Madonna della Salute, now used as an ossuary, which has a piece of
Lombard carving inserted in the tympanum above the door. The present
cathedral was built about the middle of the twelfth century. A great
effort was made, contributions were invited, and a tax of three per
cent, on legacies was imposed. Success crowned the effort, and on June
19, 1166, Bishop Malone consecrated the altars, amid the rejoicings of
the Bocchesi. The head of S. Trifone, stolen in 968, was brought from
Constantinople in 1227 by Matteo Bonascio. At first deposited in S.
Pietro, it was brought to the cathedral on December 20, with great pomp.
In return, he was given the field of S. Theodore, and his family was
exempted from communal taxes in perpetuity.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL, CATTARO]
The plan of the cathedral is that of a Roman basilica with nave and
aisles. The three apses are semicircular, with pilasters externally. The
nave has three quadripartite bays, and a half-bay to the west. The
aisles have seven quadripartite bays, two to each one of the nave,
with columns between the three pairs of piers upon which the vaults
rest. The bay before the apse has been a step higher than the rest. What
the arrangement will eventually be it is difficult to say, judging from
the state of the interior on the two occasions when I was in Cattaro.
The columns of the nave are some of them Byzantine-Roman, and some of
them Corinthian. The aisle windows and the fine east window are Gothic.
The vaults are most of them of the sixteenth century, the towers of the
façade seventeenth or eighteenth, and the great rose-window and the
doorway below, late Gothic with Renaissance details, rebuilt after the
earthquake of 1667. The nave is about 88 ft. long, the aisles within the
towers 81 ft., breadth of nave, 19 ft. 6 in., of the aisles 9 ft. 9 in.
The ciborium is exceedingly interesting. It rests upon four octagonal
columns of the red marble of Lustizza, a place not far away. The altar
was rebuilt and beautified in 1362, and it is probable that the
baldacchino is of that date. On the base on which the pillars rest are
sinkings showing that the altar had a central octagonal pillar, with
four smaller circular ones surrounding it. The caps of the ciborium are
rather richly carved, and the lintel bears on three sides subjects in
relief from the legend of S. Trifone, the back being carved with
ornament. The illustration shows the three stages of trefoiled arches,
the two lower with coupled colonnettes. The lowest has caryatid figures
of a warrior and a civilian in front of the angles to the west. The next
stage has twisted colonnettes at the angles, the third squat single
shafts, and on a little crowning member pierced with four arches stands
a gilded angel, the rest of the canopy being octagonal. The proportions
of the figures are squat, and the carving rather rough. The first time I
saw it I was able to examine it closely, as it was surrounded by
scaffolding, and there were some remains of colour on the figures; but I
should not like to assert that it was original, since I understand that
the reliefs were painted to imitate marble, and the figures gilded about
the middle of the last century. The silver pala is said to be fixed on
the wall of the apse during the completion of the restoration; it
certainly was not there when I visited the cathedral, and I have not
seen it.
