quatrefoils. The casket has been mended with strips of stamped silver of
various periods. Two reliquaries of the twelfth century described by
Eitelberger and Mr. T.G. Jackson were not shown to us, though we were
assured that we had seen everything of interest. One contains the head
of S. Giacomo Interciso, a martyr of the fifth century. It has a domed
top, and round the ring is an inscription: "[Symbol: Maltese cross]
Ego Bosna ivssi fieri anch capsam ad onorem scs iacobi martiris
ob remedivm anime chasei viri mei et anime mee." On the lid in round
medallions are six figures--Christ with the monograms IC and XC,
"Jachbus, martyr," Judas, Simon, Johannes, and Maria. Round the drum is
an arcade supported on twisted, fluted, or diapered columns, under which
are the figures of nine Apostles, named SS. Petrus, Paulus, Andreas,
Jacobus, Tomas, Jacobus again, Filippus, Bartolomeus, and Mateus. The
ground is plain silver; the figures are gilded. On the summit is a
classic head with flying hair, a relief which did not form part of the
original work. The letters are like those of the monument to Vekenega,
who died in IIII; and Bianchi says there was a prior named Chaseus or
Chaseo in 1096. An arm reliquary bears the inscription in raised
Lombardic letters: "Ego Chacia usor Dimitrii feci fieri hoc opus." It is
of plain metal enriched with filigree, and set with stones and
patterned cloisonné enamels, and stands upon a triangular cast base with
three feet; on each side is a winged figure with sceptre and orb amid
twelfth-century scroll-work. Bianchi says Demetrius, husband of Chacia,
was prior in 1162. An interesting reliquary inscribed "Hic est spongia
dni quo potat fuit in patibulo crucis" is supported by four dragons
without wings, but with raised tails. It is a tube of crystal,
surmounted by a crucifix, below which is a band of natural leaves with
birds. Between this and the foot is a cube of crystal surrounded by cast
and pierced metal--a figure of a man in civilian dress blowing a horn,
alternately with a knight tilting and carrying a falcon through a wood,
typified by a tree behind him.
[Illustration: RELIQUARY OF SANT' ORONTIUS, ZARA]
The treasury contains many interesting things of a later date, of which
the reliquary of S. Crisogono is perhaps the most attractive, showing
earlier enamels in a good fourteenth-century setting. On the front are
two square enamels of SS. Zoilus and Anastasia, with little chapels at
their sides supported on slender twisted columns. Upon the lid are three
similar vesica-shaped medallions--S. Crisogono in the middle, S. John
the Baptist on the left, and S. John the Evangelist on the right.
Cypress-trees are on each side of the figures, enamelled dark green. S.
Crisogono is robed as a king, crowned, and holding a cross before his
breast; angels at each side of his head hold tapers. The material is
silver. The figures are delicately drawn, and the ground is filled in
with deep blue enamel, red and green also appearing. The borders show
good vine-leaf scrolls. The ends have a rough sexfoil rose, which is
repeated on the back between modern scrolls imitating the old. The
inscription is round the lid in Lombardic letters of silver on a ground
of red enamel: "Hoc op fvit fact tvr nobiliv viror viti cadvl vvlcin
martinvsii et Pavli de Galcign ann D. MCCCXXVI." An ugly head reliquary
of S. Mary Magdalene, dated 1332, is inscribed with the same name,
Volcine de Martinusio, who was one of the three rectors or judges of
Zara. It has flowing hair down to the shoulders. Several arm reliquaries
of late fourteenth century are up to the usual standard. One is of S.
Crisogono; one of S. Donate, with many jewels and a pierced band of
quatrefoils with some of a larger number representing the opening of the
sleeve; one with plaques of translucent enamel and vine scrolls said to
contain a finger of S. John the Baptist, &c. An hexagonal pyx on a stem
has on the knop and foot a half-length of our Lord erect in the tomb. A
foot of S. Crisogono in a shoe-shaped reliquary with jewelled bands has
a pretty flowing scroll pattern of the early Renaissance in low relief.
A casket reliquary of S. Daniel (which, according to Bianchi, also
encloses relics of SS. Peter and Paul and Martin) is rather coarser work
of the Renaissance (1496) upon the same lines as the early reliquaries.
It has figures of a Risen Christ and SS. Anatasia, Donato, and Daniel.
