and so does Porphyrogenitus. There was a second city in the island in
antiquity called Colento, of which every trace has disappeared. The
island belonged sometimes to the Croats, sometimes to Byzantium, and
sometimes to Hungary, but from 1115 was mainly under the influence of
Venice. The history of the Church goes back to the tenth century, but
the first bishops' names are uncertain. A Zaraitan record of 986
mentions a Bishop Petrus. In 1062 a Bishop Dragus is named as being at
the consecration of S. Pietro in Valle, the oldest Benedictine convent
in Arbe. In the communal archives are preserved the oldest MSS. of the
kings of Dalmatia and Croatia of the tenth century.
The cathedral is a basilica with nave and aisles. The main apse is
octagonal outside and semicircular within; the apse to the north aisle
also exists; that of the south aisle has been replaced by a square
chapel. The nave arcade consists of six bays of round arches, resting on
five pairs of columns which, though they are made up with plaster and
painted, are probably antique, since the caps differ enormously in
height and column and cap frequently do not fit. Some of the capitals
might be late Roman, but most of them are very rude imitations.
Super-abaci are used. The ciborium is hexagonal and rests on six columns
of Greek cipollino, with the top and bottom mouldings worked on them;
the caps are Byzantine of the sixth or seventh century, but without
super-abaci. The front arches have huge Renaissance swags in the
spandrils and a moulded cornice with classic enrichments; at the back
are three ninth-century panels with arch and spandril in one piece,
carved with ornament similar to that on the baptistery of Calixtus at
Cividale; the pyramidal roof terminates in a carved finial. The greater
part of the building is of the thirteenth century. The church, having
become ruinous in 1237, was restored in 1287, and again in 1438 and
1490. It is now the chief parish church of the diocese of Veglia. The
west door belongs to the last restoration; in the tympanum is a poorly
carved Pietà. It is flanked by some remains of a flat arcading. The
wheel-window above, though Romanesque in design, bears the date 1439. A
pink marble is used in this façade with very good effect. In the north
wall is a square marble panel with an enthroned Christ, of Byzantine
type, like the ciborium and the nave columns a relic of an earlier
building. The stalls are fine of their kind, and we were told that an
offer of 50,000 florins and a new set had been made for them and
refused. They are dated 1445, and are elaborately carved with figures
and the usual nerveless foliage of the period, of which other good
examples occur at Zara and Parenzo. In a chapel in the north aisle is a
polygonal Renaissance font of rather pleasing design, with S. John the
Baptist in the central panel and fruit, &c., hanging in the others. In
the apse of the north aisle is an early Madonna with the Child, robed in
red and blue with golden diaper patterns; and over an altar in the south
aisle is an interesting tempera picture in a frame of the fourteenth
century, painted on a gold ground, with Greek inscriptions and
technique. In the central panel is a Crucifixion, on the left is S.
Matthew, and on the right S. Christopher.
S. Christopher was patron of the town and diocese, and the greatest
relic is his head, now that those of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego
have disappeared. The first mention of it occurs in the eleventh
century, when Bishop Dabrana or Domana (1080-1086) brought it forth with
prayers and hymns to deliver Arbe from an attacking horde which had
besieged the city for a month. A great stone fell from heaven into the
camp of the besiegers on that occasion, and the missiles which they
shot recoiled upon them. In Arbe, S. Christopher's Day is kept on May 9,
the day of this discomfiture, instead of July 25 as elsewhere. Other
deliverances took place in 1097 from Coloman of Hungary, and in 1105
from a Hungarian Count Sergius, according to tradition. The shrine
appears to be work of the twelfth century, and is based on the antique,
but betrays Byzantine influence also. It is decorated with gilded
reliefs upon a ground of silver. It is a rectangular wooden box with a
pyramidal lid, to which the silver plates are nailed. The subjects upon
the four sides are: 1. A seated king and an archer shooting at S.
