changed when the altar from the church of S. Barbara was brought here
during the Turkish siege of 1537; it is mentioned in 1194. It is the
most ancient church in Traù, and the lintel of the door has an
inscription upon it with diamond-shaped O's, as used in the eighth
century. The ornamental carving also is consistent with that period in
its design, with crosses of interlaced work in the centre and at the
ends, two griffins with tails entwined in a circle, one on each side of
a central feature, with a rosette within a cable moulding, and rough
trefoils filling up gaps. The interior has nave and aisles, with four
stilted arches resting upon columns on each side, and three apses (of
which the central one is larger and longer than the others) with two
niches in the wall, covered by a semi-dome on squinches, the plan being
square. The caps and columns appear to be antique for the most part, and
just outside is a shallow cap of the same pattern as one at Kairouan.
The aisles are very narrow, and are vaulted with cross-vaulting without
ribs, but with strengthening arches thrown across to the wall. The nave
has a barrel vault with pilaster strips running up to the springing of
the strengthening arches, which are all round and unmoulded. A moulding
with three projecting corbels runs round the base of the apse vault. It
is said that there was once a central cupola. The east window still
retains a lattice-pierced slab. The church is now a store-house for odds
and ends, with a floor halfway up over the western part, but the podestà
told me that they hoped to clear it out and make it into a museum.
S. Domenico retains portions of Gothic work. The building was finished
in 1372. A rough relief in the tympanum shows a Virgin and Child, and on
the right a local saint, Augustino Cassioti, canonised by Pope John
XXII. (1313-1334), with mitre and pectoral, and on the left S. Mary
Magdalene. At the feet of the saint kneels the foundress, his sister
Bitcula. A Gothic inscription gives her name, and that of the sculptor,
"Maiste Nicolai de te dito cervo d Venecia fecit hoc opvs." Within are a
picture of the Circumcision by Palma Giovane, with a pretty Virgin, the
marble sarcophagus of the family Sobota, a grandiose Renaissance
production, and six panels of saints on gold ground, rather like the
Gubbio school in style, arranged in threes on the wall of the choir.
The cathedral, however, is the glory of Traù. It replaces an earlier
building, reported to have dated from the sixth century, but destroyed
by the Saracens in 1123. At this time the Traùrines fled to Spalato, and
apparently did not venture back till 1152. The builder of the main part
of the cathedral was Bishop Treguanus, a Florentine who came from
Hungary, and was bishop from 1206 till about 1256. The south door bears
the date 1213, the great west door 1240, but the west gable has the arms
of Bishop Casotti (1362-1371) upon it, and the campanile was not
finished till 1598. The plan shows a nave and aisles five bays in
length, terminating in three apses, while to the west is a broad and
lofty porch, above one end of which the tower rises. This porch is
entered by an arch at the south end, but there is another opposite the
great west door; and at the further end is the fifteenth-century
baptistery. Round it runs a low seat with arcaded panelling, which
serves as base to all the shafts. It is vaulted in three bays, with
twisted colonnettes in the angles of the piers. The vaulting is
quadripartite, with ribs and two arches three feet broad repeating the
divisions of the nave, all the arches being round. The central
compartment rises like a dome upon the surface of the terrace above. In
the aisle walls are two pierced circular windows, Romanesque in design.
In one, two dragons are represented devouring a man; in the other are
two lions rearing against a twisted pillar on which is a cup. The bodies
are broken, and the tails, which remain, encroach upon the wall surface.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL, TRAÙ]
The great west door is the pride of all Dalmatia, and is unsurpassed in
the elaborate richness of its carving. It is dated in the lintel
inscription 1240, and signed Raduanus, a Slav name Radovan latinised.
There are two orders and a tympanum with octagonal shafts in the angles,
those nearest the door apparently having fragments of highly carved work
inserted, since the plain octagonal shaft is visible both above and
below the carving. A flattish gable surmounts it, with a kind of
tabernacle work at each end above the figures of Adam and Eve, and a
cresting of crockets shaped like eighth-century crockets in a similar
situation. In the centre is a little niche with a later figure of S.