On the sides and top are double-headed eagles with "M" on the breast.
Bishop Valaresso's pastoral staff is also preserved here--a fine work of
1460, 6 ft. 6 in. high. It is hexagonal, divided into eight sections by
bands, of which every other one is broader and more decorated. These
bear a pierced pattern and projecting triangles, serving as spandrils to
the trefoiled arches, which are incised on the spaces between. The knop
is an elaborately niched and pinnacled architectural feature of two
stories with figures in the niches and beneath the canopies. It
terminates in a foliated form (a later addition), from which the crook
springs. Round the outside of this are half-lengths of prophets emerging
from foliage, facing in two directions, with a statuette of Christ on
the summit. Within are two figures, a crowned woman holding a book, and
a mitred male figure, probably intended for the Virgin and Valaresso
himself.
The baptistery is an hexagonal building with niches in each side within,
vaulted without ribs in wagon divisions, and with four windows above the
niches. Altars stand in two niches, a confessional-box in another, and
through the remaining three there are doors. In the centre is the
octagonal font raised on three circular steps. It is 6 ft. 6 in. broad
and 3 ft. 3 in. high, and has an enclosure in the centre. It is panelled
on the sides, sometimes with two panels, each of which has round-headed
sinkings like windows, sometimes with one panel containing three such
sinkings, separated by coupled colonnettes; the cornice and base are
moulded. The material is red Veronese marble like that used at Grado. A
white marble basin, quatrefoil in shape, upon a fourteenth-century cap,
holds the baptismal water, very green and slimy, and there is water at
the bottom of the font itself.
The sacristy, a Gothic building with two bays of cross vaults, was the
ancient church of S. Barbara, in which the Zaratines swore fealty to the
Hungarian crown on the arm of S. Crisogono on July 8, 1384. In 1794 a
mosaic pavement was found beneath the existing pavement. Between it and
the apse is a little wagon-vaulted room, perhaps the ancient sacristy.
S. Crisogono belongs to the most ancient Benedictine convent in
Dalmatia. The church was originally S. Antonio Abate; but when the body
of S. Crisogono was brought from Aquileia it was deposited here, and the
dedication was changed. In 906 the church and monastery were recorded
under the name of S. Crisogono, and as being ruined by barbarian
invasion. In 986 Majo, rector of Zara and proconsul of Dalmatia, rebuilt
both, and made Madius, a monk from Monte Cassino, abbot. The standard of
the city then bore S. Crisogono on horseback, added to the earlier
white cross on a red ground. Destroyed by the Venetians, the church was
rebuilt in 1032, and in 1056 the buried relics were re-discovered. The
final rebuilding was in the twelfth century, and it was consecrated on
May 4, 1175, by the first archbishop, Lampridius, though additions were
made at a later date. The central portion of the west front, though
Romanesque in style, is nothing like as fine as the eastern apses, and
may be work of the end of the fourteenth century, since a consecration
is recorded in 1407, though Bianchi states that the inscription in his
time gave the date 1298. It has a central door with three unmoulded
orders and a sunk tympanum beneath a gable. Above this is a heavy string
course from which two pilaster strips spring, a window flanked by four
arches on slender coupled columns, with semicircular niches, filling the
space between them; above, a space from which it is cut by a second
string forms the next stage; over it is another string and two small
windows beneath a gable cornice of corbelled arches, the same cornice
raking over the aisles. Beasts project at the gable angles, and the
summit it crowned by a finial. All the arches are round, and the little
arcade has red and grey voussoirs. To the left is a large squat
campanile which was built in 1546-1562, and was then higher. A fire
damaged it in 1645. The north aisle wall has an arcade of twelve arches
with twisted columns, and the cast end has three apses, the central one
larger and with a fine open arcade beneath the cornice; above its roof
in the gable is a cross which had _scodelle_ in the arms and centre. The
interior has an arcade of seven arches, arranged three, two, and two,
between piers, with a flat pilaster running up to what was once the wall
plate. The columns are antique, as are some of the caps. The horizontal
moulding above the nave arcade is the same as that above the apse
arcade, and is ornamented with beasts' heads, &c. A twelfth-century
mosaic in the apse was destroyed in 1791. The pavement of the presbytery
is of coloured marbles, and on the aisle wall hangs a great painted
crucifix which was once in S. Domenico, and recalls the work of the
early Tuscans. The church was the burial-place of many distinguished
Zaratines, and the body of Elizabeth of Hungary, who was killed in the
castle of Novigrad by Giovanni Palisna, prior of Vrana, in 1386, was
buried here for some years. When the church was restored, nineteen
historic gravestones were set in the outer wall. At the same time a
relief of S. Crisogono, remains of an early ciborium or chancel, and
traces of a crypt were found, also the Limoges pastoral staff now in the
museum. The cloister has been pulled down, and a school erected on the
site.
