provisions against the slave trade, which are among the earliest in
history. A curious survival of mediæval festivity still exists in the
"Moresca," a kind of Pyrrhic dance, danced on national festas, which is
a reminiscence of the days of Algerian piracy. There are twenty-four
dancers, and the leaders, the standard-bearer, and the "bula," who is
the spouse of the Moorish king. The performers are divided into two
bands, one representing Christians (in Spanish costume), and the other
Moors, from which the name comes. The whites, led by the king of Spain,
conquer in the combat, and the "bula" is taken and freed amid general
rejoicing. At the beginning and end, the Christians declaim a kind of
prologue or introduction in accordance with the object of the festa, and
a salutation and thanks to those assisting at the end. The costumes are
rich, each dancer carries sword and dagger, and the performances (which
are enthusiastically received) take place in the open air upon a raised
platform. In one or two places there are also survivals of mediæval
mystery-plays.
The town is on an oval peninsula on the north-east coast, united to the
mass of the island by a low isthmus. The main street runs along the
ridge from the land gate to the cathedral piazza. From the sea the walls
appear almost perfect, but there is a wide quay all round the town, and
the houses stretch a long way along the shore. There is not a street
within the walls through which a vehicle could pass, all the
thoroughfares (which are mainly alleys and staircases) rising steeply to
the cathedral. The buildings remain much as when the Morosini and
Faliero ruled, but comparatively few of the three hundred or so of
houses within the walls are inhabited; most of the ruined palaces are of
the period of the Ducal Palace, Venice, and some of them have been
architecturally remarkable. The walls and towers are in the main of
1420, but were strengthened by the Venetians. The towers which remain
are the Merlata Barbarigo of 1485, Merlata Tiepolo of about the same
date, Merlata dell' Aspello, erected as a defence against the Turks in
1570, the gate-tower on the Piazzetta of 1649, and the Gothic Torre
Lombardo of 1448, near the land gate. The walls can be walked round in a
quarter of an hour, and are dominated by the Fort S. Biagio, erected by
the English.
[Illustration: WEST DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL, CURZOLA]
The cathedral has a fine west doorway with twisted and knotted
colonnettes and a pointed arch with tracery in the tympanum, and a
modern figure of a bishop in front of it. Enormous brackets supporting
couchant lions rest upon the knotted columns, with curious figures of
Adam and Eve on their lower faces. A circular hood mould, with ogee
finial, springs from them. In the gable is a traceried rose, above which
is an elaborate cornice with beasts' heads projecting at the angles,
shell niches, and floral finial, and at the meeting-point of the ramps a
bust of an elderly woman in the costume of the fourteenth century, with
hair in curls at each side of the face, a jewelled circlet, pleated gown
with tightly fitting sleeves slashed and embroidered, and a border round
the neck above a laced under-garment. There are two other doors at the
ends of the aisles. The tower appears to have been added above the north
aisle about 1463; it finishes with a shafted parapet and two open
octagons with domical roofs, one above the other. Along the aisle roof a
carved cornice runs, and above the trefoiled pointed clerestory windows
is an arched corbelled cornice. The nave and aisles terminate in
semicircular apses. The nave and choir together are of five bays, with a
pointed arcade on monolithic pillars. The aisles are cross-vaulted
without ribs, but with pointed arches between the bays. The roof of the
nave is of wood. The triforium is of two round arches to each bay, with
short coupled columns, now built up, and with wooden figures of the
Apostles set in each arch. The tower occupies one bay of the north
aisle, and encroaches on the next arch. Four of the caps have the
symbols of the Evangelists; those of the columns of the south aisle bear
flowing late Gothic foliage resembling two at Sebenico, and the doorway
illustrated at Traù; those of the north arcade are of the seventeenth
century. A fourth aisle was added to the north in 1532 as a burial
chapel. The ciborium has three octagonal stages pierced with
quatrefoils, above long architrave blocks, the carving of all the lower
part being Renaissance in style. The interior of the church was sadly
modernised in 1804, but the curious sacristy door still remains. It has
a tympanum with S. Michael weighing souls and trampling on the Devil,
and, below the lintel, two brackets with musicians, the hood mould
running up in ogee-shape to a finial. The high-altar-piece is a
Tintoretto--S. Mark vested as a bishop and blessing, with a lion at his
feet between SS. Bartholomew and Jerome, who are nearer the spectator.