Laurence, the patron saint. The tympanum is occupied by the subject of
the Nativity, arranged in two stages. In the centre above is a curtained
recess, with the Virgin in bed, and the Child in a kind of cradle, above
which the heads of the ox and ass appear. Over them are two angels, one
of whom holds a star from which rays stream down on the Child, whilst
the other speaks to the shepherds. Below are Joseph and two women, one
of whom pours water into a tub, while the other washes the Child in it.
Behind Joseph is a shepherd (these two figures are named). On the left
are the shepherds and their flocks; on the right the three kings ride
up. "Guasper" and "Balthssar" are also named. The arches above are
unmoulded, but carved on the face. On the outside order at the top is
the Crucifixion, with the Virgin and S. John and two kneeling figures.
Commencing from the bottom on the left the subjects run: the Flight into
Egypt; the Entry into Jerusalem; the Marriage of Cana, or the Feast at
Simon's House; the Scourging of our Lord; the Watchers at the Grave, or
the Resurrection; the Temptation, or Casting out of Devils; and the
Baptism of Christ. Some of the reliefs are damaged. The inner order has
at the top the Adoration of the Kings (Joseph stands behind Madonna's
throne); at the base the Annunciation (the Virgin spinning on one side,
and Gabriel with a long staff on the other). This and the cupola on the
building behind the Virgin suggest a Byzantine model, as well as the
incorrect monogram, which is [Greek: YTh]. The rest of the arch is filled with
censing angels. The jambs bear four-feet figures of Adam and Eve outside
the orders of the arch, holding fig-leaves in the same manner as the
figures at Sebenico, which they much resemble. Below Eve is a lioness
with two cubs under her, and a lamb in her claws; below Adam a lion with
a dragon in its claws; very decorative in their effect, and standing
upon brackets with channelled supports enriched with balls. The
pilasters are not quite homogeneous, and indeed scarcely agree even with
their fellows on the opposite side. Next to Adam are three figures of
Apostles with nimbi, in panels made by the crossing of foliated stems;
next to Eve are also three figures without nimbi, but smaller, though
the panels are similar; two have small canopies. On the other face are
foliage scrolls with animals within them; on Eve's side an ass, horse,
camel, elephant, hippopotamus, and the Oriental _motif_ of a griffin
stooping over its prey; on Adam's side a woman riding on a horse, a
centaur with a dart, a mermaid, a sea-horse, and at the bottom a griffin
devouring a scroll, with a human head attached. Below the ornament are
semi-nude caryatid figures on one side; on the other they have turbans
and shoes, and one has ankle band-ages. In the angle is an octagonal
shaft of green marble which continues round the arch. The reliefs on
Eve's side in the next order show details of burgher life and
agriculture, probably labours of the months or seasons--pruning leafless
trees, the preparation of leather, a man seated by a fire on which is a
cauldron, whilst a woman fills his cup from a skin over her shoulder,
behind hang sausages. Above is a pig which a man is about to kill. The
other side is similar. Above are shepherds shearing sheep in a wood;
then comes a figure holding a scroll upon which there is no inscription;
below is a warrior with sword, baton, and shield, below him a nude man
with flying hair, both among twining branches. Upon the other face are
spirals of leaf ornament with heads of men and beasts, resembling a
piece of antique carving at Spalato, finished with extraordinary care
and mastery. Caryatid figures support this order also, turbaned and
clothed with tunic and cloak. The carved portions of the inner columns
are of a white limestone, while the octagonal shafts are of green
marble; and this gives some support to the legend that they were brought
from Bihac, a castle of the kings of Croatia and Dalmatia, and later of
the kings of Hungary, a short distance away, of which scarcely a sign
now remains.[3] These shafts have elaborate scrolls of intertwining
branches and leaves, with animals, including some not found in Dalmatia.
The hunter has a greyhound. There are a stag, a bear, a sow, hares
dragged out by peasants, &c.; here there is a female centaur; there a
girl seated on an ox, a wood-devil with two horns, &c. On the other side
are lions and bears, figures fighting, a young man with a falcon, loose
dogs, &C., all most carefully carved. Beneath the lintel two caps with
_amorini_ of the fifteenth or sixteenth century have been inserted.
