“A sea
Of glory streams along the Alpine height
Of blue Friuli’s mountains.”
_Childe Harold._
New Roads to Venice--The Pusterthal--Innichen--Dolomite
Mountains--Heiligenblut Kötschach--Kirchbach--Gail
Thal--Hermagor--Ober Tarvis--Predil
Pass--Gorizia--Aquileja--Grado--Udine--Pordenone.
To those who wish to find new roads to old haunts let me recommend the
road to Venice described in this chapter. A more interesting way for any
one who has already travelled through Lombardy to Venice cannot be
desired. It affords a sight not only of charming scenery, primitive
people, and churches of some interest, but gives an opportunity for a
visit to Aquileja, Grado, and Udine, all of them places well worthy to
be known by all lovers of architecture. Leaving the Brenner railway at
Franzensfeste, we made our way first of all to Innichen. Here I found a
very fine Romanesque church which, placed as it is not very far to the
north of the distant mountains which one sees from Venice, and full as
it is of Italian influence in its general design, may well be included
in my notes. It is a cruciform church with a central raised lantern,
three eastern apses, a lofty south-western tower, and a
fifteenth-century narthex in front of the rest of the west end. The nave
is divided from the aisles by columns which are, (1) ten-sided, (2) four
half columns attached to a square, and (3) octagonal. The first and
third are massive columns decreasing rapidly in size from the base to
the capital. The central lantern has an octagonal vault upon very simple
pendentives, and the apses have semi-dome roofs. A fine south doorway
has the emblems of the four Evangelists, sculptured around Our Lord in
the tympanum. Innichen is a small and unimportant village, but boasts, I
think, of no less than five churches; and fine as is the mother-church,
I suppose most travellers would agree with me in thinking the background
of mountains to the south of it, the most delightful feature of the
place. Truly I know few things more lovely than the evening view of the
church and village, with the tall fantastic peaks of the Dolomite Drei
Schuster behind, lighted up with the glowing brilliancy which is so
characteristic a result of the Dolomite formation, by the last rays of
the setting sun. Below all was gloomy, dark, and shaded; above the whole
series of towering peaks seemed to be on fire, and most unearthly did
they look. The attraction of such sights as I had seen before compelled
me to give a day to an excursion southwards to the Kreuzberg pass, to
have a glimpse, at any rate, of the Auronzo Dolomites, and I had no
reason to repent the day so spent.
Leaving Innichen and going eastward, we went first to Lienz; then, after
a _détour_ to Heiligenblut, we crossed from the Pusterthal to the Gail
Thal, and from thence across the Predil pass to the Adriatic at Gorizia.
From Innichen till we reached the Italian sea-board, we saw and were
much interested in a series of churches, generally of the fifteenth
century, and all built apparently by the same school of German
architects. They are small mountain churches, and are mainly remarkable
for the complicated and ingenious character of their groined roofs. They
have usually aisles, columns without capitals, and no distinct arches
between them, but only vaulting-ribs. The panels between the ribs are
often ornamented with slightly sunk quatrefoils, or in some cases
regularly filled with tracery.
One of the best of these churches is that at Heiligenblut, in Carinthia.
Here, where the main object of every one is the exploration of the
mountains grouped around the beautiful snow-peak of the Gross-Glockner,
it is not a little pleasant to find again, as at Innichen, a remarkable
church just opposite the inn-door. This was built as a pilgrimage church
to contain a phial of the sacred blood, and is extremely interesting
architecturally as a church, built with a regular system of stone
constructional galleries round the north, south, and west sides of the
nave. The aisles are narrow and divided into two stages in height--both
groined--and the upper no doubt intended for a throng of people to stand
in, and see the functions below. Now, however, just as in most modern
galleries, raised tiers of seats are formed in them, and their effect is
destroyed. A pretty Retable at the end of the north gallery suggests
that originally perhaps they were built in part to make room for side
altars, but this was clearly not the primary object. The fronts of the
galleries are covered with paintings of no merit, which illustrate the
beautiful legend of S. Briccius, who is said to have brought the phial
of blood from the East, and to have perished with it in the snow just
above Heiligenblut. There is a crypt under the choir, entered by a
flight of steps descending from the nave; a grand Sakramentshaus north
of the chancel where the holy blood is kept (not over the altar); and
there is a lofty gabled tower and spire on the north side of the
chancel, whose pretty outline adds not a little to the picturesqueness
of the village.
