Cittanova lies at the mouth of the Quieto valley which, commencing at Pinguente, passes Montona on its isolated hill (visible from the coast like lofty Buie), and terminates in a marsh seven or eight miles long. The mouth is known as Porto Torre, from a little place on the Parenzo side of the river. The city was a Roman colony with the name AEmonia, and the seat of an early Istrian bishop. A few years ago some seventy carved slabs of the eighth or ninth century were discovered face downwards in the pavement of the crypt of the basilica, which appear to have belonged to the font and choir enclosure. Among them are several archivolt pieces, very much like those of the font of Calixtus at Cividale, which show by a mutilated inscription that they were due to Bishop Maurizio, apparently a bishop suspected of being on the side of the Franks, and therefore blinded by the Byzantines in 781. The slabs are all of Istrian stone, except one, which is of marble, and the carvings therefore may possibly to some extent be of local workmanship, though we know that Comacines from Cividale were employed in Croatia. They have the characteristic Lombard furrows and interweavings, and other details met with in different parts of Italy. There are no mouldings, but a slight bead and reel along the interior edge of the arches. One slab shows two birds drinking from a vase in the upper part, and, below, two others apparently going to divide a fish—at each side vine scrolls springing from vases; another is carved with figures of griffins. There are two window-slabs with pierced patterns: one has simple rhomboidal forms; the other a central stem, with curling branches terminating in trefoils of much more advanced type, suggesting the panels in the later tomb of the Dogaressa Michieli in the atrium of S. Mark's, Venice. The basilica was restored in 1409-1414, and in the sixteenth century, with the assistance of Venice, at which time the baldacchino was destroyed. The church stands on the edge of the land, and has a small round-arched arcade on the facade divided by the doorway, which is covered with a pointed hood on brackets. In the gable is an oculus. The campanile resembles S. Mark's, Venice, as is usual. Within, a Venetian Madonna and Child is preserved, Mantegnesque in style, and therefore ascribed to Mantegna or John Bellini. In the eighteenth century a picture by the latter was sent to Venice to be restored, and, if this is the picture, the restoration was very thorough. The baptistery, destroyed in 1780, had a vestibule like that at Concordia. It was octagonal, with four little round-headed windows, and the hexagonal font was built up from the floor, the rim being level with the top-most of the three steps which surrounded the building. Three steps also descended into it.

The city swore fealty to Venice in 1270. It still retains a portion of its ancient battlemented walls, which have a curious feature—a projecting spur, which runs out into the sea a long way, and was probably intended to make the sea-front secure at low water. The commune was very zealous in its preparations for war, and, according to the statute, a citizen who wounded or killed a spectator during military evolutions or practice was able to secure immunity from punishment!

In 1466 the see was divided from the patriarchate of Venice by Paul II., Francesco Contarini being made bishop, and was enriched by the gift of the property of the suppressed bishopric of Equilium. Fifty years before leave was granted to the then bishop to sell wine grown in his vineyards outside the territory.



IX

PARENZO

The next town along the coast, Parenzo, is celebrated for its fine sixth-century cathedral, the pride of the whole of Istria "the land of basilicas," and is the headquarters of the Istrian Archaeological Society, several of whose members have devoted much time and money to the elucidation of the history, construction, and decoration of the building.

The excavations undertaken by the late Monsignore P. Deperis, Parroco Decano, showed that there have been four main epochs of construction, as well as restorations and embellishments: (1) Roman, or Early Christian, (2) Byzantine, (3) Gothic, and (4) Modern. There was a primitive Christian basilica to the north of the present one; and Euphrasius, in the sixth century, built his church upon the foundations of a second, which had succeeded it. The site of the first was used as a cemetery till the end of the eighteenth century, and was then made into the garden of the bishop's palace. It was oblong in shape, like the most ancient Christian churches, and had no apse, being 75 ft. 6 in. long and 55 ft. 9 in. wide. It had one main door of entrance, and the altar was at the eastern end of the northern portion. The pavement is 5 ft. 9 in. below the level of the basilica of Euphrasius. In the south wall of the portion first discovered (one half of the total area) a door, the cill of which is still preserved, led to an oratory. On the mosaic pavement is this inscription in black letters on a white ground:

[Lu]PICINVS [et Pa]SCASIA [cum r]EVERENTIA PA[mula] FE[cerunt pedes] C[entum].

