the Porta Pile. The Order was at first established outside; but the
convent founded in 1235 was destroyed by the Republic to prevent the
Servians from using it as shelter, and in 1315 the monks came within the
walls. It is said that S. Francis himself came to Ragusa in 1220, and
several of the Franciscan convents in Dalmatia claim to have been
founded by him. The church has a late Gothic doorway on the south, with
an ogee tympanum bearing a Pietà, and flanked by pinnacled niches which
have statues of SS. John the Baptist and Jerome; above is a figure of a
bearded saint holding a book. The foliage is well carved, and the
pilasters are panelled in two stages. Behind the church is the first
cloister, surrounded by an arcade resting on coupled octagonal
colonnettes with unmoulded round arches, divided into groups of six by
piers. The wall above is pierced by oculi of different sizes, some of
which have quatrefoil tracery within, and the caps of the columns show
an almost Romanesque variety and vivacity. The wall terminates with a
carved quarter-roll moulding and a balustrade with cusped round arches
above coupled colonnettes. This balustrade, notwithstanding its style,
was only completed in 1629, unless this date refers merely to repairs
done at that time. On the south side is a fifteenth-century fountain,
with a later statue of S. Francis; in front of it is a paved walk
flanked by seats, the backs of which form the enclosure of the raised
garden on each side. It is as pleasant a place as the Dominican
cloister, though quite unlike it. The architect was Mag. Mycha of
Antivari, whose signature may be found on a corner pilaster, with the
date 1363. Higher up the hill is another cloister, long and narrow, with
round arches resting on square piers, and a well under a picturesque
penthouse roof. Here it was that the herbs and simples were grown. By
the side of the steep stair (which goes up still higher) a little rill
of water flows, I suppose, to the lower cloister. The convent cost
28,000 ducats to the public treasury, besides much given by generous
donors, the Ghent merchants especially contributing largely. The top of
the campanile was replaced after the earthquake of 1667. In the sacristy
are some stall-fronts and cupboards ornamented with intarsia of
arabesques and figures of saints of the Order, the latter rather rough
in workmanship. Also a pretty, early Renaissance lavabo in Istrian
stone. The church plate, including a fine monstrance, is kept in a
Gothic cupboard painted with the arms of the Bona family. In the church
is a great crucifix which came from Stagno, painted in tempera, with the
symbols of the Evangelists. The library is rich in literary documents,
and in the convent, upstairs, is a picture which shows Ragusa as it was
before the earthquake.
High on the hill above the Franciscan church is the early nuns' church
of La Sigurata, hidden away in a court. Like several others of the early
churches it shows no sign of its great antiquity.
The Rector's Palace was commenced in 1388 and completed in 1424, at a
cost of 40,000 zecchins. In 1435 it was partially burnt, and was
restored under "Onofrio Giordani de la Cava," who had been five years in
the city.
[Illustration: LOGGIA OF THE RECTOR'S PALACE, RAGUSA
_To face page 354_]
[Illustration: CAPITAL FROM THIS LOGGIA, RECTOR'S PALACE, RAGUSA
_To face page 355_]
The second story, which existed as a kind of tower above each end of the
façade, was thrown down by the great earthquake, and never rebuilt. The
loggia has stone benches against the walls, one to the left, and two,
one above the other, to the right, which were the seats for
senators on great _fête_ days. In 1462 there was another fire, so that
only fragments of Onofrio's work remain--the hall on the ground floor
with the seventeenth-century wooden ceiling, several of the caps of the
loggia, and the courtyard within, the great door and the windows of the
first floor. This is all that appears to have been preserved. The great
council then called in Michelozzo the Florentine and George of Sebenico.
The former was at Ragusa in 1463, looking after the building of the
walls of the city; and on February 11, 1464, it was ordered "that the
palace be rebuilt" after his designs; but, in the following June, George
of Sebenico was appointed, working, no doubt, on the general lines laid
down by Michelozzo. The great hall was burnt during the French siege,
and very little remains inside worthy of note. There are two tolerable
pictures, one an early copy of the Paris Bordone in the National
Gallery, the Venus and Adonis, and the other, a Baptism of Christ, in
the manner of Paduan work of the fifteenth century. Both have been
restored. The courtyard has an arcade of round arches, resting on
cylindrical columns with Renaissance caps, and an upper arcade resting
on twin columns and piers, two arches to each bay, both stories being
vaulted with sustaining arches, but without ribs. The loggia in front
has ribs and bosses at the intersections. A small staircase to the right
contains other remains of Onofrio's building--a bracket, on which is
carved a figure of Justice holding a label, and with a mutilated lion on
each side of her; opposite to it is a capital, on which is carved the
Rector administering justice; neither of them in their original place.
