
   The story of this aqueduct is rather curious. In previous times the city was supplied with water from cisterns, but in 1437 the Government decided to seek for springs in the Gionchetto hills, and invited Onofrio, who was as excellent a hydraulic engineer as he was an architect, to construct it. The sum of 8000 ducats was devoted to the purpose, but before its completion 12,000 were spent. The people began to say that the enterprise such as Onofrio had designed it was impossible, and he was summoned before the magistrates as an impostor. But the evidence of the experts proved favourable to him, and he succeeded in completing the work in the prescribed time. Nothing remained now to be done but to erect a fountain, and the funds were provided by public subscription. Of this monument only the