the way over stony uplands with very little vegetation, but with
extensive views over land and sea when the weather is fine. We were
troubled by showers and a bitter wind, against which our overcoats were
an insufficient protection; and we looked with some wonder at the herd
boys and girls and other peasants whom we met, many of them barefoot and
with no additional clothing to what they had found sufficient in the
market the day before when the sun shone strongly. The town is now a
mere village of some 500 inhabitants, and, though a few antique
fragments may be seen, and the ruins of several churches of different
periods, it is difficult to realise that it was once one of the most
important towns in Dalmatia. It appears to have been a Roman port, and
the head of one of the roads to Byzantium across Dalmatia--an ancient
Liburnian city, the great prosperity of which, at the end of the first
century A.D., is attested by the coins found here. It was called Ænona
and Ænonium by Pliny and Ptolemy, Nona by Porphyrogenitus. Destroyed by
the Slavs in the seventh century, re-occupied and restored by another
branch, the dukes and kings of Croatia made it one of the thirteen
Dalmatian "zupanje." Later it belonged at intervals to the King of
Hungary and to Venice, and after 1409 remained in the power of the
latter. In 1357 Count Giustiniani valiantly but vainly defended it
against the Hungarians, when the garrison was reduced to such straits by
famine that they had to eat their horses. It was twice burnt to prevent
it from falling into Turkish hands and being utilised as an outpost, in
1571 and 1646. The harbour has silted up, and only a small piece of the
walls is traceable. Of the Venetian dominion the only remains are the
entrance gateway, with the lion of S. Mark above it, and the
"Stabilimento," founded in 1786 by Girolamo Manfrin for the cultivation
of tobacco, but ruined by a fire, and no longer used for that purpose.
The Christian Church in Nona is said to have been founded by S. Anselm
in 117 A.D. Under the Croats it had a bishop and a chapter. The ancient
church of S. Croce was the cathedral, a small cruciform church with
three apses in the eastward wall, and a dome over the crossing. It is 30
ft. long, and each arm of the cross is 10 ft. wide. The dome has a
flat-pointed vault and windows, while the nave and transepts have wagon
vaults terminating in half-cupolas. To the west is a lintelled door,
with consecration crosses on the jambs and carving of the ninth century
on the lintel. A Slavonic inscription upon it (inside) has been read
"Godeslav Juppano Ch[risto] Domo Co[nservat]." The breaking of the upper
angles of the carved portion, and the difference in the character of the
crosses on lintel and jambs indicate the use of early material in a
later rebuilding; but the church is considered one of the oldest in
Dalmatia. From 1697 it served as an oratory to the Count of Nona, being
near his palace. Its bell (hung in the gable above the west door) served
to call the people together for public meetings, &c. The eastern apse
has a blank arcading on its exterior, which is square, and the same kind
of ornament occurs on the drum which conceals the dome. There are three
windows in the west wall, and others in the transept walls and gable.
The church was restored some seven or eight years ago, as well as the
somewhat similar church of S. Nicolò outside the town.
The parish church of S. Anselmo was the mediæval cathedral, rebuilt
during the eighteenth century. Close to it is another church, once
dedicated to S. Ambrogio, and now to the Madonna. In the treasury are
various interesting pieces of goldsmith's work kept in a marble chest
with glazed front and gilded metal door. When we were there the priest
was enjoying his siesta, and, though we were in charge of an official
from the town-hall, we were unsuccessful in rousing him from his
slumbers. I therefore take the description of them from Bianchi, as I
was not able to examine them critically. There are two caskets of
silver-gilt with the heads of S. Anselm and his sister, S. Marcella,
made by the same goldsmith. On the front are Christ, the Virgin, and S.
John in relief, with a frieze of a hunting subject, the figures beneath
trefoiled arches on twisted columns; on the back, SS. Anselm, Ambrose,
and Marcella; on the ends, SS. Peter and Paul, and a king and queen.
Bianchi says these are thirteenth century; Mr. T.G. Jackson says
fifteenth, which is more likely. On the lids are the symbols of the
Evangelists. Two other reliquaries contain the shoulder-blades of S.
Anselm. On the front are figures of the three protectors full-length. An
arm reliquary has pagan subjects in relief, and is set with precious
stones. An inscription gives the name of Simeon the goldsmith, and the
Bano Paolo (Lord of Bosnia also at the end of the thirteenth and
beginning of the fourteenth centuries). Two reliquaries of the feet of
S. Anselm, given by Radoslav Utusano, chancellor of the Bano Paolo, and
_zupan_ of the church of Nona, are dated 1309. There are two other
reliquaries: one of SS. Giacomo and Orontius, with three medallions of
saints; and the other with the Evangelists' symbols. Mr. T.G. Jackson
also saw two crosses and a sixteenth-century chalice. I particularly
regretted being unable to see the wooden area of S. Marcella, which is a
very remarkable example of early Christian art. Bianchi says that it is
varnished, and has eleven compartments, with figures in high relief.