On a side altar is a picture representing the Trinity, by Giacomo da
Ponte (1510-1592). The treasury possesses some good embroideries and two
or three chalices, one of which, with a half-figure of Christ in the
tomb, is set before the baldacchino on Good Friday, to show symbolically
that the Body of Christ is in the Sacrament.
On the way to the church of Ognissanti the Palazzo Arneri is passed; it
has a fine knocker in the manner of John of Bologna--Neptune standing
and controlling two lions, a design of which there are examples in Padua
and elsewhere. The church of All Saints was built in 1303. It has been
modernised, but still retains a ciborium with quatrefoil piercings and
angle pinnacles, bearing much resemblance to that in the cathedral. A
stair leads to a Greek church, in which are several painted wood
crucifixes and Byzantine pictures.
Some forty minutes away, on a small island to the east, is the
Franciscan convent, La Badia, a building of the fifteenth century for
the most part, containing a rather pretty cloister of white marble
erected in 1477. The arches are stilted, pointed, and trefoiled,
arranged in groups of three, with wider slightly segmental openings with
cuspings for entrances. The spandrils are filled with Gothic leafage,
the bases and caps to the columns are early Renaissance, and the frieze
is quite plain, with a dentilled cornice. The church is not interesting
architecturally; the western façade is imitated from the cathedral, but
it contains a crucifix brought from Bosnia by refugees after the battle
of Kossovo.
[Illustration: TRAVELLING AT EASE: AMONG THE ISLANDS
_To face page 329_]
The plague of 1558 smote Curzola very heavily, and as years went by it
sank lower and lower. The convenience of the neighbouring pine-woods,
the two ports between which the town lies, and the existence of Porto
Pedocchio caused the Venetians to move their arsenal hither from Lesina
in 1776; and during the last century it has recovered to some extent,
but the population remains poor.
The island of Lissa lies to the north-east of Curzola, much farther away
from the mainland. The climate is very mild; palms, cactus, aloes, and
myrtle flourish; and a wine known as Opollo is as much sought after as
that made from Lissan grape-juice, praised in antiquity by
Agatharchides. It is cut into by two large bays, to the west the Valle
di Comisa, and to the north-east the harbour of Lissa. There are some
small remains of antiquity. The foundations of the Roman theatre are
partly in the sea, and other Roman ruins are round about the harbour,
though the ancient Issa occupied the site of Gradina, 300 ft. above the
sea. One statue at least which was found here has been taken to Vienna.
Lago says that under the building of the Blessed Virgin "delle
Graticelle" there are caverns said to contain the graves of Diomede and
his companions. Apollonius of Rhodes says that the original colonists
came from Issa in Lesbos, and were Pelasgic Liburnians; but Polybius
tells of a Greek colonisation in 392 B.C. under Dionysios the Elder, of
Syracuse. It is certain, from gems and inscriptions found, that a free
state existed here about 340 B.C. It was through Issa seeking protection
from Rome that the commencement of the conquest of Illyria sprang. Their
being able to help the Romans with twenty ships in their war with Philip
of Macedon, and their founding such cities as Tragurium and Epetium show
their importance in antiquity. The Goths of Ravenna destroyed the town
in 535 A.D., on their way to Salona. It was destroyed a second time by
the Narentans, and a third time, in 1483, by the Aragonese. The great
battle for which Lissa is celebrated took place on March 13, 1811, when
the French were beaten by the English, who destroyed all their ships but
three, the commander Dubourdieu being killed, after which Lissa was made
a kind of Adriatic Malta. The Austrians strengthened the fortifications
of the English, making it an arsenal, and in 1866 Tegethoff beat the
Italian fleet here. Some interest attaches to the fortifications,
monuments, and graveyards of the island, on account of the British
occupation. The monument recording the English victory is in the English
cemetery; in the other is a memorial to those who died in the
Italo-Austrian fight. At Busi, a few miles away, is a blue grotto,
discovered in 1884, claimed to be even more remarkable than the
celebrated grotto at Capri.