[Illustration: CIBORIUM OF S. TRIFONE, CATTARO
_To face page 383_]
The treasury contains a good many rather uninteresting objects, such as
arm and leg reliquaries of the fourteenth century, or later rather,
decorated with nielli and bosses in relief, and a few others shaped like
vases borne on stems; on some of them the date 1483 can be traced. The
reliquary of the body of S. Trifone is of silver, and rather rough
sixteenth-century work, but encloses a wooden coffer, upon which remains
of ninth-century paintings have been discovered. The head reliquary is
of gold and enamel, the stem and an arcade round the upper part of
fourteenth-century work (the upper portion re-made in the seventeenth),
and the foot apparently of an intermediate period, with early
Renaissance details upon a Gothic plan, medallions in relief, and rough
scroll-work. The knop has eight roundels with niello crosses crossleted;
on the stem are saints in niello in vesicas. The arches of the canopied
arcade are filled with figures in relief in couples and enamels in
_basse-taille_, red and blue alternately. The nielli have had a ground
of blue enamel. These two reliquaries and a crystal cross in a very
graceful setting, early Renaissance in style, are kept in a receptacle
lined with cut velvet, upon which are embroideries of half-figures of
saints beneath niches raised in gold; above the niches are domes, and
between them twisted columns, probably originally part of a vestment. A
globe-shaped ciborium, with cresting and knop of the fourteenth century,
is interesting. Upon the globe a pattern with beasts and leaves is
chased; the foot is conical and sexfoil in plan, with little niello
medallions and piercings on the perpendicular parts of two steps. The
knop has pinnacles and pierced gables. A half-length figure of Christ in
silver, upon a seventeenth-century pierced hemispherical base, is well
modelled and designed, and a reliquary cross of wood used by the
Capuchin monk Marcus Avianus, on September 12, 1683, to bless the allied
hosts on the Leopoldsberg before the relief of Vienna from the Turks,
deserves mention. In the treasury is also a great Romanesque crucifix of
painted wood, over life-size, with the feet crossed. According to
tradition it belonged to the church of the Franciscans outside the
walls, built in 1288 by Elena, wife of Orosius I. The church was pulled
down when there was war between Venice and the Turks, and moved within
the Porta Gordicchio, which was therefore called the Porta S. Francesco.
Most of the convents are now used by the military authorities.
[Illustration: RELIQUARY OF THE HEAD OF S. TRIFONE, CATTARO
_To face page 384_]
La Colleggiata is the ancient church of S. Maria Infunara, which
Andreacci Saracenis founded, but was rebuilt in 1221, during the Servian
period. It has a nave two bays in length, the first cross-vaulted, and
the second with a dome enclosed within an octagonal drum, and with a
barrel-vaulted presbytery before the apse. An aisle to the north,
continued to the tower as a sacristy, is later. The apse has shallow
pilasters dividing the exterior surface into three, in the centre of
which is a walled-up east window of two lights, with a cross within a
circle in the tympanum beneath the enclosing arch. The arch of the south
door is perhaps a fragment of the original building, and the west door
also looks early. In the aisle is a Virgin and Child, with painted
faces, and the hands and feet added in relief and painted. The draperies
are silver and silver-gilt, patterned, and each figure has a nimbus
formed of a gilded patterned roll. The background is of silver, with
little angels supporting the Virgin's nimbus, and there is a curious
frame of filigree arabesques of tinsel set in wire and standing free.
[Illustration: S. LUKA, CATTARO
_To face page 385_]
S. Luka, the Greek church, of nearly the same period and plan as the
cathedral, was built in 1195 by Marco di Andrea Casa Franci, and Bona,
daughter of Basilio, prior of Cattaro, The dome is pointed, and rests on
four pointed Romanesque arches with rough pendentives. The apse is
divided by pilaster strips into three portions externally, and in the
central one is a two-light round-headed window with central colonnette.
The roof is continued over the chapel of S. Spiridion to the north
(which has an apse, but no window, except the little rose over the
external door), and this makes the church look square from the
south-east. The west side has one clerestory window beneath a great
unmoulded arch, and a circular-headed door below, the jambs of which are
made of earlier fragments; the late belfry is of three arches, two and
one; beneath is an unusual curved ornamentation, a curious presage of
the "New Art" of a few years ago. The church appears to have been
restored in the fourteenth century, since a consecration by Bishop Doimo
II. is recorded in 1368; but it has been a Greek church since 1689, was
enlarged in 1747, and the structure shows signs of considerable
rebuilding. The iconostasis is of the seventeenth century; the paintings
are covered with silver plates. There is a huge cross with wings at the
base and paintings. Through the central arch the _arca_ and a little
cross are seen. The chapel of S. Spiridion also has its iconostasis. At
Easter time two processional crosses of silver and a Resurrection banner
decorate the church outside the iconostasis. The Cattarine silversmiths
have also executed work away from their own shores. It will be
remembered that Stephen IV. of Servia gave a silver altar to the church
of S. Nicola, Bari, in 1322, the work of Abrado of Cattaro.
