During the Middle Ages it formed part of an independent
principality; but in 1531 it fell, by the marriage of one of its
princesses, who had inherited it, into the family of Nassau. I read in my
indispensable Murray that it was made over to France by the treaty of
Utrecht.
The arch of triumph, which stands a little way out of the town, is rather
a pretty than an imposing vestige of the Romans. If it had greater purity
of style, one might say of it that it belonged to the same family of
monuments as the Maison Caree at Nimes. It has three passages--the middle
much higher than the others--and a very elevated attic. The vaults of the
passages are richly sculptured, and the whole monument is covered with
friezes and military trophies. This sculpture is rather mixed; much of it
is broken and defaced, and the rest seemed to me ugly, tho its workmanship
is praised. The arch is at once well preserved and much injured. Its
general mass is there, and as Roman monuments go it is remarkably perfect;
but it has suffered, in patches, from the extremity of restoration. It is
not, on the whole, of absorbing interest.
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