[Illustration: APSE OF S. CRISOGNO, ZARA
_To face page 230_]
S. Maria is first mentioned in 906. It was given in 1066 by the
Benedictine monks of S. Crisogono to nuns of their order. It is called
in the deed "Ecclesiola S. Mariæ minoris ante portam Beltatam." The
street opposite the lesser door led to the ancient city gate, Porta
Bellata or Belluata, by which animals were brought into the city. The
convent was rebuilt and enlarged by Cicca the abbess, who took the veil
after the murder of her husband, and who was sister to Cresimir the
younger, king of Dalmatia; and it was consecrated on October 28, 1072,
by Andrea, bishop of Zara, five other bishops and four abbots being
present, when Andrea and the President Drago gave the island of Selve to
it. The fine tower was built in 1105 by order of Coloman, to commemorate
his entry into Zara as king of Dalmatia, as an inscription states. Of
this period is the chapter-house containing the tomb of Vekenega, the
repudiated wife of the monarch, and daughter of Cicca, who died in IIII.
A window in the north aisle of the church communicates with it, but is
only opened when a nun professes, or when one dies. The nuns' choir is
above the main door on the level of the side galleries, shut off by a
gilded grating inscribed: "Placida abbatissa fieri fecit anno MCCCVI."
Within are the stalls made or altered by Giovanni da Curzola in 1495.
The façade of the church, which faces on to a small courtyard, is of the
period of the Lombardi. At the side of the high-altar towards the
sacristy Bishop Andrea was buried, and here are also the remains of
Coloman, brought in 1117 from Zara Vecchia, where he died. Cicca died in
1096. Just within the door to the right is a Christ crowned with thorns,
and the Virgin lamenting--a good picture of the school of Titian, if not
by the master. There is also a SS. Peter and Paul by Palma Vecchio.
The treasury is above an altar at the end of the north aisle. The
sacristan, who told us that he had filled that position for fifty years,
lighted candles before opening the doors, kissed each reliquary before
returning it to its place, and insisted upon the authenticity of each
relic. The objects are scarcely so interesting as those at the
cathedral, but include several fine fourteenth-century reliquaries as
well as one or two which were made, or remade, in Renaissance times. The
reliquary of S. Gregory has on the front Christ enthroned between
standing figures of SS. Mark and John beneath a round-arched arcade on
twisted columns. Three more saints are at the back, and at the ends are
the subjects of the Annunciation and the Visitation. Upon the sloping
parts of the lid are medallions of angels writing between scroll-work,
and at the top is a figure of S. Gregory. It was a votive offering of
Catherine, wife of Sandalius, Voivode of Bosnia, who died between 1433
and 1436. A reliquary of an unknown saint (which Bianchi speaks of as
S. Zoilus) has on the front a fine equestrian figure of a knight with
lance in rest, said to be S. Crisogono, between two figures of
ecclesiastics (SS. Zoilus and Donato), all three in high relief. Upon
the pyramidal cover are medallions of the symbols of the Evangelists in
lower relief, with bands of running ornament along all the angles. At
the back are figures of Christ and two saints, and at each end three
saints. The reliquary of S. Quirinus, another work of much the same
period, has saints under a pointed trefoiled arcade on twisted and
horizontally ringed columns, with foliage in the spandrils. In the
centre at the back is a figure of our Lord; on the lid are an angel,
Gethsemane, S. Peter sleeping, and the winged lion, between scrolls. A
panel of S. Gregory, with low mitre, and inscription in Lombardic
letters, holding a dragon-headed crozier, and with his bird at the other
side, has a stamped border of thirteenth-century character; and a fine
relief of the Madonna and Child, with decorated nimbi upon a ground
which has once been blue enamel, has a gabled top with a border of
relics in roundels with jewels in the interstices. It must once have
been used as a door, as the hinges, still attached to the wood, testify.