One is entitled S. Barbara--the first on the left. Then come a king with
a double cross, S. Luke's ox, S. Marcella, S. Matthew's angel, the
Virgin and Child, S. Mark's lion, S. Ambrose, S. John's eagle, and a
queen with a lily in her hand. The eleventh compartment is not
recognisable.
[Illustration: PLAN OF S. NICOLÒ, NONA]
North of the parish church are remains of a Roman temple, and an antique
cap or two may be seen. In a private house are remains of a bath and a
mosaic pavement. The ruined church of S. Michele stands on the site of
the Roman arena. Antique fragments are also recognisable in the walls of
S. Nicolò. There are several ruined churches which appear to be of the
thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. Some of them have been altered at a
later period, but they contain nothing of first-rate interest. Nona had
sixteen in the Middle Ages. We walked out to S. Nicolò, an early church,
which crowns a hillock thickly sown with asphodels in blossom, some
little distance from the road and a mile or so from Nona. It is
cruciform in plan, with apsidal terminations to three arms, the west
being square, and having a door with a semicircular tympanum above it
internally. Squinches in the angles serve as transition to the semi-dome
which covers each arm. From the pilasters between the apses cross arches
spring beneath a domical vault with a pendant at their intersection; in
the left pilaster by the apse is a recess. The central tower is
octagonal and turreted; beneath the apse eaves are rough corbels, the
door has a semicircular tympanum externally, little brackets supporting
nothing, and the jambs and lintel are put together rather as if the
material were wood. The church is probably of the eleventh century.
Borgo Erizzo, an Albanian village, lies but a short distance from Zara.
In the eighteenth century the atrocities of Mehmed Begovich, pasha of
Albania, perpetrated on the Catholics, being very great, some of them
emigrated, seeking the protection of Vincenzo Zmajevich, bishop of
Antivari, who was living at his native city of Perasto. A little later
(1726) he became archbishop of Zara, and brought twenty-seven families
of Albanians with him, recommending them to the protection of Count
Erizzo, commandant of the fortress, who assigned them land near the
city, where they flourished and increased. There are now about 3,000 of
them. The church, which appears to be in a dangerous condition, was
built for them by Zmajevich. The girls work in the factories till they
marry, after which they remain at home. The men are agriculturists, and
some own fields and vineyards seven or eight miles away, to which they
walk or go in carts. The village is dirty and not very picturesque. They
get their drinking-water from the Kaiser Brunnen, a spring covered with
a dome close to the sea, said to be a Roman erection. Sailors also water
there. Before the aqueduct was restored, in years of drought Zara had to
import water, and in 1828, 1834, and 1835 it was brought from the Kerka
by Scardona.
Zara Vecchia, formerly Alba or Belgrad, is some eighteen miles down the
coast. Here Coloman of Hungary, nephew of S. Ladislas, was crowned in
1102. The "porto d'oro" is all that remains of a palace built by Bishop
Valaresso, with its foundations in the sea. Mention of the place is
infrequent. Towards the middle of the eleventh century Crescimeno
Pietro, third king of Croatia, assigned a prebend to the Benedictines of
Zara Vecchia. In 1092 Busita, daughter of Roger I., Count of Sicily and
Durazzo, and wife of Coloman, king of Hungary, came here accompanied by
Geoffrey Malaterra. In 1114 Ordelaffo Faliero took it, and in 1115 it
was destroyed to the foundations by Domenico Michieli. Some of the
inhabitants, with the bishop and clergy, fled to Scardona; the rest,
with the notables, to Sebenico. The nuns escaped to Zara, and the
Benedictines crossed to Tkon in the island of Pasman, where they still
are.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Mgr. Bianchi has found the names of Madius and Zella in
documents of 1067 and 1096, and that of "Sergius tribunus" in one of
1091.]