There are a few interesting doors and windows in the town, of various
periods. The Palazzo Drago, near the cathedral, has a pretty window of
something the same style as the east window of the cathedral; the great
doorway of the provincial tribunal has some fine heraldry in the
tympanum (a helmeted lion, with another lion for the crest) and angels
in the spandrils, while upon the caps beneath the lintel are other
lions, with shields flying from their necks. These are of the late
Venetian period. The façade of the Nautical School, illustrated,
displays a bold and unusual treatment, and there is a well near the
hotel with elaborate and massive iron-work about the pump connected with
it. The streets and alleys are all of the same width, and badly lighted,
and it is a difficult place to find one's way about after dark. The only
amusement available is usually the large café on the Riva, which appears
to be open at all hours of the day and night--at least, we had coffee
there before leaving by boat at 4.15 a.m. The gates are shut at 9 p.m.,
except the Porta Marina. Over this gate the Venetian lion still appears,
a rather late example, but in refreshing contrast with the griffins
supporting the Austrian arms above, a work of 1814. Outside are gigantic
oleander-trees, and, to the right, the market, where many Montenegrins
may be seen in their striking costumes. Beyond the Porta Gordicchio is
the wood market, and one for horses and forage is outside the Porta
Fiumara, where the barrack for belated Montenegrins stands, for they are
not admitted within the walls.
[Illustration: THE SCUOLA NAUTICA, CATTARO
_To face page 386_]
Just outside the Porta Marina we found a shooting-saloon established on
our second visit, with a number of moving figures, which performed on
the marksman hitting a certain point, the most diverting of which
were an old woman with a kicking donkey, and two fighting goats. Several
soldiers tried their hands, but with very indifferent success. Great
excitement was evoked by an accident while the mails were being unloaded
one afternoon; a post-van fell into the water, many large postal parcels
being damaged, and part of the top of the van ripped off by the measures
adopted for its recovery. This "Riva" was the scene of the murder of
Danilo II. in 1860.
The walls, which are 28 ft. high, were built in 1667, after the older
ones had been thrown down by an earthquake. These must have been strong,
since the city was blockaded in vain by a Venetian fleet in 1378, and
attacked by the Turks equally vainly in 1539, 1569, 1572, and 1657. The
present walls zigzag up the mountain to the Fort S. Giovanni, which
dominates the roads leading into Montenegro. From the fort one looks
down upon the first house beyond the frontier. A little below the fort
is a threatening mass of rock, which has been bound with iron to prevent
it from falling upon the city below. The Montenegrin road climbs the
mountain with no less than sixty-six zigzags.
At a little chapel with an early Renaissance façade some way outside the
town, the Angelus bell hung outside just below the gable termination,
without any visible means of being rung, and we wondered how this was
done, until we happened one day to be within sight at the Angelus hour,
when we saw a man bring out a ladder and ascend to within reach of a
short cord hanging from the clapper, which he seized and agitated!
[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE WALLS, CATTARO]
The military are on the look-out for spies, and our camera occasioned
two or three very searching inquiries. I congratulated myself upon
having obtained authority to photograph from headquarters, without which
we should certainly have been stopped. After taking the group of the
Albanian horsedealers (who crossed with us to Bari with their
merchandise) we wished to have a separate figure of the villain to the
left; but the next man, who was master of the gang, thought time enough
had been lost, and, taking the halter from a horse, twisted it round his
neck by way of explaining that he was his servant, and that he objected
to any further interruption to business. As we were walking between
Perzagino and Mula an old man addressed us, asking if we were English,
and, on our replying that we were, said he had been twenty times in
London, and called our attention to his house, which he said had been
inhabited by Prince Nikita during the troubles at Cattaro.
[Illustration: ALBANIAN HORSE-DEALERS, CATTARO
_To face page 388_]
We saw very few English on our second trip. From the time we passed
Cologne to the time we arrived at Cattaro we did not hear a word of our
own language, though the boat in which we travelled from Spalato to
Cattaro was entirely of English make, with Liberty chintzes in the
cabins, and panels of coloured plaster in the saloon. It had cost
£70,000, the captain said, and was certainly extremely rapid and
comfortable. In the early morning we saw the sardine boats coming in.