From Heiligenblut, looking at churches by the same hands on the way at
S. Martin Pockhorn and Winklern, we made our way back to Lienz, and
thence, crossing the mountains, descended on Kötschach in the Gail
Thal, passing a good church on the road at S. Daniel.
Kötschach is in one of the most charming situations for any one who can
enjoy mountains of extreme beauty of outline, even though they are not
covered with snow to their base, nor are more than some nine thousand
feet in height. To me this pastoral Gail Thal, with its green fields,
green mountain sides, wholesome air, and occasional grand views of
Dolomite crags, among which the Polinik and Kollin Kofel are the finest
peaks, is one of the most delightful bits of country I have ever seen.
At Kötschach the architectural feature is a fine lofty gabled steeple
with an octagonal spire. It is very remarkable how German these Germans
are! Here, close to the Italian Alps, we have a design identical with
those of the fine steeples of Lübeck, and as vigorously Teutonic and
unlike Italian work as anything can possibly be.
From Kötschach a pleasant road runs down the valley to Hermagor, another
charming little town beautifully placed, and with--no small
attraction--a capital hostelry. On the road, at Kirchbach, the drivers
of the country waggons in which we were travelling pulled up their
horses, to my no small delight, in front of a most interesting mediæval
churchyard-gate; this is a simple archway overshadowed by a shingled
pent-house roof, to whose kindly guardianship we owe it that a
fifteenth-century painting of S. Martin dividing his cloak with the
beggar, and several saints under craftily-painted canopies, are still in
fair preservation on the wayside gate, making one of the most lovely
pictures possible on the road.
At Hermagor, where the grand and massive mountain range of the Dobratsch
to the east, and the Gartner Kogel to the west, give never-failing
pleasure to the eyes whichever way they turn, there is another fine
church, very much of the same character as that at Heiligenblut, but
without galleries.
Between Hermagor and Ober Tarvis the churches are not important, but one
in the village of S. Paul has the unusual feature of a cornice under the
external eaves effectively painted in the fifteenth century, with
elaborate and very German traceries in red and buff, which are still
fairly perfect.
At Ober Tarvis the Predil Pass is reached; and starting from thence in
the morning, passing on the ascent the pretty Raibl See, and on the
descent some of the most stupendous and aweful rocky precipices I have
ever seen, we reached Flitsch to sleep, and on the following afternoon
emerged from the mountains at Gorizia, not far from the head of the
Adriatic, after a long and beautiful drive down the valley of the
Isonzo.
I found absolutely nothing old to see here. It is a smart town, in which
the hand of the improver has been particularly busy in the work of
destruction; but it is the most convenient starting-place for a visit to
Aquileja and Grado, and provides good horses and vehicles.
It is a drive of about a couple of hours from Gorizia to Aquileja. The
country is perfectly flat, but teeming with vegetation, and it is not
until the end of the journey is reached that one realizes under what
baleful conditions life or existence is endured here. A Roman capital
and a fragment or two of Roman columns or mouldings are all that one
sees at first to show that one is driving into one of the greatest of
the old Roman seaports. Here, where before its destruction by Attila in
A.D. 452 the population is said to have been about a hundred thousand in
number, there are now only a few poor houses, and a sparse population,
pauperized and invalided by fever and swamps on every side, whilst the
sea has retreated some three miles, and left the place to its misery
without any of the compensating gains of commerce. Certainly Torcello is
a degree more wretched and deserted, but these two old cities have few
compeers in misery, and I advise no one but an antiquary to make the
pilgrimage to Aquileja, who is not quite prepared to tolerate dirt,
misery, and wretchedness with nothing to redeem them.
[Illustration: PATRIARCH’S THRONE.--AQUILEJA.]