XIX
SEBENICO
Sebenico lies within a fine harbour at the mouth of the Kerka, some six
hours from Zara. The entrance to the bay is defended by the strong fort
S. Nicolò, which bears the lion of S. Mark upon the landward side,
showing that Venice ruled when it was built in 1540 (according to
tradition, from Sanmichele's designs), though the actual sculpture is a
replacement of 1824 of the original thrown into the sea by the French in
1813. During the Italian struggle for freedom and unity many patriots
were shut up in the damp dungeons of this fort by the Austrians. Within
the strait, the Canale di S. Antonio, there is shelter for a large
fleet; and it is reported that the Austrian Government intends to make
it into a naval arsenal (of which the commencement may be seen in some
very ugly buildings to the left of the town). Sebenico is commanded by
three castles, from the highest of which, that of S. Giovanni,
constructed in 1646, a splendid view over town, bay, and islands rewards
the labour of the climb. The next is Fort Barone, so named after Baron
Degenfeldt, the gallant defender of the city against 20,000 Turks in
1647. It is now abandoned and in ruins. The third is Fort S. Anna, which
crowns the hill just above the houses. This is thought to occupy the
site of a king's castle mentioned in 1066. Fort S. Giovanni and the
walls, of which a great portion of the circuit still remains, were
restored in 1837. These walls are for the most part the work of kings of
Hungary, though the Venetians added to them. The sea suburb the Borgo di
Mare is probably the oldest portion of the place; that on the land side,
the Borgo di Terra, grew up with the need for the shelter of the
fortress during the Turkish wars.
In 1117 the town was taken and destroyed by Ordelaffo Faliero; but in
1127, when Zara Vecchia was razed to the ground by Domenico Michieli,
and the bishop and clergy were removed to Scardona, the bulk of the
population took refuge at Sebenico. It was a pirate city, and there was
continual strife between it and Traù. Until 1167 it was only a small
place, but in that year Stephen III. of Hungary gave it the title of
"city." Lago, however, says that it was only a "castello" till 1298,
when the bishopric was established by Boniface VIII. in consequence of
the representations of the archbishops of Zara and Spalato, and of Queen
Maria of Hungary. The first bishop was Martin of Arbe. When he was
consecrated, the ceremony took place in the piazza, because the church
was not large enough. In 1412 the chapter was allowed to choose its own
bishop; and the town and church authorities became responsible for law
and order throughout certain defined territories. The city seals bear
either an angel with nimbus standing on a dragon, and holding in his
right hand an upright sword, and in his left an orb, or a half-length of
a similar angel, holding an orb in his left hand and a sloping sceptre
in his right, with the sun on one side, and a crescent moon on the
other; above a city with a central gate and two side towers, with
windows on each side.
Sebenico owes its chief celebrity perhaps to its cathedral, the _chef
d'oeuvre_ of Giorgio Orsini, known as George of Sebenico, an architect of
exceptional genius, whose work may also be seen at Spalato, Ragusa,
probably at Ossero, and at Ancona on the other side of the Adriatic. His
father was known as Matteo of Zara, and was also a stonemason, as George
proudly announced himself to be when he carved upon the door of his
house a mallet and chisels hung with garlands which are supported in the
centre of the lintel by the bear, the cognizance of the noble house
which acknowledged his grandson as a relation.
When it was determined to rebuild the cathedral on a larger scale in
1402, the bishop and council of forty-five nobles made provision in
various ways for the work. The territory of Vodizze was assigned for the
purpose, the bishop gave half of the tithes, fines inflicted were to go
to the fund, notaries were charged to remind testators to leave
something to the fabric, &c. If the community of Sebenico went back from
their promises they were to be fined 1,000 golden ducats. When the
towers protecting the mouth of the port were rebuilt in 1409 the
Venetians seized the stone prepared for the cathedral, but subsequently
paid 80 ducats of gold as compensation. The city became Venetian in
1412. In 1430, after some wavering, it was decided to add the bishop's
palace and the street between it and the church to the cathedral site.
The building was commenced in 1431, under Antonio, son of Pietro Paolo
Massegna, in the Gothic style as understood by the Venetians; but in
1441 he was superseded by Giorgio Orsini with a six years' engagement,
on the strength of a design which he had made showing how he proposed to
complete the building. The west door with its scroll-work of exaggerated
curvature, its pinnacled canopies supported on twisted columns, and
figures of various degrees of excellence, shows Antonio's capacity and
his limitations. The side door, which is rather simpler and in better
proportion, is in much the same style, but has foolish-looking lions on
brackets beneath the columns outside the door, with figures of Adam and
Eve interposed between the columns and the canopied tabernacles above,
which bear great resemblance to those in a similar position at Traù. The
pointed and cusped cornice of interlacing arches, surmounted by a cable
moulding, which continues to the end of the transept wall, seems to show
that the building had advanced as far as this point when Giorgio
appeared upon the scene in 1441. The arms of the Venetian rectors also
afford indications of the progress and intermissions of the work.