They carry on the bow an apparatus with a number of jets connected with
an acetylene plant, producing at night a most vivid light. The Bocchese
is a born seaman, beginning at the age of twelve, and often going on
till he is seventy. In the Bocche scarcely a third of the land is
fruitful, yet 40,000 people lived in the district, mainly, of course, by
the sea. From their childhood the boys have always longed for the day
when they might accompany their fathers into the world beyond the sea.
They were always ready to fight, and expected to have to do so, for,
until the second half of the eighteenth century, it was unusual good
fortune to make a sea or land trip to Albania without being attacked.
The ancient houses, with loopholes and little windows, still look more
like citadels than convenient dwellings. The women had to protect their
children and their own honour when the men were away, and this had its
effect upon their character. In many villages it was the custom for a
bride to go out some morning before she was married into a lonely place
and sing the death-wail, so that she might know it if she became a
widow!
The introduction of the steamboat has reduced the employment of sailing
craft, and the Bocchesi have become poor, but they provided the best
sailors for the Venetian fleet, and their seamanship has not decayed.
There were certain variations among the Bocchesi from the religious
customs of the Morlacchi, which are perhaps worth noting. The great fast
before Easter lasted for fifty days, and during that time even fish was
allowed but twice to the sick, on the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday.
During fasts the people do not sing, a custom observed strictly on the
islands. Three days before Ascension Day the crosses are taken out of
the churches and fastened to poles ten or twelve feet high, with
fluttering banners; these days are therefore called "Cross" days. The
village girls make garlands to hang from the ends of the crosses. They
are then carried in procession round the village and over the fields;
when a spring is reached it is surrounded, the priest reads the gospel,
and blesses the water and the people with the cross. On Ascension Day,
or the day before, a procession with the cross goes through the village,
and every house is blessed. In the coast-strip, on the eve of "Cross
Day," there is a frugal supper; on the day itself, a dinner. Before
both, the master of the house cuts a piece of bread from the "Kreuzlaib"
(a large round loaf with a cross marked in the centre), and sticks in it
a taper which he has lighted with a brand from the hearth. All pray
before it for their dead, cross themselves, and sit down to table. Later
in the meal the master rises with a glass of wine, soaks a bit of bread
in it, and, with the traditional formula, "I to thee, bread and wine;
thou to me, health and joy," extinguishes the taper with the morsel.
Then he drinks to all, and they to him. The great piece of bread, into
which the taper was stuck, is given to the first beggar who comes by.
They provide much more than enough for the guests, as the custom is on
those days to feed the poor in villages and towns. Unless the family is
in mourning, drinking songs are sung suitable to the guests, of whatever
position.
Fires are lighted on the eve of S. Stephen's Day, and also on New Year's
Day and Epiphany, as well as on the morning of S. John the Baptist's
Day, when the people jump over the midsummer fires and cry: "From one S.
Giovanni to another, may aching feet be far from me!" On New Year's Day
the children get an apple or an orange from the mother, and go to the
father, asking him to silver it; he sticks a ten-kreuzer piece or two
into it, and they go on to friends and relations with the same request.
Every village has its church (some have three or even more), every
hilltop has its sanctuary, and each island its holy place. In Cattaro,
till the beginning of the nineteenth century, churches and convents
occupied a third of the area within the walls, and each nobleman had his
private chapel in his villa. The Bocchesi were noted for their
honourable fidelity to their word once given, and this probity is still
recognised in their commercial dealings. The married sons usually live
in the house till the father's death; then the property is divided, and
each takes his own house. If the mother is alive she lives with the
eldest son. The house master divides the food, giving sufficient to each
one, so that he would sometimes go short himself if the girls and
daughters-in-law were not always ready to offer him the best part of
their portions. The country women of Montenegro always kiss the hand of
a male acquaintance in greeting. On the road the man is met on mule-back
smoking, the woman on foot with a load, and they neither of them would
consent to change their position, and put the load on the mule and make
the man walk. The men wear full breeches, a waistcoat and sash round the
waist, and a thick whitish wool coat over it, which is sometimes girded
with the sash, leggings, and the usual raw-hide shoes. On the head is a
black silk cap with a magenta centre embroidered with gold thread. The
women wear a coat of the same shape, but of lighter material, and
sleeveless, over a kind of jacket, and on the head the same shaped cap
with a handkerchief draped over it and hanging down at the back.