The one great interest in the city now is the cathedral. This is a great
cruciform basilica, with a central and two small apses east of the
transept, and eleven arches between the nave and aisles. The
arrangements of the apse are interesting; two flights of steps lead up
to it from the nave, and in the centre of the east wall is the
patriarch’s throne of white marble, well raised on a platform above the
seat which goes round the apse. The whole arrangement is singularly well
preserved, and looks very well in spite of the destruction of most of
the mosaic pavement with which originally no doubt the floor was laid,
of which only a few tesseræ now remain, and in spite also of the
modernization of the rest of the apse. This throne appeared to me to be
not earlier than circa 1150, though the church is said to have been
built between 1019 and 1042. These dates must, I think, be taken with
large allowance for alterations. With the exception of the apse and the
crypt under it, I believe the greater part of the church was rebuilt in
the fourteenth century; for though the Roman capitals (which were
everywhere ready to the hand) were used on the ancient columns, the
arches carried by them are pointed, and the clerestory is evidently of
the same age. This combination of Classic columns and sculpture with
pointed arches is so very unusual, that it is quite worth while to give
an illustration of the interior. The columns, capitals, and bases are of
varied shapes and sizes, and evidently a mere collection of old
materials which happened to be handy for the builder’s use; the arches
are rudely moulded, and the clerestory of cinquefoiled windows, each of
a single light, is as insignificant as possible, and yet withal there is
so grand an area inclosed that the effect is good and impressive. The
nave is divided from its aisles by eleven arches on each side, and
measures about one hundred and fifty feet in length, by one hundred and
five in width. The aisle roofs are modern, but the nave still retains
its old roof, a fine example of a cusped ceiling, boarded and panelled
in small square panels. The whole of this ceiling is painted, and with
extremely good effect, though the only colours used are black, white,
and brownish yellow. Each panel is filled with a small painted hexagon
filled with tracery painted in black and white, and all the ribs and
leading lines are yellow and black. The purlines, which are arranged so
as to form the points of the cusps, are very decidedly marked with
black. Simple as the treatment is, the effect is admirable, and it
appeared to me
[Illustration: 35. DUOMO. AQUILEJA. p. 244.]
to be owing to the large amount of white in the panels. Near the west
end of the north aisle is a singular circular erection, which is said by
the cicerone to be the receptacle for the holy oil, but which without
this information I should have taken for the baptistery. It is a
perfectly plain circular mass of stonework about fifteen feet across,
with a doorway on the west side, a moulded base and cornice, and above
the latter a series of detached shafts carrying a second cornice of
marble. A square projection on the north side abuts against the aisle
wall, and seems to have been the special receptacle for the vessel which
held the oil. At present it seems to be as little used and understood by
the people of Aquileja as it would probably be if it were in some
country beyond the Roman pale; a remark by the way on old church
arrangements which one finds oneself making almost everywhere, when one
contrasts the intentions of the old builders with the uses to which more
modern ideas--reformed or deformed, whichever they may be--are in the
habit of applying them.
At Aquileja the appropriation of pagan fragments was carried so far that
we found Classic capitals doing service as holy-water stoups.
The interior of the eastern part of the church is more interesting than
that of the nave. It is all probably of the original foundation, and
retains most of the old arrangements. The floor of the choir is raised
some ten or twelve steps, with two flights of steps on each side of the
centre. At the top of these steps, projecting sideways into the
transepts, are tribunes with open balustrades which seem to have served
as ambons. The apse has two rows of seats, with the patriarch’s seat
raised in the centre, and the altar stands in front of this on the chord
of the apse. It is curious that this, which is an apse internally, is a
square projection from the transept externally.
A descent on each side under the tribunes leads to the crypt under the
raised choir. This is very small, but is divided into three aisles in
width, and four bays in length. The central space is screened round
jealously with close grilles reaching from floor to vault, so as to
protect the shrine of S. Hermacora, which occupies the centre. But
little light steals into this crypt, and that little has to find its way
between rank weeds which grow up round the windows; but there is quite
enough to reveal vaults covered with paintings of subjects, and to show
as picturesque and beautiful an _ensemble_ as one need wish to see.
Kneeling desks were placed round the shrine, but the cultus of S.
Hermacora seems to be no longer popular, and the only pilgrims are
curious visitors like ourselves. The paintings on the groining appeared
to me to be of not earlier date than the fourteenth century, and are
very cleverly contrived to suit the early vaults.
The transepts remain to be mentioned. Each has a small eastern apse near
the extreme end, and a tomb or shrine between this apse and the
choir-tribune. These are of the thirteenth century, and are enormous
blocks of stone, panelled and carved in front, and supported on four
detached shafts. In the south transept there are fragments of a
Byzantine screen round the altar in the small apse, which are of rare
beauty and intricacy. The screen consisted of a solid base, breast-high,
covered with carving, and upon which columns stood originally at
intervals of six feet, just as in the screen at Torcello, of which I
have given a view.