In the tracery of the windows of the central apse a modification of a
graceful Gothic pattern has been employed, resembling patterns used in
the campanile at Traù, combined with classic pilasters and colonnette
forms, but the greater part of the rest of the building is early
Renaissance. The aisles are roofed with a half-wagon vault above the
quadripartite pointed vaulting, forming a kind of triforium, which is,
however, inaccessible; the chapels at the sides of the choir have the
semicircular form of the roof of the nave and choir, perhaps suggested
by the temple at Spalato, now known as the baptistery; and the east end
is tri-apsidal, the apses being polygonal, but roofed with a semi-dome.
All these forms are evident externally, the joints of the roofing slabs
being covered by an ornamented band answering to the internal supporting
rib. The external sculpture is in the main restrained and delicate, and
the general proportions are excellent. The angle pier at the north-east
of the north transept has the simplicity of its outline destroyed to
provide place for figure sculpture and the dedicatory inscription, and
the string dividing the stylobate from the principal stage bears a
curious decoration of heads in the round; but these are slight blemishes
amid much beauty. The heads have a good deal of character, and some
may be portraits of the architect's assistants. The same _motif_ occurs
round the square-headed door of S. Francesco alle Scale, Ancona. The
construction of the semi-domes and of the roofs shows that Giorgio was a
competent constructor; but the inventive and beautiful treatment of the
decoration of the choir shows him as something more. The graceful
singing-galleries at each side, terminating in the curved ambos attached
to the main piers of the dome, are very delicate and beautiful; the
lofty proportions of the nave and choir are impressive; and the little
baptistery, with its curious mingling of Gothic and Renaissance forms,
is quaint and ingenious, if not very pure in style.
[Illustration: EASTERN END OF CATHEDRAL, SEBENICO
_To face page page 248_]
In 1444 Giorgio went to Spalato to build the chapel of S. Ranier in the
church of S. Benedetto, which was to have been finished in two years,
but it was nearly four before the donor was satisfied. The price was 306
ducats of gold. It no longer exists. After his first contract expired at
Sebenico, where the work apparently progressed very slowly, he went
again to Spalato in 1448 to make the chapel of S. Anastasius in the
cathedral. Here he had to compete with the work of Gaspare Bonino of
Milan, who had made the corresponding chapel on the other side in 1427.
They are both rather late Gothic in style. In 1449 he returned to
Sebenico, his contract with the chapter having been renewed in 1446 for
ten years at an advance of five ducats. The first contract was for six
years, at a salary of 115 ducats. In a notice of 1450 from Zara, he is
thus referred to: "Mistro Zorzi, taglia pietra, proto alia fabbrica
della chiesa di S. Giacomo di Sebenico." The contract for the sacristy
is dated March I, 1452. It cost 600 ducats. He was at Ancona in 1451,
when he undertook the façade of the Loggia de' Mercanti, an ornate work,
which took eight years to build, and has several details resembling
those parts of the cathedral, Sebenico, which are ascribed to Massegna.
In 1556 it was burnt, and was restored by Tipaldi. Barnabei, a
contemporary writer, states that Giorgio also built the adjoining
Palazzo Benincasa. He must have gone backwards and forwards between
Italy and Dalmatia, for in 1455, while he was under contract with the
Sebenico authorities, he completed the fine façade of S. Francesco alle
Scale, Ancona, receiving a bonus of 70 ducats above the price, according
to Lando Feretti. The church was built in 1323. The monastery is now
half barracks and half hospital. Between 1455 and 1459, the façade of S.
Agostino in the same town was built as an addition to a church of 1338,
which also is now a barrack. The foliage, twisted columns, and canopies
are a good deal like the earlier work at Sebenico. In 1460, Giorgio
returned to Sebenico, but in 1464 and 1465 was at Ragusa, where he
helped in building the Torre Menze, and in restoring the palace of the
Rectors. The next year he was at Pago, improving and enlarging the
courtyard of the bishop's palace. It was the Bishop of Ossero, who
thought he was going to obtain the removal of the see to Pago, but
failed to do so. The façade of the cathedral at Ossero has been ascribed
to him, and there is nothing in its design to make his authorship
impossible. In the next year he undertook work on the façade of the
Cappella Grande of the parish church at Pago. In 1470 he went to Rome,
where his compatriot Giovanni Dalmato, the sculptor, of Traù, was at
work on the monument of Paul II. He went as representative of the
procurators to Paul II., in reference to certain charities left by
Bishop Vignacco, who died at Porto, near Rome. In 1472 it is stated that
he had let all the houses which he had in the Venetian dominions. In
this year he commenced the façade of S. Maria, Cittanova, in the
Marche. During his frequent absences from home, his Venetian wife
Elizabeth looked after his affairs, apparently having a power of
attorney. He had many pupils, some of whom continued to work on the
cathedral at Sebenico after his death in 1476.