Lagosta lies due south of Curzola. It belonged to Ragusa, and the
islanders are still very proud of the connection. Uros I. (the Great)
gave it to Ragusa in the second half of the thirteenth century. In the
cathedral is a Titian signed on the back.
Meleda is east of Lagosta, and south of Sabbioncello. It also belonged
to Ragusa, given to the Republic by a Servian prince in the twelfth
century. It has historical memories of Julius Cæsar, Octavian, Septimius
Severus, and Caracalla, and was used in antiquity as a place of
banishment, like Bua opposite Traù. In the town of Porto Palazzo ruins
of the palace built by the Cilician Agesilaus of Anazarba, governor of
Cilicia under Nero, and sent here by Septimius Severus, still exist. In
the ninth century the island was part of the Narentan dominions. The
building, formerly a convent, traditionally said to have been founded
before 1000 on the little island of S. Maria del Lago, is like a
mediæval castle with battlemented walls and a tower. The cloister is
picturesque with ancient date-palms, and there are several monuments in
the church. The island is prettily situated near the shore of the Lago
Grande, one of two lagoons reached by a pleasant road from Porto
Palazzo.
Nearer to Gravosa is Mezzo, the ancient Delaphodia, which also belonged
to Ragusa. The mother church is away from the town, and is known as S.
Maria del Biscione, a building of the fifteenth century. It contains an
altar-piece with gilt arabesques on a blue ground, and large painted and
gilt wooden figures of Apostles and the subject of the Assumption. A
predella contains carvings of the Last Supper and the Washing of the
Disciples' Feet. It was made in the seventeenth century, though the
style is earlier. There are also two pictures--a Madonna and Saints, of
the earlier Venetian school, and an enthroned Madonna and Child with
four panels of saints at the sides, both restored. In the sacristy are a
Venetian lavabo, some embroideries, and a fine fifteenth-century
processional cross. An iron grille round a side altar bears the Visconti
arms, which are also those of Mezzo. The "biscione" (serpent) in these
arms gives its name to the bay, and so to the church. The church of the
deserted Franciscan convent is now used as the parish church. It is a
building of the latter part of the fifteenth century, and contains some
fine carved stalls of the usual type, and a fine altar-piece by Nicolaus
Raguseus, 9 ft. high, and with an arched top. God the Father is
enthroned above, surrounded by angels with the instruments of the
Passion. The five panels in the upper row show the Angel of the
Annunciation, S. Blaise, Christ with the Cross, and half-figures of S.
Anthony and the Virgin. The centre subject is rather broader. Below it
is a later painted wood carving of the Madonna and Child. The panels at
the sides have figures of SS. Roch and John the Baptist, Francis and
Catherine. The frame is carved and painted blue, and gilded. There is
another picture by the same artist in S. Nicholas, which was the
Dominican church--an Annunciation, dated March 16, 1513, with a predella
of five subjects, a praying Dominican, a Nativity of Christ, a galley in
the harbour of Mezzo, the Adoration of the Magi, and the entrance of the
Dominicans into the cloister. A good campanile still remains, though the
cloister is ruined. There are several chapels in the place, also
roofless and in ruins, and two ruined castles.
A Captain Pracat, who left 200,000 ducats to the Republic of Ragusa, and
who was honoured with a half-length figure set up in the court of the
Rector's Palace in 1638, was a native of Mezzo. A towel given him by the
Emperor Charles V. is preserved at Mezzo, together with some church
plate of unusual design. The chalice is a mixture of late Gothic and
early Renaissance in character, with two little angels, now wingless,
holding to its edge, and treading with one foot on the knop, thus
forming handles. It is so large as to recall the ancient ministerial
chalices. Medallions with the Evangelists' symbols ornament the bowl,
with scroll-work between; the knop is covered with similar ornament, and
on the foot is a full-length figure of S. Blaise. An ostensory has the
same detail of the flying angels, and there is also a large paten with
Christ as the Man of Sorrows on a blue enamel ground.