The main doorway is pointed with a richly carved moulding and caps,
which belong to Onofrio's work; above it is S. Biagio in a Renaissance
niche, and between the caps and the arch a shallow frieze is interposed,
on which are carved little figures engaged in combats, a love scene,
and Cupids with an organ and trumpets. The corbels from which the vaults
spring are carved, the subjects being two groups of boys playing, a man
fighting a dragon or basilisk with club and little target, a struggle
between a girl and a bear, &c. The doors at the end, the Porta della
Carità, where distribution of corn used to be made to the poor at a low
price, and that opening on a stair to the hall of the Lesser Council
appear to belong to the earlier building. The ring with the lion's head
on the door is a fine piece of fourteenth-century bronze-work. The
knocker is not so good. A knight with raised arm stands on a lion's head
against a post covered with scales; above and below foliage spreads out.
The caps of the loggia are very fine, though not of equal value. The
three central ones are Renaissance work, and marry admirably with their
heavy, ornamented abaci, which in the others appear over-heavy, and
plainly an addition. In the earlier work the technique of the carving is
better, and the foliage has more spring. The most interesting one is the
Æsculapius subject, which De Diversis saw in the carver's hands in 1435,
planned, as he says, by Nicolò de Lazina, a Cremonese noble, who was
chancellor at the time. It is interesting both from the point of view of
the carving and costume, and as showing the apparatus of an alchemist's
laboratory. Close by it on the wall is the "metrical epitaph," which De
Diversis says the chancellor composed. The columns, which are of Curzola
marble, belong to the earlier building, though the entasis shows that
classical feeling was beginning to affect even architects who worked in
Gothic. Mr. T.G. Jackson's explanation of the addition of the heavy
abaci seems quite reasonable--viz. that the earlier arcade was pointed,
and that, since a good deal of the building survived the fire, it
was necessary to raise the springing of the arches, when they were
made round to match the levels of the ends which were not destroyed. The
carved string-course above and the Gothic windows of the _piano nobile_
are also remains of the earlier building. There was a castle on the site
of the palace from the days of the establishment of the Slav colony on
Monte Sergio, which, together with the marshy inlet which then occupied
the site of the Stradone, afforded sufficient protection to make sudden
attack on the part of the Slavs inadvisable; when the two settlements
were joined together by a common line of defences it became the seat of
government.
[Illustration: ÆSCULAPIUS CAPITAL, RECTOR'S PALACE, RAGUSA
_To face page 356_]
[Illustration: FOUNTAIN OF ONOFRIO DE LA CAVA, RAGUSA
_To face page 357_]
There are two other pieces of Onofrio's work still in existence in
Ragusa, the pretty little fountain between the Rector's Palace and the
Sponza, next door to the Corpo di Guardia, of which an illustration is
given, showing a certain admixture of Renaissance feeling with Gothic
foliage, and the much mutilated fountain just within the Porta Pile. It
had two columns at each angle, of which only the inner one remains, and
a marble cupola surrounded by statues. The aqueduct which supplies it
and the other fountains is eight miles long, and brings the water from
Gionchetto. It was only completed in 1438, after many discouraging
incidents. Opposite to it is the pretty façade of S. Salvatore, built
after the earthquake of 1520, and due to Bartolommeo da Mestre,
"protomagister" of the cathedral of Sebenico, which it resembles a good
deal in the character of its design and mixture of Gothic and
Renaissance forms. It has a nave of three bays with an apse; the
vaulting is Gothic, as are the windows, but the arches rest on classic
pilasters, used also at the angles of the façade, the horizontal lines
of which are varied by the semicircular gable and quadrants which flank
it. A rose-window occupies the central place, and above the door (which
is rather later in style) is a long dedicatory inscription in an
ornamented panel space.