Christopher, who is bound to a stake; the arrows fall deflected and
broken by the hand of God, which appears by the saint's head. Above is a
canopy supported on twisted columns. 2. The saint is beheaded beneath a
canopy; the hand of God again appears by the headless trunk. Two
soldiers in Roman costume stand by, one with lance, and the other with
raised sword. 3. Three holy men holding scrolls, barefoot and robed in
tunic and toga. 4. Three holy women, two holding a cross; the heads have
been restored. All these figures have large heads, especially those
standing under the round-arched arcade, with alternate twisted and
ringed colonnettes. The lid has _repoussé_ subjects upon all four
surfaces: 1. Christ enthroned, blessing and holding a book, with the
monograms IC and XC; in the corners the lion and eagle with books. 2. S.
John with the eagle and monogram IONS. 3. S. Christopher, beardless, as
a standard-bearer, and with a royal
S.XPO
mantle, with inscription FOR; at his feet a male
VS
and a female figure--donors probably. 4. The Virgin standing with
monograms [Greek: MH ThY]. An angel with a book stands near. The skull is
surrounded by a double crown, the outer of gold set with precious
stones, the inner of silver ornamented with lilies. The tradition is
that the reliquary was the gift of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary.
In the sacristy are also three strips of champlevé enamel from a
destroyed reliquary, with figures of eight of the Apostles--Matthew,
James, Bartholomew, Andrew, Thomas, Philip, Thaddeus, and Svhon
(Simon)--seated and holding symbols in one hand and churches in the
other (which have central domes sometimes, and pediments over the doors,
while the roofs and towers look much later than the thirteenth century,
to which they are generally ascribed). The colours used are blue, green,
yellow, white, and red, and the style resembles that of the Maestricht
school. Eitelberger describes another plaque on which SS. Peter, John,
Mark, and three others were represented. This seems to have disappeared
since his time, as it was not shown me with the others.
The campanile of the cathedral is one of the finest in Dalmatia, and is
older than the year 1212, in which year there is mention of it. It is 20
ft. square and more than 100 ft. high, with four stories separated by
ornamented string courses, a base and a pyramidal top. The base has a
door and eight windows, two on each side, on a higher level. The lowest
story has also two windows on each side, but beneath three corbelled
arches. In the next the windows are each coupled, with a central
colonnette and an arch above springing from the central and angle
pilaster strips. In the third the windows have three lights and coupled
colonnettes beneath a similar arch, but the story is loftier. In the top
story (which is as deep as two of those below) there are four lights
with coupled colonnettes and a square framing round them; a cornice
slightly projecting and a balustrade complete the perpendicular part.
All the arches are round and the window shafts have neither cap nor
base. The leaf ornament of the strings imitates the antique. The
pyramidal top is octagonal, and bears an inscription recording its
restoration after damage by lightning; the lower portion seems to be
original.
Four of five other churches have campaniles, of which S. Andrea is the
best, apparently twelfth-century work, as are the three apses at the
eastern end. S. Giustina has a curious bulbous top, plastered and
painted red. The churches generally have a semicircular apse and flat
wooden ceilings; those without campanili have bell-turrets on the west
wall, many of them no longer in use. S. Andrea was rebuilt in the middle
of the fifteenth century, and has a good Venetian Renaissance doorway.
In S. Antonio, just beyond the cathedral is a fifteenth-century
altar-piece with carved and painted figures. In S. Andrea is a woefully
repainted Bart. Vivarini, signed and dated 1485, and in the Franciscan
convent of S. Eufemia, some way outside the walls, there are said to be
two pictures by the same artist.
Of S. Giovanni Battista, which was so interesting for the construction
of its apse and ambulatory, scarcely anything remains--just the exterior
wall of the apse and north wall of the nave, with remains of one door
with an inscription. The obliging owner or renter of the ground showed
us a piece of the mosaic pavement in rather bad repair, which he said
the Duke of S. Stefano wished to buy, but it was impossible to get it up
from the grass which had grown round it, apart from the difficulty of
the three _permessi_ required from the bishop, the authorities, and the
proprietor. He had the earth swept off the piece which we saw, and there
was no grass growing just there. The patterns are interweavings rather
Roman in design, the colours used being black, red, rose-pink, and
white. The church is said to have been the first cathedral; later it
belonged to a Franciscan convent which was used as the palace of the
bishop some seventy years ago. Round the cloister were two stories of
rooms, with a curious chapter-house in the corner. The site is now laid
out as a garden, with pergolas and a terrace-walk looking over the sea;
amid these are still a good many architectural fragments lying about,
some of which appear to go back to the tenth century. Four boxes full of
such fragments were sent to the Museum of S. Donato at Zara without any
claim being made for expenses, but were refused.