There is an early painting of Our Lord, seated on a throne in the semi
dome of this apse, and there are remains of an early wall-painting in
the choir-apse, partly covered by a fifteenth-century picture in a good
frame. The choir stalls are of elaborate intarsiatura work, and date
from the end of the sixteenth century.
A little way to the north of the church stands its campanile, a tall
plain mass of masonry, with the date MDXLVIIII. on the upper stage, and
the inscription “_Tadeus Luranus hoc o. fecit_.” It is worth the climb
to the top to get the view over the flat surrounding country, which
reveals what one fails to see from the dead level of the road, that the
Adriatic is not far off--far enough, it is true, to have ruined the port
of Aquileja--but so near as to be a very important element in the fine
prospect. From here we saw through the haze the island of Grado, on
which I cast longing eyes in vain. My information as to the distance had
been all at fault, and I thought that in a long day from Gorizia, I
might see both Aquileja and Grado. This is, however, quite impossible,
as the boatmen required, they said, three hours for the _trajet_ each
way. It was a misfortune to miss the church at Grado, which contains
much that is worth seeing, and has considerable historical interest, as
the seat of a patriarch, whose jurisdiction included Malamocco, Venice,
Torcello, and Chioggia--and whose importance is vouched for by its old
titles, “Venetæ oræ Istriæque Ecclesiarum caput et mater,” and “Aquileja
nova.”
The patriarch’s throne and the ambon or pulpit, which still remain in
the church at Grado, are evidently extremely fine examples of Byzantine
furniture. The former corresponds with that of Aquileja, but has the
rare addition of a flat canopy or tester supported in front by two
columns, which rest on the side walls of the steps leading up to the
seat. Probably there was a similar canopy at Aquileja. The dignity of
the patriarchal throne is not a little increased by the addition, simple
as it is in its decorative features. The pulpit is even more striking;
it is six-sided, all the sides being arranged in a series of bold
circular projections, with sculptures of the Evangelistic emblems on
their face. The pulpit is supported by a central shaft, and six smaller
columns alternately plain and spiral, and above the pulpit a series of
octagonal shafts are provided to support a canopy or dome over the head
of the preacher. These columns carry arches which are of the common
Venetian ogee trefoil outline, and, there can be little doubt, are later
than the pulpit. The combination is, however, very picturesque, and not
the less interesting in that it has a most strangely Eastern look.[59]
The rest of my party went, whilst I was sketching in the cathedral at
Aquileja, to look at the baptistery. They reported it to be as
completely modernized inside as it certainly is outside, and so I failed
to enter it. I believe I lost nothing, though at one time it was well
worthy of a visit.
A rapid drive back to Gorizia was made with the advantage of a view of
the mountains before us all the way; and we arrived in time to avail
ourselves of the last train to Udine, which we did not reach until after
dark.
I arrived here in entire ignorance of what might be in store for me in
the way of my art. I had seen no drawings of any of its buildings, and I
suspect that most of my readers are in the same state of ignorance. It
was with no little pleasure, therefore, that my earliest stroll in the
morning brought me to a Palazzo Publico, which if not exactly
magnificent in scale is at least very important, and has the special
merit in my eyes of being all Gothic, and almost unaltered on the
outside since its erection. It stands in a piazza which some sixteenth
or seventeenth century scenic architect has treated with considerable
skill. One or two public buildings and a steep hill behind them have
been dealt with in such a way as to call to mind such a disposition of
buildings as one sees, e.g., on the Capitol at Rome, and no doubt so as
to increase very much the apparent importance
[Illustration: 36. PALAZZO PUBLICO. UDINE. p. 248]
[Illustration: 37. PALAZZO PUBLICO. UDINE. p. 249.]
of this little city. The Palazzo Publico is a building of two stages in
height, the lower entirely open with pointed arches resting on columns,
and the upper presenting on its principal front a large balconied
window, or Ringhiera, in the centre, and smaller windows on each side of
it, and at the ends. The cornice and roof are modern, otherwise the
whole design is intact, and exactly in the state in which its architect
left it. The character of the design is clearly Venetian, and the date
about the beginning of the fifteenth century, but still it is not
slavishly Venetian as the houses of Vicenza are, but on the face of it
the work of a local architect who knew enough of what was being done in
Venice to profit by it without absolutely copying.