The reliquary of the clothes of Our Lord is of good early Renaissance
design, but some of the figures appear to be of an earlier date. In the
centre is an oblong panel with the Madonna "del Parto" in the centre,
and S. John the Baptist and S. Paul in high relief. Outside, on
brackets, are the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin; at the back are S.
Anthony and another saint. Above is a medallion containing three relics
from the manger at Bethlehem, from the house at Nazareth, and from the
clothes of Our Lord, crowned by a crucifix and flanked by figures of the
Virgin and S. John on brackets. On the foot are four medallions in
niello amid arabesques. There are also six arm reliquaries of the usual
pattern, two of which have little doors of niello, two or three heads,
and an ostensory, at the top of which is a thorn from the crown of
thorns.
[Illustration: RELIQUARY OF THE CLOTHES OF OUR LORD, S. MARIA NUOVA,
ZARA]
The church of S. Simeone was a "Colleggiata," instituted in 1150 by
Archbishop Lampridius, and dedicated to S. Stephen. It was subsequently
called the Madonna della Pace, because the Madonna so called was
deposited in it in 1567 from the suburban church of S. Matteo. The body
of S. Simeon was brought here in 1632, having been in Zara since 1280,
when it was brought from Jerusalem by Bishop Periandro. The celebrated
"arca" was in the collegiate church of S. Maria to the north, destroyed
in the middle of the sixteenth century to make room for the
fortifications, a small chapel only being left standing, in which the
wooden arca was kept, the silver one being consigned to the care of the
nuns. In 1632 a new chancel was added to the church now S. Simeone; the
arca was repaired and placed in its present position. The campanile was
built in 1707. In the nave on one side are antique fluted columns with
Corinthian caps, which belonged to S. Stefano. The area is of cypress
wood, covered with silver plates, which are fastened with silver screws.
It cost 28,000 ducats, and was supported on four angels of silver. These
were melted down at the time of the war between Venice and Cyprus, and
have been replaced by two of stone and two of bronze made from cannon
taken from the Turks and given to Zara by Venice in 1647. On the lid a
figure of the saint nearly life-size lies, and on the sides and ends are
subjects referring to the history of the relics, and an inscription
giving the date of 1380, and the names of the Queen of Hungary as the
donor, and the goldsmith Franciscus of Milan as the artist. On the roof
is a panel showing the artist at work on it. There is a reproduction in
the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the treasury is a chalice also given
by Queen Elizabeth the younger, late Gothic in style, with Renaissance
additions, made of silver, parcel gilt, with niello and a little enamel;
it has an octagonal knop with coats of arms reversed on quatrefoil ends
and on the sexfoil foot. Upon the base of the cup are subjects in
outline, the Crucifixion and figures of saints in petal-like forms. The
treasury also contains some curious rococo painted vestments, apparently
in water-colour on silk. To the right of the choir, in a chapel just
outside the sacristy, is a reredos of _repoussé_ silver--two big angels
kneeling below, and God the Father above a Madonna and Child with
painted faces, the rest of the figures being in relief. The frame is
flanked by S. Michael and a saint, with a little angel flying below and
holding a book, also with the heads only painted. These figures and the
Virgin and Child have a good deal of gilding about them, and may be of
the fifteenth century, since they look earlier than the rest, which is
late sixteenth or early seventeenth. In the chapel to the left is a
Byzantine-looking relief gilded all over except the hands and faces,
which are painted pink, mounted on a polished slab of black marble. The
subject is the Virgin and Child standing, the Child draped. A
half-finished building not far off is all that was completed of a
magnificent church designed to house the arca of S. Simeon. It was
commenced in 1572, but abandoned in 1600.