One ought not to omit mentioning the chapel of the Campo Santo, which
has a strange façade with three great conventional shell forms above a
rose-window, and a carved architrave with Renaissance _motifs_ above
the door. It was restored in 1867; the adjoining ruinous building has
1657 over its door.
S. Pietro in Valle is some six miles from Arbe, and is as yet
undescribed. Signor Rismondo, whose kindness I have just referred to,
offered to drive us out to it, an attractive offer which I was
exceedingly sorry to have to decline; but the times of sailing of the
boats are not elastic, and it would have meant spending four days more
on the island, an amount of time which I could not spare. He also wanted
to take us to below Loparo, where he said the geological formations are
strange and impressive. The cliffs facing the mainland are riven into
detached pinnacles estimated to be as high as the campanile of the
cathedral, and the scenery is savage in the extreme.
Our second visit to Arbe was made from Zara, which we left in rather
stormy weather, the waves outside the harbour flashing with little white
caps, while flaws of rain constantly hid the island of Ugljan on the
other side of the channel. The boat was rather a small one, belonging to
the Zaratina company, with a crew which consisted of a captain, who also
acted as supercargo, an engineer, a stoker, a cook, one deck-hand, and a
cock. The cock's name was Nero, and he had voyaged with the boat for two
months (as the engineer testified) without suffering even from the most
tempestuous weather. There was an awning over the central portion of the
boat and flapping pieces of sailcloth, apparently intended to shield the
very varied merchandise which was being brought on board, and we found
that it was possible to shelter beneath it by observing the direction of
the wind and keeping to leeward. The crew comforted some women who
feared the roughness of the waves (one of whom carried a new hat in a
large paper-bag, which became rather dilapidated under the attentions of
the wind and the frequent showers) by saying it would be all right when
we got round the point behind which Nona lies; and as the boat was very
buoyant and seaworthy we found it possible to enjoy the passage
notwithstanding the doubtful weather. As we turned down the bay to Val
Cassione, however, the wind shifted a point and blew dead against us,
and we began to think that the boat was very small for such a sea. The
women and a child had to disembark here, and were almost in tears, and
the length of time that the boatmen took to make up their minds to come
out from the harbour and face the choppy sea did not reassure them. Nero
marched bravely up and down the deck, giving vent every now and then to
a rather cracked crow, and we wondered how he escaped being blown
overboard! Fortunately he carried very little sail, only two feathers
remaining in his dilapidated tail; but his spirit was high, and he was
always ready to respond to the challenges of the engineer.
As we rounded the point after leaving Val Cassione the wind shifted
again and the weather improved as if by magic. The clouds gradually
melted away, and the blue of the sky palpitated through the grey; the
sun shone warm upon the barren, featureless coast, adding colour to the
dispiriting grey of the limestone spotted with the dark green of shrubs,
a characteristic of most of the Dalmatian islands, and the Velebit
Mountains became clear, in some places to the summits, though the
greater part of the chain was still cloud-capped and barred with heavy
purple shadows.
The party at lunch consisted of the captain, the engineer, and a priest
who was now the one passenger beside ourselves. We comfortably filled
the table in the little cabin. The captain said that since the
phylloxera damaged the vines two-thirds of the Dalmatians (the country
people) had emigrated. He seemed to hold them in slight estimation,
perhaps because he was a sailor, which he said none of them are in that
part of the country (a statement we had an opportunity of verifying, for
we noticed that a very slight motion of the boat makes them sick), and
so ignorant "that it would require 2,000 years of teaching to civilise
them!" The captain himself belonged to one of the outlying islands,
where his wife and family lived and where he spent two nights in each
week; and he took a gloomy view of the prospects of the "Dalmati," as
the Italian-speaking Dalmatians call themselves. He said when he was a
boy the language used in the schools generally was Italian, then it was
changed to German for a time, but Croat is now universal, so that in
twenty years Italian will no longer be understood along the eastern
littoral; which will be bad for the culture of the country, almost the
whole of which is Italian, and has been so for centuries.