The lower or ground story is open on three sides, and has ten arches in
front, and five at each end. The space inclosed is irregularly divided
by a longitudinal line of columns, carrying semicircular arches, which
support the walls of the rooms above, the access to which is by a
modernized staircase in the rear. The materials of the walls are
generally red and white marble. The balustrades between the columns and
the staircases leading to them are so good and complete as well to
deserve illustration. The upper part of these, including the cusped
heads to the openings, is of white marble, whilst the shafts are
alternately of the same material and of serpentine. The upper story is
modernized within; but one learns to be grateful for small mercies, and
it was certainly with every feeling of gratitude to later architects
that I sketched this really beautiful building, which they have been
good enough to leave so nearly unaltered on the outside.
The state of the cathedral is less a subject for thankfulness! The whole
building has been completely modernized within and without, with the
exception of the west front and the lower. The former was the façade to
a nave with two aisles on either side, or perhaps with one aisle and
chapels beyond. All the roofs are of the same flat pitch, and stepped
regularly so as to give a broken and bad outline to the mass. The work
is mainly of brick, with some good detail in the windows of the outer
aisles, of which I give an illustration. The west doorway is of the
fourteenth century, with a very steep crocketed gable between pinnacles,
and a badly sculptured tympanum with a curious assortment of subjects;
in the centre the Crucifixion, right and left of this the Resurrection
and an Agnus Dei, and above it the Nativity. Three circular windows
light the three centre divisions of the front, and the two lower are
connected by a broad band of brick arches which crosses the entire front
just below the central circular window. There is not a word to be said
in favour of such a design. It _is_ old, and that is its only virtue!
[Illustration: AISLE WINDOWS--DUOMO, UDINE.]
[Illustration: 38. DUOMO. UDINE. p. 250.]
The tower is more interesting, though it is only an incomplete fragment.
The lower stage is of stone built in dark and light courses, with a
large sunk recess on each side. On the west side is a fine doorway built
of alternate courses of white marble and serpentine, and there are small
circular windows in the cardinal sides just above the lowest stage.
Above these the whole is a plain mass of brickwork, of which a very
small portion only seems to be original. This tower is no less than
fifty-two feet in outside diameter, and its lowest stage is finely
groined, with no provision for the passage of bells. It might almost as
well have been intended for a baptistery as for a tower! It stands close
to the north side of the choir, and by its side is a rather fine doorway
leading into the transept, with a good deal of late Gothic sculpture and
architectural detail. There are niches and figures in the jambs and
round the arch, the Coronation of the Virgin under the latter, and
figures of the Annunciation stuck against the wall on either side in a
very haphazard fashion. The strange contrast in style between these two
doorways will be seen in the illustration which I give. Here we have,
side by side, examples of the most pronounced kind of two national
styles of Gothic; the door into the tower being as clearly Italian in
its beautiful colour and refined simplicity, as that into the church is
German in its cleverness, want of repose, and hard angularity of detail.
The only other old churches I could find in Udine were San Giacomo and
that of the Ospidale. The former is modernized, but retains an early
square brick belfry, arcaded below, and with simple pointed windows of
two lights above. The church of the Ospidale is also modernized. The
façade has a gable with an old brick eaves-arcade, and the only too
common feature of a large circular window inclosed within a square
border.
A picturesque Renaissance well-canopy (dated 1487) over the Fonte di
San Giovanni was the only other feature I could find worth sketching or
making a note of; and having seen everything, I took the railway on
again to Venice.
The views of the Friulan Alps, under which one travels for some
distance, are very exquisite. We passed Conegliano, where I once left
the railway for a journey through the heart of the Dolomite country to
Cortina d’Ampezzo, and, to my regret, hurried past Pordenone, having
forgotten that at any rate a tall brick campanile was there, which
seemed to promise some reward to the visitor. It is of plain arcaded
brickwork below, and the upper stage is slightly battered out with very
tall machicoulis, from within the parapet of which a smaller octagonal
stage rises, covered with a low spire. The whole composition as one sees
it from the railway is unusual and very good, and recalls just a little
the campanile of the Palazzo Publico at Siena.