[Illustration: PLAN OF LA SPONZA, RAGUSA]
At the bottom of the piazza, upon which the Rector's Palace, the
cathedral, and S. Biagio face, is the Sponza or Dogana, the ancient
custom-house and mint. The custom-house was on the ground floor, and the
scales for weighing merchandise hung in the wide arch opposite the
entrance. The mint was on the second floor, and the first floor was used
for carnival and social meetings of the nobility. The building is of
several periods dating from the beginning of the fourteenth century to
1520, a date given by an inscription on the second story. The courtyard
has an arcade of round arches, four on each side, and one of a greater
breadth at each end, resting on octagonal piers, the caps and arches
moulded simply. The first floor has an arcade of pointed arches, two to
a bay, with alternate piers and columns, the end having circular
arches above the broader arch below. The second story is lighted by four
little square windows, and above are three quatrefoils to give air to
the roof timbers. On the end wall are two angels in relief, holding
"I.H.S." within a garland. The two arcades are vaulted simply, the caps
on the first floor have good foliage, and the stories are divided by
moulded string-courses. Names of saints are inscribed over the doors of
the warehouses opening from the lower cloister.
[Illustration: LA SPONZA AND ONOFRIO'S FOUNTAIN, RAGUSA
_To face page 359_]
The façade terminates with a fantastic cresting above the roof cornice.
In the centre of the second story is a niche with a figure of S. Blaise,
flanked by two rectangular windows on each side. The _piano nobile_ has
two ogee-headed windows with geometric tracery, flat decorated
archivolt, and slender shafts on the outer and inner surface of the
jamb, and a three-light window in the centre, made up to a square head
with quatrefoils in the fashion of the Ca d'Oro at Venice. On the ground
floor there is a graceful round-arched portico resting on columns with
Renaissance caps; beneath it are the windows and entrance door of the
custom-house. The building is still used for its original purpose, and
Albanian and Herzegovinian porters lounge about it in strange costumes.
The clock-tower was built in 1480, and altered in 1781. There is a bell
in it founded by Battista of Arbe. Opposite is the Roland column.
Affixed to a pilaster is a symbolic statue typifying freedom of
jurisdiction and commerce. It was replaced there in 1878 after a
prolonged sojourn in the Rector's Palace, having been thrown down by a
storm in 1825, when a brass plate was found with an inscription of the
beginning of the fifteenth century, stating that here was the place of
the standard of the Republic. It is not a work of any artistic merit.
A little way outside Porta Pile (thought to be a corruption of the Greek
word [Greek: phylê], a gate) is the cemetery church "alle Dancé,"
overlooking a bay beneath the Lapad promontory. It was begun in 1457 for
the poor of the city, and contains a fine picture. The west door is
elaborately carved with somewhat confused ornament, and in the pointed
tympanum is a Madonna and Child flanked by two standing angels, which do
not fit in quite comfortably. By the door is a holy-water niche of still
stranger design, with a shell-head which quite insufficiently supports
the three figures forming the crowning feature. The sacristy was in
possession of several women who were washing clothes on both the
occasions when I visited the church. The picture is by "Nicholavs
Rhagvsinvs," who thus signs it, with the date 1517. It is in the
original frame divided by pillars into three compartments, with a
predella and a lunette above. In the lunette is a Crucifixion with the
Virgin and S. John, two female figures and S. Mary Magdalene, and
cherubs round our Lord; the Virgin's robe is deep blue; the others are
red or green, on a gold ground. In the centre compartment are the Virgin
and Child enthroned, with a little S. John kneeling, surrounded by
little angels. Silver crowns have been added. The Virgin has a red robe
with a cloak of cloth of gold on which is an elaborate pattern in dark
blue; the Child holds fruit and corn; the cherubs have scarlet wings and
gilt nimbi. In the right-hand panel is S. Martin on horseback, dividing
his cloak; he wears a green tunic, over which is a golden coat with a
design in red lines upon it. The cloak is bright scarlet. The beggar is
Christ with cruciferous nimbus, On the left hand is S. Gregory, with his
dove on his shoulder, carrying a crucifix; he wears a richly-embroidered
cope of cloth of gold, with red pattern and a border of saints in
niches. These are both on gold grounds. The predella has also three
compartments. In the centre is S. George and the dragon, with a pale
blue landscape and sea; the princess kneels in the background. On the
right hand is a saint receiving a mitre from two bishops, surrounded by
other bishops, monks, choristers, &c. On the left, a pope in a golden
robe is being crowned by two cardinals, surrounded by cardinals,
bishops, Dominicans, and Franciscans. There is a landscape background.
