while we were studying the architecture women were constantly bringing
their Easter cakes and other food to be blessed at the altar of S.
Maurus in the north aisle. Later there was a Resurrection service with a
fine procession, with many men and boys robed in scarlet carrying long
candles. A crucifer in purple bore the capitular cross, followed by
canons in violet and other officials, the bishop's coachman in a long
blue buttoned coat, two little acolytes in surplices, with cloths
embroidered with crosses on their shoulders and censers, deacons in
dalmatics of cloth of gold, a suffragan bishop in cope of cloth of gold
and a white mitre, and the bishop similarly robed. A large painted flag
of red silk was carried in the procession, and two small painted figures
of our Lord, one on the cross, and the other, a half-length, emergent
from the tomb. The bishop, fully robed, went first into the capitular
chapel and then to the chapel of the Holy Sacrament, where the dead
Christ was laid out in a tomb, took the Host and brought it out, being
then bareheaded beneath a canopy. The procession then filed out into the
atrium, leaving it by the bishop's door at the side of the baptistery,
and, passing through the street, regained the atrium by the usual
entrance. The Host was then placed on the high-altar, and a kind of
benediction service held, in which a fine bass sang several solos. The
church was thronged by a devout crowd of both sexes and all classes.
The city was called "Julia Parentium" under the Romans, from the colony
of legionaries sent by Augustus. The tribute to Rome was as much as that
paid by Pola, the capital of the province. There were temples to Mars
and Neptune, of which there are some remains, drums of a few of the
columns and a portion of the podium and steps, now used as the lower
courses of poor houses. The buildings were destroyed in the fifteenth
century, the materials being used to construct the quay. The main street
leading from this part of the town to the Porta a Terra may be the Via
Decumana of a Roman camp. The site of the amphitheatre is indicated by
the curved line of the houses built on its foundations, but there are no
remains of Roman work visible. Reliefs of the tenth century are
encrusted in the wall of a house on the site of the ancient church of S.
Peter; and the Casa dei Santi in the Via Predol, which probably occupies
part of the area of the convent and church of S. Cassiano, has two
figures on brackets between the windows of the first floor, apparently
late eleventh-century work. The Canonica, built in 1251, a fine piece of
Romanesque domestic architecture, has six two-light windows on the first
floor, and shell-headed niches round the door, with a cross and
inscriptions. It was burnt in 1488, and in the eighteenth century was
converted by the chapter into a store for the tithes of wine, corn,
oil, and fruit, but has been restored, together with the adjoining
entrance to the atrium. There are several Venetian palaces in the main
street. One, of the fourteenth century, is especially fine. It has big
cable string-courses and brackets of lions' heads and necks, and a large
and imposing window on the first floor.
There have been three enceintes: (_a_) Roman; (_b_) that completed about
1250 under Patriarch Warner of Gillach; (_c_) a third commenced in the
fifteenth century on the same lines, but a little larger. In the
eighteenth century the circuit of the walls was about a mile. There were
two principal gates--the Porta a Mare and the Porta a Terra--and two
posterns made for the convenience of the inhabitants. The city was
divided into four _Rioni_--Pusterla, Porta Nuova, Marafor, and Predol.
The existing square tower flanking the Porta a Terra was erected in 1447
under Nicolò Lion; he signs it with initials, and there is a coat of
arms beneath the panel of the lion of S. Mark. At the bottom of the
frame are the date and an inscription giving the name of the architect,
"Mag. Johannes de Pari Tergestinus," and of his son Lazarus, the
sculptor. His name occurs on the architrave of the rebuilt church of S.
John the Baptist of Volciana on the Carso, with the date 1429. The round
tower dates from after the incursion of the Turks into the Carso in
1470, built under Pietro da Mula, 1474. On the Porta della Campana the
length of the dagger which was allowed is marked, and the town still
preserves one of the "Bocche de' leoni" which were used for secret
denunciations. The communal palace was built in 1270, one year before
Parenzo gave herself to Venice. Games of cards and dice were allowed
under its portico and in the loggia, where the players were under the
eyes of the guards.