The remains of this pavement are good in design and execution, and the colours are well distributed. The nave was surrounded by a broad white band, within which was another still broader, sown with starred crosses. The panels with subjects were also surrounded by a similar band. In the first panel from the door is a crown formed of a triple row of leaves within a double circle; the outer one has an octagon formed of meanders, and the inner a circular treatment of the same kind. Outside are lilies and other flowers within geometrical forms, and the whole is bordered with interlaced lines. In the small circle is a portion of an inscription, the right part of which has been destroyed by a tomb:

INFAN[tius] ET INNOC[entia] EX SVO P[alatio] BASI[licam et] TES[sellati] P[edes].

The middle panel is square; within it is a handled crater with a high foot. Two branches spring from it, which are bursting into flowers and leaves; they fill the whole space with their convolutions. At the top is an inscription:

[Lu]PICINVS ET PASCASIA P[edes] CCCC F[ecerunt]; and at the bottom another:

CLAMOSVS MAG PVER ET SVCCESSA P[edes] C[entum] FELICISSIMVS CVM SVIS P[edes] C[entum].



This inscription is interesting as showing that there was a school attached to the basilica before the fourth century. The third panel surrounded the altar, the rectangle of which is marked by the sunken places in the marble slab where the columns stood. A piece of marble of the same size as the sinkings was found not far away. At the right is a square of about 3 ft. 3 in., with a framing of white bands and triangles of colour 10 in. broad, reducing the internal square to 19 in. In the centre is a portion of a cross based on the swastika, and a fish. On the left a cross, formed by the intersection of two oval rings, appears above the fish. These symbolic crosses point to a very early date. The doorstep of the oratory shows signs of considerable wear, and the mosaic has been roughly repaired near the word PICINVS. The fishes are apparently insertions, later in date than the original mosaic (which has the structural characteristics of the second century). This suggests that the first basilica may have been a portion of the house of a Christian of position, of which examples occur in Rome. It was probably burnt when Diocletian ordered the destruction of all Christian churches in 303 A.D., since charcoal was found amongst the masonry. The pavement, much broken up by tombs and by the old cistern constructed in the garden, extended under the north aisle of the present building; and the site of the altar is shown by lifting a trap-door in the chapel in the north arm of the cross, for the present basilica was made cruciform in plan in 1846-1847, by the erection of two chapels. The mosaics found in the garden have been completely excavated; they are covered over with glazed outhouses, and can be easily seen. Later excavations made in 1900 have proved that this first basilica had two equal naves, and remains of a marble chancel recalled the phrase in the S. Maurus inscription found beneath the high-altar in 1846: "ideo in honorem duplicatus est locus."

The second basilica was probably Constantinian. The present one coincides with it, except that the apse is polygonal and projects towards the east, and that the lines of the walls bend a little to the left from a line drawn across between the modern chapels. The floor of this basilica is about 2 ft. 9 in. below that of the present one. The mosaic pavement is well preserved nearly all over the surface; and the sacristan opens numerous trap-doors, and puts down tapers, to show the most interesting portions. The cills of two of the doors still remain 9 in. higher and much worn by traffic; the third was destroyed to place a sarcophagus against the wall of the church. Between the two pavement levels several unfinished caps and columns of limestone were found, and also two pedestals and one base among the foundations of the present nave arcade.