[Illustration: CARVING ON RIGHT JAMB OF WEST DOOR, CATHEDRAL, TRAÙ
_To face page 272_]
The south door is simpler, but in the same round-arched style. It has
square orders with rolls laid in the reveals, of which the inner one
resembles a cable, and the outer chain mail. In the semicircular
tympanum is a round window enclosing a quatrefoil surrounded by an
inscription with the date 1213 and the name of Bishop Treguanus. The
side walls are divided into five spaces by piers; an arched corbelled
cornice terminating in mouldings runs along them, and returns up the
slope of the east wall. Above it is a curious little loggia with very
squat pillars and brackets imitating the wood forms of Venetian
courtyards, but cut in stone. The alteration in the slope of the east
end shows that it is a later addition. The same kind of cornice finishes
the east gable and the nave walls, and also runs round the apses, but
with richer mouldings above it, especially round the central one. The
curious Dalmatian square-leaf enrichment, channelled in six radiating
striæ, and terminating in a small volute at the top corner occurs here.
There are two shafts to each small apse dividing the wall space, and
one window, but the central apse has four twisted shafts and three
windows, of which the central one is largest. In the gable is a
rose-window. On the roof of the northern aisle the lines of the plan and
elevation of parts of the campanile are cut, working drawings for the
masons. Heads of beasts project beneath the aisle cornice as gargoyles.
Above the ground story the tower is Gothic, and has two Gothic windows
of two lights on the south side, with octagonal shafts and traceried
heads. The other sides have arcading divided into two panels. Here there
is an inscription giving the date of 1422, and the names of the Masters
Mateus and Stefanus, probably the Matteo Goykovic who contracted for the
repair of church and campanile with the "operarius" of the church in
1421. The stage above has tall square-headed windows, with reticulated
tracery in the heads of cusped circles or quatrefoils, and two lights
below with central colonnette. The angles have shafts, and there is a
pointed trefoiled cornice with carved mouldings and cornice above. The
third story is Renaissance, finished in 1598 by Trifon Boccanich. Gothic
details still appear as in the shafted two-light windows, with the
pierced quatrefoils above and the twisted shafts at the angles. The
whole finishes with a pyramidal spire, imitating the Venetian campanile.
The gable above the portico has an enormous wheel-window of sixteen
divisions, which had a door beneath it.
The nave is 19 ft. 6 in. broad. Its piers vary in width, and the
round-arched arcade is irregular in its spacing. The north aisle is
broader than the south. The piers and arches are unmoulded; the arches
have two orders, carved imposts, and a very small base. The main arches
of the vault have mouldings at each side of a fiat surface, and are
pointed; the lesser ribs are twisted. The central bay only has a rib
running east and west at the summit of the arch. The aisles are vaulted
in the same manner, but with semicircular section. All the vaults are
domical, and those of the nave spring from corbels carved in the style
of Venetian fifteenth-century work. This agrees with the statement that
the vaulting dates from 1427-31, and was strengthened by chains and iron
anchors in 1440. The central bay has the south door on one side of it,
the chapel of S. Giovanni Orsini to the north; and the pulpit against
the north-eastern pier marks the commencement of the choir, which is
raised two steps above the level of the nave. A stone bench runs round
the apse, but there is no sign of an episcopal seat in the centre. The
ciborium is somewhat of the type used by the Roman marble-workers in the
twelfth century, but the proportions resemble those at S. Nicola, Bari,
more than the other Italian examples. It is of grey marble, and bears
upon the western angles of the square portion figures of the Virgin and
the Angel Gabriel, the latter kneeling, for which the change to
octagonal plan for the upper portion leaves room. The figures are
fifteenth-century in character, and on the bases are the names of the
artist and of the overseer--on that of the Virgin, "Mavrvs me fecit"; on
the angels', "Bitalis qda Martini oprarii," in Lombardic letters. The
"operarii" were generally nobles, and had control of the church works. A
gilded inscription on the front of the architrave gives the angelic
greeting. The columns are of cipollino; the caps, once gilded, are very
like those of the pulpit, which seems to be of the same date. It is
octagonal and surrounded by round-arched arcading, two arches to a side,
with coupled columns on the sides and three at the angles, above single
arches resting upon shafts of precious marbles with elaborate caps which
also at one time were gilded. The design suggests the copying of a metal
original in the treatment of the foliage scrolls and the heads of the
monsters, and contrasts with the pulpit at Spalato, in which a wood
treatment of the capitals is suggested. The column for the book-rest
stands on a little lion bracket; of the eagle which once surmounted it