Our priest left us at a little convent with a chapel and two houses
standing close to the water's edge; and at Novaglia we took on board a
party of emigrants, some of whom were quite boys, while one was
grey-headed. Most of them wore the picturesque costume of the Morlacchi;
but the next day we saw them again, clad in the characterless, sack-like
slop-suit which seems to be thought a mark of civilisation, having lost
much of their individuality without gaining anything in exchange. A
number of friends lingered on the shore to see them off; but there was
no such singing as we heard next day at Loparo beyond Arbe, the
birthplace of the founder of the Republic of S. Marino, where some
twenty or more were waiting for us on a barge in the pretty bay, singing
a farewell song which wailed over the water as we approached. As they
boarded the steamboat they kissed their friends on both cheeks, and
crowded to the side as we got under way again, repeating their
melancholy song and waving adieus; while all along the tops of the hills
which flank both sides of the harbour figures silhouetted against the
sky, waved in response, and stood watching the boat as long as we could
distinguish them.
[Illustration: ARBE FROM THE SHORE]
When we reached Arbe, cresting its rocky point with a picturesque
confusion of walls, campanili, and house-roofs that seemed to grow out
of the rocks, so well do they harmonise with them, the afternoon was
sunny and delightful, though the roads showed signs of the rain which
had recently fallen. At sunset we climbed again to the public garden
and enjoyed the well-remembered view of towers and walls grey against
the glowing sky, the most beautiful grouping of one of the most
picturesque places that I know, intensified by the charm of the changing
colours as the glow gradually faded, and the opalescent sea by slow
degrees took its place in the quiet harmonies of twilight.
[Illustration: ASCENT TO THE RAMPARTS, ZARA
_To face page 205_]
XVIII
ZARA
The continuation of the Canale della Morlacca, which washes the
mainland, is the Canale della Montagna, on the west side of which is the
island of Pago, the Gissa of the ancients. The city of the same name was
founded by the Venetians, and was originally a defensive military post
against the Uscocs. The bay upon which it is situated lies open to the
"Bora," and therefore cannot always be entered in winter. For this
reason Val Cassione, on the west side of the narrow island, is the usual
port. A road over a slight hill conducts to the south end of the bay and
the city, in front of which the water is so narrow that it is bridged
over. On the near side are the celebrated salt-works, the richest in
Dalmatia. There are a few Roman remains, including those of a camp; and
near Novaglia is a tunnel 300 yards long, lighted by pierced apertures,
said to have belonged to a Roman aqueduct. The scenery outside the
island of Pago is uninteresting; the islands have little elevation,
beauty of form or colour, nor is there sufficient vegetation to disguise
the dull grey of the rocks, though, as the boat turns to the west to
gain the mouth of the Canal of Zara, the Velebit Mountains behind may
become imposing under certain circumstances. The first time we went to
Zara the sun was setting at this part of the voyage, and the sky effect
was fine, while the Velebits flushed a pinkish purple with blue-purple
shadows, the silhouette only showing in places beneath heavy masses of
cloud, in which some of the summits were hidden. Falling showers here
and there softened and veiled the strong light and shade, relieved by
the prismatic hues of a rainbow. As the sun sank lower the mountains and
clouds gradually became a pallid grey, while the sky to westward passed
through many gradations of colour and tone as the clouds slowly
dispersed and night fell. Far away over the darkening water the electric
lights of Zara flashed and glittered, reflected in chains of sparkles
which grew longer as we approached.
The boat turned to the left into the old port, and thus we escaped the
ordeal of the dogana to which passengers landing at the new quay are
subjected, and entered the town through the Porta Marina, the entrance
for all travellers arriving by water until, in 1868, the walls towards
the sea were thrown down, and the Riva Nuova constructed. It is proposed
to extend this fine promenade to Borgo Erizzo eventually. In making it
some remains of Roman walls were found. The city was declared "open,"