During the latter half of the thirteenth century Parenzo was in
constant contest with her bishop, resisting the financial demands of the
ecclesiastical authority with threats and violence. A podestà, at the
head of the people, broke into the cathedral, burst open the treasury,
and seized the precious objects. In 1270 Marco Michiel, in the name of
the commune, forbad the citizens to pay tithe, proclaimed liberty of
fishing and pasturage, and took possession of several of the church
properties, saying that they had returned to those to whom they properly
belonged. In 1278 Bishop Otho excommunicated them for refusing to pay
tithe, and because of a rising, in which the palace was invaded and all
the authentic privileges and documents thrown into the sea; but the
citizens were the stronger, and bishop and canons were driven away from
the city. In 1280 there was a delimitation of the land belonging to
church and commune. The next bishop, Boniface, renewed the episcopal
pretensions denying freehold to both commune and individual citizens.
The podestà, Jacopo Soranzo, the commune, and citizens were so enraged
that the bishop, in fear of his life, fled to Rovigno, and from thence
to Venice. The podestà lodged soldiers in his palace during the war; and
in 1284 Boniface fulminated a comprehensive excommunication from Venice
against podestà and city. Matters were arranged and he returned to
Parenzo, but only to renew his claims. In 1293 the podestà, Jacopo
Querini, was disputing with him over a feud at Cervera which he claimed,
though it had been in the possession of others for eighty years, and
both lost their tempers. The podestà turned to the bishop and said: "I
promise you that when my term of office is over I will do you all the
harm I can, both publicly and privately; and I pray God and His saints
to let me live long enough to see with my own eyes the prophecies
fulfilled of the destruction of the Church of Rome, for one may well
see that the time is near." On September 14, 1296, the podestà, Giovanni
Soranzo, attacked the bishop's palace at the head of the armed populace,
intending, as the bishop asserted, to kill him. The prelate took refuge
in the Franciscan convent, and escaped by ship to Pirano. Thence he went
again to Venice, and excommunicated the whole of his opponents. The
podestà threatened to cut off hand and foot from whoever published or
executed the ban; and Boniface ordered the _prepositum_ of Pisino to
send it to the clergy, which was done next year, but without the desired
effect. He acted in the same way with other podestàs, and was often
absent from his seat in consequence, thus incurring reproofs from the
patriarchs Raimondo and Pietro Gerra. The latter went so far as to
attack and destroy the castle of Orsera, where the bishop took refuge.
The people of Parenzo now are more concerned with developing their
commerce than with insisting upon their rights, and the quay presents a
busy scene when the wine-boats are lading. The casks are so large that
two are a load for a yoke of oxen. The cart has sloping sides, and a bed
of fresh-cut boughs and hay acts as springs. One of the sides of the
cart (of wicker or staves) is removed at the quay, and the casks are
rolled down an inclined plane. There were much excitement and some
danger as the lumbering weight was turned at right angles to its former
course, which was towards the water. The fishermen were busy too; they
catch spider-crabs with long spears ending in five prongs, at right
angles to the shaft, and forming a kind of cage, which the crabs find it
difficult to negotiate when they are raked out of the crannies of the
rocks. There was a semi-lunar implement in the boats also, with four
internal prongs, at the end of a long shaft, used for catching
cuttle-fish.
At the hotel in which we stayed on our first visit there was a
green-and-yellow parrot which was very tame. His accomplishments
included the saying "Marietta, padrona, and hello" quite clearly,
singing and laughing. Its mistress made it flirt with a highly coloured
young lady on a poster in a very diverting fashion. At Fiume we saw two
parrots of the same kind on perches outside a shop; and my friend,
recollecting the friendly bird at Parenzo, made overtures to them, which
were not received in the proper spirit, and I am sorry to say that his
finger was sore for days after.
There is record of a joust held at Parenzo as late as February 14, 1745.
There must have been diverting incidents on that occasion, since the
combatants contended with unfamiliar weapons which had been long out of
use!
Parenzo is poor in records of craftsmen, and its only artist of repute
is Bernardo of Parenzo, who was much employed in his day; pictures by
him are preserved in the Accademia at Venice, the Doria Gallery, Rome,
in the Louvre, and at Modena. He studied at Padua with Mantegna, under
Squarcione, and executed frescoes and chiaroscuro arabesques in the
cloister of S. Giustina in that city. When the Austrians converted the
convent to military uses the paintings were plastered over, and,
although again uncovered in 1895, they were found to be in a much
damaged condition. Bernardo died in 1531.