The island of Lacroma is beyond Ragusa, and can be easily visited from
that place. It is the last Austrian island of any importance, and will
be described in the next chapter.
XXIII
RAGUSA
Ragusa is one of the most charming spots in Dalmatia, and one can quite
understand the action of the inhabitants who refused to leave it
notwithstanding the ruin wrought by the earthquake of 1667, when it was
proposed to move the community to a safer situation. The grey town upon
its rocky seat, lighted by the brilliant sun, contrasts with the blue of
the sea and the green of the luxuriant vegetation (much of it tropical),
amidst which villas nestle picturesquely, and from the cliffs on either
side at morning and evening the glow of the sun's level rays, or the
characteristic silhouettes of town and rock are equally effective,
according to the position of the spectator. But the sea, which is
generally calm and blue, can be lashed to fury when _scirocco_ blows, so
strongly sometimes that it is difficult to keep one's feet, and, though
storms do not usually last many days, the spray has been known to fly
right over Fort S. Lorenzo, situated on an isolated rock 100 ft. above
the water.
Large steamers cannot enter the little harbour, so Gravosa, on the
estuary of the Ombla, a mile or so away, serves as the usual port. It is
sheltered by the rocky island of Daxa, and affords another of those fine
harbours with which Dalmatia is so well provided. On one of our visits
to Ragusa we stayed at the Hotel Petka at Gravosa, and in front of the
windows a flotilla of torpedo-boats lay at anchor with steam up. It was
interesting to see the men doing everything to word of command. In the
morning they got up at a signal; drew up water to a signal, washed
themselves and then the boats, prepared meals, &c., &c., all in public
view, for there was very little deck and apparently no room below at
all. In the hotel we were interested by some tame swallows, which flew
about the hall and came into the restaurant; but a detestable mechanical
piano, operated by an electrical motor on the penny-in-the-slot plan,
which was a source of great pleasure to some Slav visitors, interfered a
good deal with our comfort. I am sorry to say that when I had time to
look over the account for the rooms (for we were hurried in leaving) I
found that we had been charged for a day more than we had been there,
the only instance of such a thing which we experienced in our journeys
up and down the coast. Some of the houses along the road by the water
have delightful gardens, and piles of fruit and vegetables made
fascinating colour compositions by the waterside, whilst the vivid
colour of some of the strange costumes, such as that of the quaint old
Herzegovinian charcoal porter, contrasted well with the more ordinary
clothes of officials and traders. Large numbers of Herzegovinian
emigrants take boat at Gravosa; and I remember one day, when Ragusa was
full of them and their friends and every vehicle crowded between that
place and Gravosa, what a strange sight the pier presented, so thickly
packed with people that one wondered none were pushed off. The variety
of colour and picturesqueness of costume and type among the men and
women was interesting, and it was touching to think of the sundering of
friends and relations, and the grief at parting which many of them
showed in their strongly marked countenances. From Gravosa the source of
the Ombla is easily visited, a strange river springing full-grown
from beneath a cliff but a few miles from the sea. The Greeks called it
Arione, the Latins Umbla, and it is believed to be the same river as the
Trebisnizza, which becomes subterranean some two and a half hours'
journey away in the Herzegovina. Its depth is unknown, as the actual
source at the foot of the Falkenberg cannot be approached, but the weir
which dams up the river creates a pool some 65 ft. across, in which
mulberry-trees, fig-trees, reeds, and bushes are reflected, and
furnishes the power for working two great mills. The river is but three
miles long before it merges in the estuary, and its banks are sprinkled
with villas and villages, the railway station and the admiralty stores
occupying the portion nearest to the harbour.