The whole effect is most decorative, due partly, no doubt, to the fine
frame with golden arabesques on a dark blue ground. Another picture
above the high-altar looks later, though it is in a very architectural
frame. It represents the Madonna and Child on a large scale in the
centre, with God the Father and angels in an oblong panel above. At each
side of the Madonna are two small saints one above the other, probably
SS. Francis, George, Blaise, and Nicholas. The Madonna and Child and God
the Father have crowns of silver or silver-gilt; the Child is nude; the
Madonna draped in metal, with a pattern on the outer robe. The
background and the frieze are entirely covered with little votive silver
plaques.
From the hill which one mounts on the return, the whole of Ragusa lies
spread at one's feet, from the great fort S. Lorenzo, perched upon its
rock, to the Torre Menze, the culminating point of the walls, in front
of which the lower slopes of Monte Sergio are covered with the houses of
the suburb. On a fine evening the view past the fort towards the Bocche
is enchanting, but when _scirocco_ blows, and the foam splashes high up
the rocks, it is not safe to approach the edge. Here a pleasant garden
has been laid out, and aloes grow, though not so luxuriantly as on the
other side of the town.
Above the door of the salt-magazine near Porta Ploce is the oldest
relief of S. Blaise, possibly dating from the beginning of the
thirteenth century. Behind the communal palace is the harbour, Porto
Casson, which recalls the prosperity of the Republic, when it was one of
the richest countries in the world, and when the merchants and privateer
captains who lived in the Via Priko, upon the hill, owned between them
100,000,000 ducats, according to computation.
From here a little steam-launch plies in the afternoon to the island of
Lacroma, on which a cloister was founded in the eleventh century, the
Benedictine rule being transplanted hither in 1023 from the Tremiti
Islands in the person of Fra Pietro the Ragusan, who, with a priest
named Leone, laid the foundations of the monastery on land given them
for that purpose. An inscription mentions the name of Vitalis the
archbishop, son of Dominus Theodore (1023-1047). It was the Ragusan
Westminster Abbey till the Franciscan and Dominican churches were built.
Here it was that Richard Coeur de Lion escaped from shipwreck, and,
according to local tradition, founded the cathedral of Ragusa in
gratitude for his escape, though the entries in the Ragusan archives
prove that it was built by contributions from the nobles. The ill-fated
Maximilian of Mexico owned the island, and restored the convent as a
country residence, in which the unfortunate Crown Prince Rudolf also
lived. We, who had gone there in hopes of seeing something of the
eleventh-century buildings, were disappointed at being taken through
corridors and rooms containing objects which were looked upon as relics,
and finally round some elaborately laid out and luxuriant gardens to one
or two natural curiosities. The building is now occupied by a school,
towards the support of which a landing-tax of one corona per person is
exacted. This did not, however, prevent the man who showed us round
telling us that he was dependent on the charity of visitors! All that
is to be seen in the way of architecture is a cloister of the early
Renaissance period, pretty enough with its garden within; but I should
certainly not recommend the English tourist to spend time and money in
visiting the island.
Beyond the harbour of Ragusa the road leads below the Dominican convent
to the outer Ploce gate, passing two chapels--SS. Annunziata, with a
group of S. John the Baptist and two other saints in the tympanum of the
Gothic doorway, and S. Luke, with Renaissance decoration and tympanum.
Turning sharply beneath two gates, above the outer of which S. Blaise
stands in his usual place, the road passes over a stone bridge which
replaces the original drawbridge, and through the outer gates to the
lazaretto and Turkish bazaar. Here there is a late Renaissance fountain,
at which country people, most of whom are Herzegovinians, may be seen
watering their mules, for the road to Trebinje comes down to this gate.
There is little else to see in the bazaar, the importance of which has
much declined; but from this side of the town charming views of Ragusa
may be obtained, with a foreground of rocks, of aloes, often in bloom,
of rough steps going down to the shore, or a little farther away, where
the height of Lapad can be seen crowning the city, of olives and stony
roads; always with the blue sea stretching from below towards and beyond
the grey town shut so securely within its walls. Beyond is the
romantically, situated deserted convent of S. Giacomo degli Olivi, and
from it paths wander farther among olives and cypresses along the edge
of the cliff, below which, on the level of the water, is the grotto
Spila Betina.