X
TO POLA BY SEA
From Parenzo Pola may be reached either by land or sea, the latter being
the more convenient way. The only place of importance passed is Rovigno,
though the Canal di Leme, an arm of the sea 7-½ miles long, from 70 to
100 ft. deep, and some 500 yds. broad, which affords accommodation for
much more shipping than ever makes use of it, leads up towards Due
Castelli, now ruinous, but at one time a thriving and important town. On
the way, near Orsera, the little island of "Scoglio Orlandino" is
passed, rocky and divided into two portions by a chasm or crack. Legend
says that Orlando, passing that way, made a slash at it and left it as
it now is.
Rovigno is thought to be the ancient Arupenum or Rubinum, but is first
mentioned by the anonymous Ravennese chronicler, and was probably
founded in the third or fourth century. In the walls of the principal
church are fragments of sixth-century work. There is a tradition that it
was founded when Cissa sank into the sea in the seventh century. The
site of this city was near the modern lighthouse, and remains of its
buildings are believed to be recognisable beneath the water at the point
called Barbariga, on the further side of the Bay of S. Pelagio. The
large beds of murex shells in certain places are an indication that
there were purple dye-works here, an industry for which Cissa was
celebrated. Rovigno is situated upon a rock, and was surrounded with
walls. Within their area the houses, as seen from the sea or from the
railway station behind the town, seem to be piled one over the other,
and culminate very picturesquely in the campanile at the top. Beyond the
railway station on the Bay of S. Pelagio are the Berlin aquarium for the
study of the marine fauna of the Adriatic, and a sanatorium for
scrofulous children, opened in 1888. The neighbourhood being
fever-stricken the peasants live in the city, going and returning to
their work morning and evening. Their Sunday costume consists of
ornamented leather shoes, tight white hose of wool, a broad-sleeved
white shirt with a frill in front, dark waistcoat, and flat black cap.
They have the curious custom of wearing one large earring in the left
ear. Rovigno is a good market for wine--considered the best in
Istria--olives, sardines, and hazel-nuts which are reputed the finest in
the world. Consequently, amongst the inhabitants are many merchants, and
the fishers' guild is very numerous; but the steep streets are narrow
and, in wet weather, noisome, and the children do not look as healthy as
in many other places. During our stay we saw two funerals in the
_Colleggiata_ within a few hours, both attended by a red-robed
confraternity which included boys and men. The spectacle in the
darkening nave (for it was late afternoon) of the two rows of red-robed
figures holding lighted tapers, with two or three ensigns or symbols in
the background, was impressive, but marred by atrocious singing. The
officiating priest was a fine man; and, as the cortège departed to the
cemetery just below the church on the seaward side, there was an
impression of solemnity which is often lacking in English funerals. A
few late Venetian palaces, with fine loggias at the top to catch the
sea-breezes, show above the other houses, and the arch between the
fish-market and the Piazza S. Damiano, erected in 1680 under Daniele
Balbi, still stands, with the Venetian lion holding a book proudly
inscribed: "Victoria tibi Marce Evangelista meus"; but the walls have
entirely disappeared, with the exception of one ruinous tower, the
"Torre del Boraso," which has been in that state since the sixteenth
century. At the beginning of the fourteenth century it belonged to the
bishop of Pola; the Colleggio dei Cinque Savi acquired it in 1332, and
ordered its occupation by the captain of the Pasenatico and the podestà
of Rovigno, asking whether it was best to preserve or destroy it, the
former course being determined on.
A curious heptagonal building, the Oratory of the Trinity, which stands
some distance outside the ancient walls, appears to be rather early in
date. It has a polygonal drum rising from the roof of the lower portion,
and two curious little pierced and carved windows about three feet high;
one of them is too much broken to make out the design. The other has a
crucifix with half-length figures, and consecration cross among the
piercings, very roughly cut. The head is slightly pointed. The
_Colleggiata_ has been rebuilt in late Renaissance style; and the
campanile, crowned by a figure of S. Eufemia, the patron saint of the
town, is a copy of that of S. Mark's, Venice. The chapel to the right of
the high-altar contains the shrine of the saint, a large unfinished
sarcophagus of Greek marble. It has two arches on the side with figures
scarcely begun, and an octagonal tablet with curved sides in the middle.