only the claws remain. Beneath it William, son of Baldwin, emperor of
Constantinople, was buried in 1242. The choir stalls are of the
fourteenth-century Gothic type, like those at Arbe and Zara, touched
with colour and gilding. They cost eighteen ducats of gold each, and
were restored in 1757 and 1852. The carved portions are added, not cut
out of the solid. The chapel of S. Jerome at the west end on the north
was built in 1458. It has a qua trefoil wooden grille, made by cutting
triangles out of the uprights and cross-pieces equal in size to the
angles remaining. On the west wall is a little relief of a Virgin and
Child, S. Jerome, and a saint with halberd, beneath early Renaissance
niches and channelled pilasters. On the nave piers are paintings, most
of them of little value. A S. Jerome and S. John the Baptist show
decorative feeling in the landscape and its combination with the figure;
and on the second pier on each side is a row of nine saints and angels,
small figures as if from a predella, which show a combination of
Peruginesque and Florentine design and colour. Eitelberger says the
paintings above the side altar are ascribed to the younger Palma. The
cross of lamps which hangs in the nave recalls S. Mark's, Venice, as do
the harmonious tone of the interior and the colonnettes of precious
marbles of the pulpit. The great crucifix was brought from Venice in
1508. The organ was made by Frater Urbinus in 1485. Its wings, painted
in 1489 by Giovanni Bellini, are now on the first pier. In 1767 another
organ replaced it. The sacristy, an irregular building of 1444-1452,
cost 4,020 zecchins. It has a pointed barrel vault, and contains a very
fine row of cupboards worked by Gregorio di Vido in 1452, made of
walnut, carved and inlaid, and costing 125 ducats. The treasury was once
the richest in Dalmatia, but now only contains a few objects--arm
reliquaries, ostensory, and a silver-gilt ewer, &c. The most interesting
things are some embroideries and a MS. of the ninth or tenth century,
with very beautiful script. The embroideries are the centre of a cope,
with S. Martin dividing his cloak, in high relief (the horse, drapery,
and crown in seed pearls, the hair in gold, and the canopy ornamented
with gilded discs and seed pearls) of the beginning of the fifteenth
century, and a mitre said to have been Bishop Casotti's, with the Virgin
and Child standing in the centre (at each side Byzantine roundels
painted on gold, the whole set in jewels and with seed pearls).
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL, TRAÙ
_To face page 276_]
The chapel of S. Giovanni Orsini and the baptistery remain to be
described. S. Giovanni was the greatest of the bishops who rilled the
see of Traù, and was canonised in 1192. He came to the city with the
legate John of Toledo in the time of the Croatian king Cresimir. The
papacy desired to unify the ritual of the Church, substituting the Latin
language and the Roman use for the national liturgies, as it had done in
Spain, in Milan, and Aquileia. At this time there was no bishop of Traù.
The piety and strict life of S. Giovanni were soon noised abroad, and
the people desired him for their bishop. In this they were supported by
the legate, and he was consecrated in 1064 by Archbishop Laurentius of
Spalato. He dismissed his servants, and went through long night-watches,
lying naked on straw spread on the floor, to mortify the flesh. The fame
of miraculous occurrences accompanied his austerities. His hand on the
wine-press produced abundance of juice; he escaped dry-shod from a wreck
near Sebenico; and destroyed by his words the war-engines of Coloman in
1105, when he was attacking Zara. A white dove which settled on his
head when in conference with the king at Castell, near Sebenico, was
taken as a spiritual symbol. He prophesied his own death and the
destruction of Sebenico, and miracles were performed at his grave. The
body was found in Bua after the Traùrines returned from Spalato in 1152,
though another account says that it was discovered within the area of
the cathedral, near the high-altar where there is now a well. In 1174 he
is reported to have appeared above the building in the form of a shining
star; and after that the commune adopted a comet as the arms of the
city. The chapel stands on the site of the more ancient double chapel of
SS. Doimus and Anastasius. It was begun under Bishop Turlon in 1468, the
architects being Masters Nicolò Fiorentino and Andrea Alexci of Durazzo,
the stipulated price being 3,300 ducats, and the work occupying six
years. The chapel is rectangular, with a barrel vault. Round the walls a
seat runs, the front of which is ornamented with diamond forms filled
with foliage. Above it is a kind of stylobate with pilasters supporting
the columns of the next stage, the spaces between them decorated with
reliefs of torch-bearing _putti_, who are represented as issuing from
partly open double doors, some of which are very pretty. Each side
contains six arches, two of which are pierced with windows, the others
having shell-headed niches divided by channelled pilasters or twisted
columns, and tenanted by statues nearly life-size. Those which are named
are "S. Tomas, S. Ioannes Evangelista, S. Pavlvs, and S. Filippo."