Beyond the cathedral, and not far from the walls, is the church and
convent of S. Francesco, consecrated in 1282 by Archbishop Lorenzo
Periandro, according to an inscription on a pilaster in the choir. The
choir contains a very fine set of stalls, made in 1394 by "Maestro
Giovanni quondam Giacomo da Borgo San Sepolcro in Venezia," at a cost of
456 ducats of gold. They used to be in front of the altar, but were
moved in 1808 when the new altar was put up. In the Cappella del
Crocifisso is a large Carpaccio, an allegory of the militant and
triumphant Church, with a row of portrait figures. It is in rather a bad
state, painted in tempera on panel. In the sky is a pretty Madonna and
Child in a vesica surrounded by angels. The rest of the sky has rows of
angels in it, and below, on the earth, kneeling bishops, potentates, and
others, with some nice little children in front. Between the two
divisions is a landscape with a shrine in the centre, and the whole
composition is contained in an upright oval, the corners being filled up
with later painting. The usual white dog appears with a red
collar-ribbon. The frame is well carved, but not architectural. In a
side chapel is a S. Francis by Palma Giovane. The chapel of S. Carlo,
once called degli Innocenti, can be entered either from the cloister or
the church. In it is an enormous painted crucifix of wood in relief,
with the Virgin and S. John half-length painted at the ends of the
cross, and an angel above. It bears inscriptions in Greek and Latin,
"ICTAVPOCIC" and "Rex Ivdeorvm," and, below the arms of Christ, "In me
credentes ad me concvrrite gentes." It is believed to be of the tenth
century, or even earlier. In the sacristy is a picture of 1430 on a gold
ground in the original frame, restored at the emperor's expense. In the
centre is the Madonna with the Child and little angels; on one side are
SS. Jerome, Simeon, and James; on the other, SS. Peter Martyr, Nicholas,
and Francis. A predella shows the twelve Apostles, with Christ in the
centre. Above, in the centre, is Christ half-length, flanked by smaller
nearly full-lengths of the Virgin and S. John; at each side three
half-lengths of saints--left, SS, Martin, Stephen, and John the Baptist;
right, a warrior, a bishop, and a man with green robe, and hat turned up
in four pieces. The frame is fine, a blue ground and gilded arabesques.
The church possesses four chalices of silver-gilt of the fourteenth or
early fifteenth century. Two of them have elaborate knops with crocketed
niches with figures, and one has the symbols of the Evangelists in high
relief on the foot, with leaf-scrolls and big stars, the plan being
octofoil. The finest has a sexfoil foot, and there are angular
projections in both between the foils, and a pierced perpendicular band
below. Upon the foot are six roundels, with Christ and saints in low
relief, as if for _basse-taille_ enamel. The third has a knop with
window tracery, pinnacles, and flying buttresses; on the foot, of a
later date, are graceful leaf-arabesques, rather like the work of
Aldegrever. The fourth is smaller and less elaborate. There are also
some fifteenth-century psalters and antiphonaries. One of the three
bells in the modern campanile is the oldest in Zara, dated 1328, and
signed "Magister Beloa Viccentius." The tradition runs that S. Francis,
going to or returning from the Holy Land in 1212, visited Dalmatia, and
founded this monastery among others.
The church of S. Domenico (anciently S. Michele) has a pointed Venetian
door, with a relief in the tympanum of S. Michael weighing souls, with
the Devil pulling the scale down, an armed angel at one side, and a
woman with a lighted taper at the other. On the lintel are a Virgin and
Child, and several saints in little panels also spreading beyond on to
the wall.
The Greek church, S. Elia, which the Servian orthodox Christians have
had since the French invasion, is nearly opposite the cathedral. One
year we were at Zara at the time when they were preparing to keep
Easter. In front of the iconostasis was an "Entombment," surrounded with
young grass amid which little lamps shone. The whole was covered with a
canopy similar to that carried over the Host. It was delicate and
pretty, and a great contrast to "Tombe," which we had seen in years gone
by in Italy, and a few days before at Capodistria.
There were thirty churches in Zara, fifteen of which have been destroyed
or given to different bodies. Seven are now Catholic, and four preserve
their outward shape, but are secularised.
The Loggia, the open hall of justice, ascribed to Sanmichele in its
original form, was restored shortly before the end of the Venetian rule.
It is now the Paravia library. It has three arches between coupled Doric
columns, and is still quite well preserved. The Palace of the Priors,
the former rulers of the town, was enlarged by the addition of private
houses for the residencas of the Venetian Count and the _provveditore_;
while the commune had to be content with the corn-magazine, near S.
Simeone, which is still the communal palace. When the Austrian governor
followed the Venetian _provveditore_ the palace was restored and
modernised. It is a Venetian building of 1562, with a clock-tower which
was restored in 1798; the clock itself was put up in 1807.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE TOWN OF NONA
_To face page 239_]