The legend is that the body of the saint floated over the waves in the
great sarcophagus, and was driven by a storm into a little inlet called
the "Armo di S. Eufemia," a short way from the pier, where a square
pillar with an inscription of 1720 and the communal arms marks the place
where it grounded. Some fishers who went out at dawn were attracted by
the miraculous light which shone around it. Several days passed before
the heavy sarcophagus could be moved. A certain pious widow, with the
suggestive name of "Astuta," had a dream, as a consequence of which a
pair of bullocks was yoked to it by her little son, and so it went up
the hill to the summit at such a rate as to run over one of the
bystanders, who was nearly killed, and fainted. When he revived he
revealed the name of the saint, and her bones were found within the
sarcophagus together with the history of her martyrdom. From that time
the hill has had the name of S. Eufemia. The relics were taken by the
Genoese in 1380 and carried to Chioggia. The Venetians rescued them,
but carried them to S. Canciano, Venice, where they stayed for thirty
years. On their return to Rovigno in 1410 a storm drove the ship to the
salt-works in the Canal di Leme, where certain cattle-boats were
sheltering. The cattle jumped into the water and danced round the ship!
So, at least, a manuscript in the capitular archives relates. Scenes
from this legend are painted on the walls of the chapel. In the sacristy
is a fourteenth or fifteenth-century picture on a gold ground--a figure
of S. John the Baptist, with incidents from his life. It came from a
church dedicated to him which was destroyed in 1839.
[Illustration: SARCOPHAGUS OF S. EUFEMIA, ROVIGNO]
Rovigno and the neighbourhood have suffered much from piracy. In 965 the
Slavs sacked the city. Into the harbour the Uscocs entered one night at
the beginning of 1597, and sacked a galley and ten ships laden with rich
merchandise belonging to Venice. In the port of Vestre (the birthplace
of Maximian of Ravenna), about three miles from Rovigno, an Uscoc ship,
with 150 men, attacked a ship of Cattaro which carried letters from the
doge of Venice, 6,000 ducats of public money and 4,000 of private, with
valuable merchandise. They took everything and also stripped the other
Venetian ships in the harbour, leaving the sailors nothing but their
shirts!
The Canal of Fasana, between the Brioni Islands and the mainland, a
little to the south, was the scene of the crushing defeat of the
Venetians by the Genoese in 1379. The quarries in these islands,
together with those of Rovigno, provided stone for the ducal and other
palaces, the Procuratie at Venice, the _murazzi_ at Chioggia, and the
mole at Malamocco. It is but a short distance hence to the entrance to
the magnificent harbour of Pola.
Craftsmen of Rovigno have made the name of the town celebrated, such as
the sculptors Lorenzo and Antonio del Vescovo, who worked in 1468 at
the Camaldulan church of Murano, and Taddeo da Rovigno, who did much
decorative carving in Venetian palaces. A more distinguished man was Fra
Sebastiano da Rovigno, the lame Slavonian (il Zoppo Schiavone), the
teacher of the still more celebrated _intarsiatore_, Fra Damiano of
Bergamo. Some of his works are in the choir and sacristy of S. Mark's,
Venice. The name of Donato of Parenzo is also coupled with these
Rovignese craftsmen.
[Illustration: AN ISTRIAN FARM-HOUSE
_To face page 133_]
XI
TO POLA BY LAND
One Easter Sunday we drove in lovely weather from Parenzo to S. Lorenzo
in Pasenatico, and on to Canfanaro. By the road we passed every now and
then farmers' houses, such as the one illustrated, and met groups of
peasants going into Parenzo to the _festa_. As we got further from the
city the men were collected in groups, talking, smoking, or playing
bowls; whilst the women also by themselves, in knots of as many as
twenty, were seated together enjoying a gossip. The landscape was
pleasant, but rather featureless, except for the bulk of Monte Maggiore
blue to the south-east. We reached S. Lorenzo at the moment of the
elevation of the Host, and found the ancient basilica crowded with
worshippers, while several men knelt with rosary in clasped hands
outside the open doors, their eyes fixed intently upon the altar. After
a time the congregation poured out, dressed in most picturesque
costumes, and evidently found our appearance quite as interesting and
strange as we found theirs. The men had one big earring (as at Rovigno),
and wore white shirts with full sleeves, sometimes embroidered, hose of
woven wool, a jacket hung loosely over the shoulders, and a little black
cap on the head. The women had full skirts of beautiful tertiary
colours, rows of coral round their necks, and large silver-gilt
brooches, and rosette ornaments on their breasts with chains attached.
On their heads, tied round the base of the skull, they had white
handkerchiefs, sometimes with ornamented borders. Over the bodice a kind
of loose waistcoat was worn.