[Illustration: HERZEGOVINIAN CHARCOAL PORTER, GRAVOSA
_To face page 334_]
From Gravosa the excursion to the plane-trees of Cannosa and to Stagno
may be made. The great plane-trees are 40 ft. in circumference, and
their branches spread over a diameter of some 200 ft. The larger one
takes twelve men with outstretched arms to surround it. The villa of
Count Gozze, close by, has beautiful gardens. Stagno has historical
interest. It is twenty-three miles from Ragusa, and is mentioned in the
"Tavola Peutingeriana" as "Turns Stagni"; the Romans knew it as
"Stagnum." There are traces of ancient walls right across the isthmus,
which is only a kilometre wide, Sabbioncello being thus almost an
island. It was given to Ragusa by Stephen VI. of Servia in 1333, and the
Republic spent 120,000 ducats in fortifying it during the next
twenty-four years. Till 1815 it remained tributary to Ragusa, and was
ruled by a civil and political count. A little way north-west was the
northern slip of territory which Ragusa gave to Turkey to prevent her
territories touching those of Venice, the little peninsula of Klek, with
about two-thirds of a mile of coast and the little port of Neum. On the
south the Sutorina valley fulfilled the same function. Both were handed
over to Turkey in 1699 at the peace of Carlowitz with the assistance of
Spain, and were only incorporated with Austria in 1878.
[Illustration: PORTA PILE, RAGUSA
_To face page 336_]
The road to Ragusa climbs the neck of the peninsula of Lapad, where the
Ragusan merchants had their villas in their days of prosperity, passing
the exercising-ground, up and down which recruits march and manoeuvre
notwithstanding the heat. The high walls have masses of flowers hanging
over them and little summer-houses perched upon them here and there
among the verdure. At the bottom of the descent is a tree-planted
promenade, across which the grey walls of the Porta Pile glimmer,
pierced with a low arch above which the patron saint, S. Biagio, looks
forth from an early Renaissance niche, with his hand raised in blessing,
as he does from above the other gates and from the huge bulk of the
Torre Menze, the great tower crowning the line of walls which ramps up
the slope to the left. The situation is magnificent, and from the sea
the view of the town is unique among Dalmatian cities by reason of the
strong sea walls, a sign of freedom from the supremacy of Venice, whose
winged lion only appears in one place, by the convent of S. Maria, on
the gate to the sea, closed in 1358, where the upper border of the panel
may also be seen. Within these walls the streets are mere narrow lanes
in one direction, and in the other mainly flights of steps which climb
the hill. Fine effects of light are produced in consequence, especially
when the street dives beneath houses through dark arches. The only broad
street is the Stradone, which runs from one gate to the other, and was
once an arm of the sea, though one can scarcely believe that it could
have been so sufficiently recently to have allowed of the ships lying
close to the merchants' houses in the time of Ragusan prosperity,
as some say. The houses along this street are all of the same character,
and were, no doubt, built after the great earthquake of 1667. Many of
them have shops beneath an arch, half of which is filled by the counter,
while on the wall outside hang draperies of ravishing colours, or
embroideries or metal-work, sparkling in the sun, or cases containing
jewellery, brightly coloured leather-work, &c. Above the roof-cornices
quaint dormers and strangely fashioned chimneys rise, producing a most
picturesque sky-line.
[Illustration: TORRE MENZE AND FORT S. LORENZO, RAGUSA
_To face page 337_]
The walls are perfect in their whole circuit, and give one a very clear
idea of the complicated arrangements for the defence of a mediæval town,
by the many gateways and tortuous roads by which the town is entered,
while the external appearance remains quite mediæval.
These fortifications date from 1380, when the last Venetian Count had
gone, but there are later additions. At this time the Castel S. Lorenzo
was built, displacing an oratory built on the site of a nunnery
established before the eleventh century. Forte Molo, by the harbour
(formerly Fort S. Giovanni, and now much altered) and the tower of S.
Luca still remain of the earlier fortifications. As the town spread it
was fortified by the addition of the Torre Menze (built in 1464 by
Michelozzo and George of Sebenico, but altered in 1538), the Torre
Leverone (built in 1539 to defend the harbour and the road to Breno),
and Fort S. Margherita (1571). The French built Fort Imperiale on Monte
Sergio and the battery on Lacroma. The cliff-like masses of stone are
stern and forbidding, and one thinks the citizens must have been glad to
escape from them on to the wooded slopes of Monte Sergio (bare and stony
now), though their apparent impregnability must have been comforting in
those days; when the strong hand often over-ruled right and justice.