[Illustration: MONTENEGRINS IN THE MARKET, CATTARO]
Cattaro has about 2,000 inhabitants, of whom scarcely ten families are
old-established; all the old families are dead, or have emigrated. Part
of the present population are Italian immigrants; part are Albanian and
Montenegrin families (to which nationality many of the country people
also belong), who, either for purposes of trade or craft, have settled
in the town. From many towns in Austria come the sub-alterns, who have
married and now live here. The usual language is Croat, but Italian is
generally understood, and songs with the Venetian accent may be heard.
But all are much interested in the "Marinerezza," the finest festival of
the Bocche, held on February 3. On January 27 the preliminaries
commence. The marine officers arrange themselves on the seat before the
cathedral at midday. As soon as the clock has struck the second stroke
of 12 the "little sea director," a boy of nine or ten, comes out on the
gallery above the door, armed and in national costume, and, in Croat,
delivers a short speech announcing the beginning of the festival, and
calling the citizens to take part in it. At the end he takes off his
cap, waves it, and greets the standard of S. Trifone with three "Slava!"
At this moment the flag is unfurled, the music strikes up, the bells
ring, and the people shout "Slava!" (which means "Glory!"). On the eve
of the day the outside members are met and greeted with music by those
of the town, parading before the cathedral. At 4 p.m. the sea director
meets the bishop, who blesses the "Kolo" before Vespers. The whole
piazza is thronged with people, and in the middle is the body of the
"Marinerezza," with the "Kolo" leader and his company ready. The ancient
costumes, golden knives, silver gypsires, gold pierced purses, &c., show
the ancient riches of the Bocche. The music strikes up, and the
"Marinerezza" begins the ancient "Kolo" dance, after which the bishop
enters the church, where a solemn service begins, lasting late into the
night. The next day the same dance is repeated before Mass, after which
the relics of S. Trifone are carried in procession through the narrow
streets. Then the Society feasts the poor of the town and neighbourhood
in the court of the bishop's palace. In the evening there are fireworks,
and other celebrations take place on the Sunday following.
The standard of S. Trifone bears his figure on a white ground, with the
words "Fides et Honor" on a gold embroidered band.
Cattaro appears to have been a republic till the thirteenth century,
when it came under the protection of Servia, and so continued till the
extinction of the dynasty of the Nemagna. A document of 1351 of Stephen
"per la Dio gratia Imperator de Servia et de Grezia" confirms all its
privileges. It was one of the most important ports of the eastern coast
of the Adriatic in the Middle Ages, and competed with Ragusa for the
inland trade. In 1301 it was attacked by that city, and again in 1361.
After the death of Uros the Strong, in 1368, it sought the protection of
Lewis of Hungary, at that time the most powerful prince in Europe, and
thereby lost the friendship of Venice. In 1378 Victor Pisani ravaged the
Bocche, sacked the city, and took away a foot of S. Trifone in a silver
reliquary, which he placed in S. Fantino, Venice. Twenty years later
Cattaro offered itself to Venice, but was not accepted till twenty more
years had passed. On July 25, 1420, Pietro Loredano, Captain of the
Gulf, came to take formal possession. The ensigns of the commune and the
keys of the city were brought in procession to the representative of the
Republic, and the standard of S. Mark was hoisted on the cathedral. The
oath of loyalty and devotion to the "Serenissima" was taken by Paolo
Bucchia, count, Marius Bisanti and Luca Drago, judges, and the forty
members of the greater council. The territory was then called Albania
Veneta. The Bocchesi enrolled themselves voluntarily as sailors, and
formed the finest portion of the _personnel_ of the Venetian navy.