The cost of the building is stated to have been 80,000 Venetian ducats
of gold. It was thoroughly restored between 1843 and 1860; seven out of
the fourteen caps of the nave arcade have been replaced, and a good deal
of the framing of the panelling of red marble above. At each side of the
west door are monuments to bishops, and also at each side of the choir
steps. The slabs are sloping, and bear figures in relief. That on the
right of the door is Bishop Sisgoreo's, made under Giorgio's direction,
with an inscription added in 1874 by a descendant. The tomb of Lucio
Stafileo ([Symbol: cross]1557). under whom the cathedral was
reconsecrated, is to the north. Those at the entrance to the choir are
Luca Spignaroli ([Symbol: cross]1589) to the left, and Domenico Calegari
([Symbol: cross]1722) to the right. The choir is raised six steps above
the level of the nave, and the sanctuary seven steps higher still.
At the time of Giorgio's death the work had progressed as far as the
roofing in of the apses, if one may trust the arms of Bishop de
Tollentis (elected in 1468), placed above the upper arch of the
transept; while upon the external arch to the north are those of Count
Captain Piero Canal, who left in 1470; and on the arch of the central
apse inside, behind the sculptured bust representing God the Father, are
those of Count Captain Girolamo Pesaro, who began to rule in 1476. At
that time, therefore, the nave and cupola remained to be completed. Upon
the cupola there are no arms. Those of Count Nicolò Mulla on the
clerestory north wall show that it was finished to the cornice in
1491-1493. Those of Nicolò Navager, who died 1489, fastened with iron
clamps in the same place, suggest that it was not completed at his
death, though it was probably in course of construction. The arms of
Count Andrea Gritti, captain in 1534-1537, on the summit of the façade,
show that the western end of the vault was completed by Giovanni
Masticevich in 1536. The western rose (at which Giacomo, son of Matteo
da Mestre, capo mastro, 1528-1535, was working in 1531) has Gothic
cusped arches to the radiating bars, but the mouldings round are
Renaissance, as are the angle pilasters to the nave wall and the pateræ
decorating the quarter-circles of the aisles. The fluted pilasters of
the dome are in harmony with the pilasters of the open gallery above the
nave arcade. The pointed arches, which were certainly finished in 1444,
are probably Massegna's work, though the leafy cornice above bears great
resemblance to carving for which Giorgio was responsible at Ancona.
The baptistery is a queer little building at the eastern end of the
south aisle, and one of the entrances to the cathedral is through it.
The font has a bowl and base of variegated marble, like that used at
Veglia, very flat in shape and unmoulded, supported by three _amorini_,
carved in Istrian stone, who stand round the supporting stem. The plan
of the building is cruciform, the arms of the cross being semicircular
niches which have shell-heads. The wall above them has Gothic tracery,
on the eastern side pierced to give light. The ribs at the angles are
supported on engaged columns, above which are Gothic figures beneath
canopies, of which two, David and Simeon, remain; the other two were
destroyed or stolen, I understand, by thieves who broke into the
building. The figures bend forward awkwardly beneath the curve of the
vault, which becomes domical, with angels and cherubs upon it. The boss
in the centre bears a head of God the Father and the Holy Dove, with
an inscription round the edge: "Hic est filius meus," &c.
[Illustration: LATE VENETIAN-GOTHIC DOORWAY, SEBENICO
_To face page 253_]
The question of the part played by Giorgio in the construction of the
cathedral is difficult to decide, being complicated by the mixture of
styles and the possibly later insertion of several of the coats of arms
of the rectors and bishops. The western piers of the crossing are
considered to be part of the earlier work, because of the close
resemblance of the carved foliage to Venetian-Gothic ornament; but it
must be remembered that Giorgio was trained in Venice, just as Massegna
was, and would be familiar with such work. Foliage of similar style
occurs in domestic work at Traù, and in other places along the coast, so
that it is scarcely safe to consider it the sign-manual of any one
sculptor. The time from 1441, when he signed a contract for six years,
to 1443 was spent in widening the street to allow of the eastward
extension of the church. On June 16, 1442, the demand for the rebuilding
of the façade of the count's palace (which was on the other side) was
formally made for the bishop, procurators, and chapter. This additional
space was necessitated by the design of the apse, &c., as laid down in
Giorgio's plan, and still existing.[2] The Gothic character of the
domestic doorway illustrated, with the late form of shield in the
tympanum, shows that such forms lingered late in Dalmatia. The same may
be said of the design of the rose-window, finished in 1531, and of
similar details which occur in undoubted work by Giorgio in Ancona.