Avenches, near Morat, stands on the site of the Roman city of Aventicum, capital of Helvetia. A single Roman column, part of a Roman temple of Apollo, was long known as 'Le Cicognier' from the generations of storks who built their nests on it. Turner drew it on his first Continental trip in 1802; Byron saw it some years later, and described it in the third canto of 'Childe Harold': 'By a lone wall a lonelier column rears/ A grey and grief-worn aspect of old days'.
Gallery label, May 1992
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