and the cannon were transported to the arsenal. On the other side of the
water is the island of Ugljan, with its conspicuous Venetian castle of
S. Michele, to which the peasants make a pilgrimage on Michaelmas Day.
From the height which it crowns, the second Canal of Zara may be seen,
and the islands of Incoronata, Isole Grosse, and the open sea beyond. It
is said that the coast of Italy can be seen with a telescope on a fine
day. The remaining portions of the fortifications have been planted with
trees, or turned into gardens, and form pleasant promenades both during
the day, when the shade of the trees is acceptable, and at evening, when
the sea breeze blows cool from off the water. Among the trees are found
palms and Paulownia in flower. Outside the Porta Terra Ferma a large
bastion has been made into a public park, named after General
Blazekovic, who created it in 1888-1890. The fortifications, commenced
by Sanmichele in 1533, were finished ten years later by his nephew
Giovanni Girolamo: a drawing for the Porta Terra Ferma exists in the
Uffizj at Florence, showing the whole depth to the bottom of the ditch,
which much improves the proportion. It was approached diagonally across
a wooden bridge; the road is now direct, and the ditch filled up. The
isthmus joining the peninsula to the land had been cut through to
strengthen the older fortifications, of which one tower, the pentagonal
Bo d'Antona, alone remains. When the new works were carried out, as a
stronger defence against the Turks, the suburbs were destroyed, and the
ditch was subsequently turned into the cisterns below the Cinque Pozzi.
This great reservoir, made in 1574, was provided with an elaborate
system of filtering-beds, the water being collected from the roofs until
the aqueduct was opened in 1838. The sand was renewed once in a hundred
years.
[Illustration: THE PORTA MARINA, ZARA
_To face page 207_]
The inner portion of the other gate, the Porta Marina, was, according to
local tradition, brought from Ænona. It is part of a triumphal arch
erected by a Roman lady, Melia Anniana, to her husband, Læpicius Bassus,
with additions of the period of the Renaissance. It bears a long Latin
inscription referring to the battle of Lepanto, October 5, 1571, and on
the water side has a pretty, early Renaissance upper part, with the lion
of S. Mark and _amorini_ supporting a shield within an architectural
framing.
Zara (anciently Jadera) is traditionally the capital of the Liburnians.
It became a Roman colony in 78 B.C., and many Roman fragments have been
found which attest its splendour and prosperity under the Empire.
Trajan built an aqueduct, of which traces have been found through Borgo
Erizzo to and beyond Makarska. Stone pipes of the same kind were found
on the shore at Zara Vecchia, in the ruins of the Templars' castle on
the hill Kastel; above the lake of Vrana, and in the marshes through
which the road from Vrana to Benkovac passes. It is believed that the
source was a spring at Biba on this hill. Salona, during the time of its
prosperity, was of more importance than Zara; but after its destruction
by the Avars in 639 the latter again became of first importance in
Dalmatia, the Byzantine fleet being stationed there when Ravenna was
taken by the Lombards in 752, and the town becoming the dwelling of the
"strategos." In 804 Donatus, bishop of Zara, acted as envoy with the
doge of Venice in concluding peace between Charlemagne and the Byzantine
Emperor Nicephorus. In the tenth century it was known as Diadora. In 991
it became Venetian for the first time, but without severing its
relations with Byzantium; and Orso Orseolo fortified it in 1018.
Somewhat later, the Venetians made it their principal city, putting the
bishoprics of Arbe, Veglia, and Ossero under the metropolitan in 1154,
and making Domenico Morosini, son of the doge, Count of Zara. The
inscription on the nuns' church of S. Maria records the fact that
Coloman entered Zara in 1105; from that date the Hungarian period
commences, though apparently the Venetians still had rule over maritime
Dalmatia. The sacking of the city by the French in 1202 appears to have
been due to the greed of the Venetians, and to their desire to get even
with the Hungarians also. Between 1169 and 1201 a Pisan fleet, probably
allied with Hungary, took Pola from the Venetians; but it was retaken
before long, and the discords between Henry or Emeric, son of Bela of
Hungary, and his brother Andrew facilitated the taking of Zara. It is
recorded that Andrew had most of the magnates on his side; but Emeric
went alone and unarmed to the malcontents, saying: "Now I wish to see
who of you will dare to raise his hand against his king"; and all
quietly and in silence let him pass. He then took his brother, led him
out, and imprisoned him in a certain castle. The magnates fell at his
feet asking pardon. Truly in those days divinity did hedge the king!