Others recognisable by their attributes are S. John the Evangelist as an
old man, with the eagle at his feet, S. Mark with his lion, Madonna and
S. John the Baptist on the end wall, with our Lord in the centre. Vasari
says that Alessandro Vittoria did four Apostles in the church of Traù,
and it is suggested that the named figures are these four. The
architects carved the first figure, that of S. John the Evangelist, in
1482, at a cost of twenty-five ducats. Between the heads of the niches
little children stand on the capitals, and above the cornice is a space
pierced by oculi between pilasters. The ceiling is coffered with a
cherub's head in each panel, except the central one, which is four times
the area of the others, and contains a half-length of Christ, surrounded
by a wreath, holding an orb, and blessing. On the lunette is the
Coronation of the Virgin. Above the altar is the ancient tomb of the
saint, upon the lid of which is his effigy, with silver-plated mitre,
and crozier, gloves and shoes. It is of red marble, the front being
divided into three panels by twisted colonnettes, once gilt, with
statuettes at the corners, and bears an inscription giving the date
1348. The angels are modern. On the pier opposite the side door an
inscription records the gift of the right femur of "B. Jo. Ursinus" to
Benedict XIII. by the Venetian senate in 1724.
The baptistery is of the same date as the chapel, and was founded by the
same bishop, who belonged to the Anconitan family of Turglonia. The door
externally is square-headed, and has an architrave with sculptured della
Robbia like fruits. Over it is a Baptism of Christ, with God the Father
and the Dove above. Within is a frieze of _putti_ bearing garlands, with
shell-head niches and channelled pilasters below. Above this is a band
of Venetian-Gothic leaves, and in the coffered ceiling are rosettes.
This ceiling is a pointed wagon vault, cut from two great blocks of
marble, which meet in the centre. A round window in the west gable
lights well a life-sized figure of S. Jerome above the altar, the warm
brown tint of a portion of the stone being cunningly used to give the
effect of shadow on the upper part of the figure. A seat runs round the
base of the wall as in the chapel. An inscription gives the name of
Andreas Alexius of Durazzo, and the date 1467. The cost was 4,980
zecchins. The resemblance of this baptistery to portions of the
cathedral at Sebenico is striking.
The Loggia faces the cathedral at the other side of the _piazza_. One of
the shorter ends is open; the other is closed by the clock-tower, and on
this wall is elaborate carved ornamentation, behind the seat of the
judges. The floor is three feet above the piazza, and is approached by
five semicircular steps. Towards the _piazza_, five marble pillars (in
several pieces) support moulded brackets, upon which an architrave beam
rests, and there is one on the shorter side. The caps are of different
dates, and for the most part come from older buildings, one indeed being
antique. Between the columns is an early Renaissance balustrade. Stone
benches run along the walls. Above the judges' seat the wall is
panelled. In the central top panel is a figure of Justice seated upon a
winged globe; right and left of her are half-lengths of winged figures
with inscribed scrolls, laudatory of Justice, emergent from circles.
Below Justice is a great lion of S. Mark, and below the other figures
are S. Giovanni Orsini with a model of Traù, and S. Laurence with his
gridiron. At each side is a long panel with a candelabrum very like
those in panels in the chapel in the cathedral, which make it pretty
certain that the carving is by the same hand, especially as the date
1471 appears in one of the inscriptions. There are other inscriptions
with the dates 1513 and 1606, and later coats of arms. On the corner
shaft are the arms of Pietro Loredano. By the judges' seat is a piece of
iron which marks the place where the criminal was chained when his crime
was announced. The restoration was carried out in 1892 by Professor
Hauser. Right of the steps three standard measures stood till 1843.