The church is a basilica with nave and aisles, all terminated by
semicircular apses, with an arcade of nine arches of unequal width,
owing perhaps partly to the obliquity of the west wall, itself caused by
the close proximity of the palace of the Count, which was still in
existence till 1833. The three easternmost bays are enclosed as
presbytery, and this and other alterations are the work of the
seventeenth century; but two of the original pierced window-slabs are
still in position in the side apses, traces of the small clerestory
windows are visible, and in a wall to the left of the façade are
encrusted several fragments of carving which apparently formed part of
the original chancel of the ninth or early tenth century. The style of
the caps of the nave arcade, the irregularity in their size, and in that
of the plain super-abaci above them, also point to the same period. The
apses have shallow arcading outside; the campanile is an addition built
on to the tower of one of the town gates, the exterior arch of which is
stopped; about the height of the nave cornice two great brackets
project. Another of the wall-towers near at hand still retains the
staircase by which it was ascended. Along the south wall of the church
runs a loggia supported on slender columns, and in the piazza in front
is the base of the flagstaff which once supported the standard of S.
Mark. A gateway with a very pointed arch at the bottom of this piazza
forms the entrance to the town. The walls are all of the early Venetian
period, and a well-head ordered to be carved in 1331 by Giovanni
Contarini has a rampant winged lion half-length, crowned and nimbed, and
with a closed book.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE BASILICA, SAN LORENZO IN PASENATICO
_To face page 134_]
The city swore fealty to Venice in 1271, and became in 1304 the seat of
the captain of the Pasenatico, an officer who had charge of the
fortresses and town walls throughout Istria, and the duty of enlisting
foot soldiers, sailors, and oarsmen. Marco Soranzo was the first
captain. Fifty-two years after his time a second captaincy was created
in Umago, afterwards transferred to Grisignana. At some time between
1312 and 1328 Marino Faliero was governor here. In 1394 the captaincy
was removed to Raspo, and subsequently to Pinguente. In 1595 it was
given to the podestà and captain of Capodistria, except as regarded
Pirano.
The church is said to contain the bodies of SS. Victor and Corona, taken
from Due Castelli during the war of Chioggia. The "Chronicle" relates
that a Genoese squadron was in the Canal di Leme, and the people of S.
Lorenzo sent a deputation suggesting co-operation in an attack on Due
Castelli, between which town and itself there were rivalry and hatred.
The enterprise was successful, and Due Castelli was sacked and burnt.
Tommasini records that the marks of fire were visible in his time. The
bodies of the saints were carried off as spoil; but it seems probable
that it was a Venetian and not a Genoese fleet which co-operated with
the men of S. Lorenzo, since Due Castelli belonged to the patriarch, who
was allied to the Genoese.
The road from S. Lorenzo to Canfanaro crosses the Draga valley (which is
600 or 700 ft. deep) by long zigzags, from which the ruins of Due
Castelli are seen towards the west. They can be visited from Canfanaro.
Where the valley narrows upon two projecting spurs, nearly opposite to
each other, were Monte Castello, or Moncastello, and Castello Parentino,
given to the church of Parenzo by Otho II., but entirely destroyed long
ago. These were the "Due Castelli" (two castles). The sea is five
kilometres away. The walls and towers (which were built about 1616 by
the _provveditore_, Marco Loredan) from a distance appear well
preserved, but the only buildings remaining within are two churches and
the castle.
The double girdle of walls of the castle, with well-preserved
battlemented towers, is the principal factor in the effect. The gateways
are pointed: outside the walls, towards Castel Parentino, is the
pedestal for the municipal standard; on the other side is an illegible
inscription in which the date 1475 may be deciphered. The more important
church, S. Sofia, still has its outside walls, the three apses, with
traces of frescoes in the central one, and the walls of the sacristy. At
the beginning of the fourteenth century it appears to have belonged to
the Castropola, and then to the Count of Gorizia; but in 1420 the
Venetians appointed a podestà. In 1616 the Uscocs sacked the place, and
the plague of 1630-1631 slew many of the remaining inhabitants. The
district grew malarious; and at the beginning of the next century the
rector, the ministers, the chapter, and the few people who remained took
the precious things which the church still retained and moved to S.
Silvestro, Canfanaro. S. Sofia was abandoned on June 7, 1714. The
fourteenth-century pulpit, brought with them, is hexagonal, with
subjects in the panels, and supported on six columns. In one panel a
female figure holds two triple-towered castles of the same shape as
those in the arms of Muggia. Malaria still keeps the district clear of
houses, though the land is cultivated.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE CASTLE, PISINO
_To face page 137_]