The Republic was a curious mixture of enlightenment and oriental
backwardness. In 1335 the whole town was paved, a great sewer was
constructed, and there were regulations about tiling and other
constructional matters. Traffic in slaves was abolished by act of the
Greater Council on January 26, 1416. In 1432 a foundling hospital was
established, and in 1435 public schools. All who died of the plague in
1430 were burnt, by advice of the Ferrarese physician Giacomo Godwaldo,
who also established the custom of isolating the sick some years before.
Yet, in the state prisons below the small loggia, prisoners were
sometimes walled up alive, and dungeons existed flooded at high tide,
without any precautions being taken to prevent it. The treatment of
women was quite oriental. In 1462 girls above the age of twelve were not
allowed outside the house, and were seen only by their relations and by
ecclesiastics; and, of course, marriages were arranged by the parents.
In the theatre, only noble women and those of the citizen class were
admitted. The sumptuary laws were strict. Nobles and public officials
above eighteen were obliged to wear a large loose robe and black hose.
It is recorded that a certain Tuberone Cerva came into the Senate one
day with a robe longer than the prescribed measure, and it was cut short
then and there, which mortified him so much that he turned monk. At
funerals they had hired mourners, which again suggests oriental
influences.
The _consiglio maggiore_ contained all the nobles above twenty years of
age inscribed in the golden book called "Lo Specchio" (which was
compiled in 1440). The Senate acted as court of appeal in judicial
cases, and was formed of forty-five senators, the "Pregati," who were
over forty years of age. The executive was the Little Council of seven
members. At the head of public administration was a senator who from
1358 was called Prior, then Count, and later Rector. The populace called
him "Knez" (Prince). He was in office for a month only, and, with eleven
councillors, settled the most important affairs of state. He lived in
the palace, and only left it on state business. He wore a red cloak with
a black band on the left side, and red shoes and stockings (in
accordance with a Byzantine tradition). He never went out alone, but was
always accompanied by councillors, secretaries, the chamberlain,
twenty-four red-clad attendants, and a band of music. Besides the Rector
there was a town council of ten, which acted as police superintendents.
The five _provveditori_, elected annually from among the "Pregati,"
looked after the rigorous observance of the statute. No law could be
altered without the vote of seven-eighths of the Greater Council, and no
new law could be made without a three-quarters majority of the same. The
treasurers were elected from the oldest senators. At the head of the
eleven administrative districts were counts or representatives; they
were the only salaried officials.
Under the Venetian supremacy great precautions were taken to prevent
usurpation of the rights of the Republic, while the count was received
with great splendour. On disembarking, he presented himself to the
people, received from the signory the standard of S. Biagio, and, with
this in his hand, swore on the gospels to preserve and observe the
customs and laws of Ragusa. Then he went to the cathedral, receiving at
the door incense and holy water from the chapter, who gave him the
gospels to kiss, upon which he renewed his oath in front of the altar.
After a canon had delivered an oration in praise of him and of the doge,
he returned to the piazza, still bearing the standard, where he received
the homage of the people, "who swore the holy pact with the
Serenissima," the standard of S. Mark being unfurled.
The people were divided into five castes--clergy, nobles, citizens,
workmen (sailors, merchants, &c.), and countrymen. There was a gulf
between nobles and people. The countrymen were like serfs attached to
the land, and spoken of as "tilings" belonging to their masters. Among
the nobles were two orders. Those of ancient lineage were called
"Salamanchesi," from the University of Salamanca, where they had been
educated; the "Sorbonnesi" (from the Sorbonne) were nobles of more
recent date.
After the earthquake of 1667 several citizen families were ennobled. But
between the two ranks of nobles the antipathy was so great that they
never intermarried. The plague of 1526 destroyed 20,000 persons, that of
1348, 11,000, and the earthquake of 1667 some 6,000. It has been
computed that in the times of her prosperity Ragusa counted 40,000
inhabitants. In connection with the visitations of the plague it may be
noted that in 1466 the musicians of the rector were ordered to go every
Saturday to play before the houses of large donors to the votive church
of S. Biagio; but by the request of their descendants this custom was in
1548 replaced by a similar concert in front of the altar of the crucifix
in that church.
In 1805 the first capital sentence for twenty-five years was pronounced.
The city went into mourning, and an executioner had to be brought for
the purpose from Turkey.