Beneath the presbytery is a choir and presbytery of the form used in the most ancient Constantinian basilicas. A sloping platform led up to the step upon which the bishop's seat stood at the centre of the semicircle, flanked by seats on each side for presbyters, the places being marked by red lines painted upon the fine plaster which covers the low wall, rising about 8 in. above the floor, itself 2 ft. 31/2 in. above the level of that of the nave. The diameter of the semicircle is about 18 ft., and it is floored with mosaic. Outside runs a white band 6 in. wide, within which is a band of ornament with two black lines at each side; one of them dentilled. This feature is 20 in. wide, with a waving stem with volutes and leaves of ivy occupying the central 12 in., black and grey on white. In the centre of all are other black leaves and scrolls in red, damaged by a mediaeval tomb. Three steps led down to the choir, for the singers, sub-deacons, and deacons. It has a plaster floor of a porphyry purple colour, and reaches as far as the third column of the present nave, counting from the east. It was afterwards extended on a lower level, reached by steps on each side, one of which is still in place. The mosaic pavement of this lower nave continues as far as a line which cuts across the central apse, appearing outside the ends of the aisles, as well as outside the semicircle of the presbytery just described, as at S. Maria, Grado. The presbytery wall is rough masonry, as if it had been external, and there are no signs of its having been decorated in any way; but the oblong plan with the apse some way within is found also at Salona, and in Syria and North Africa. Traces of a wall parallel to that of the north aisle, and beyond it, suggest the existence of rooms to the north.

An excavation in front of the door of the sacristy discovered a square mosaic on this level with inscription—

THEOFRASTVS [et] IANVARIVS DIAC FEC . P . CCC

—which commenced beneath the chord of the existing apse and terminated in a line with the end of the wall of the earlier presbytery. West of it, and separated by a smooth and even division, as if a wall or screen had been there, mosaics previously discovered stretched to the west door. On the south side a similar division of the mosaic was found, a bit of a colonnette and a few fragments as of a balustrade or cancellum. The spaces thus marked off were probably prothesis and diaconicon, the latter being to the left, where the two deacons gave the pavement. In the left aisle were five different designs given by as many donors. The right aisle was simpler. In the nave an inscription was found mentioning the Clamosus who was named on the earlier pavement, but in conjunction with Victorina, either his daughter or a second wife. This proves that no great time intervened between the erection of the second and the regular use of the first basilica. The inscription found beneath the high-altar, already referred to, mentions two churches, and states that the first was repaired by the prayers of S. Maurus, and that his body was transferred to that place; and calls him bishop and confessor. Till 1354 his relics remained there, when the Genoese admiral, Pagano Doria, took them to Genoa as booty when he had sacked the city, placing them in the abbey church belonging to his family. The Marquis Doria soon returned them. In mediaeval documents the district of the city of Parenzo is called "territorio, terra di S. Mauro."



The present cathedral was erected by Euphrasius between 531 and 542. This is proved by his mosaic inscription, which states that "in the eleventh year of his episcopate" (543) he had endowed it; for the endowment would naturally come after the building. He found the second basilica likely to fall, with the roof only kept up by chains. The columns are of Greek cipollino, like those at S. Vitale, Spirito Santo, S. Francesco, SS. Apollinare Nuovo and in Classe, Ravenna, and in S. Maria, Pomposa, and were worked by the same workmen in the Proconesos workshops: for on columns at S. Vitale and Parenzo, and also at Pomposa, are found the same mason's marks, monograms uniting the letters [Greek: PTE] for Petrus and [Greek: IO] for Joannes. The bases are Attic, as at Ravenna and SS. Sergius and Bacchus, Constantinople; and, of the eighteen caps in the nave, six are exactly similar to those of the lower arcade of S. Vitale, several are like others at Grado, two are like a damaged one at Pomposa, and others are much like some at Otranto and Rome. At Venice, too, capitals of the same types occur in considerable number. The super-abaci are of Greek marble, with a circular plaque bearing the monogram of Euphrasius. On the north the soffits of the arches retain the original stucco ornaments, all different; on the south they have disappeared.

The mosaics in the apse closely resemble those of the Arian baptistery at Ravenna in style. The figure of S. Maurus might almost have been worked from the cartoon of one of the Apostles there. In the centre of the semi-dome is a figure of the Virgin with the Infant Saviour, clothed in white and gold. Above, a hand holding a crown emerges from clouds. On each side are an angel and three large figures; on the left are Archbishop Claudius, Euphrasius the bishop, with a small figure of his son, and S. Maurus, holding a jewelled urn; Euphrasius holds his church. The three figures on the other side are unnamed; one bears a book, and the other two crowns. The ground is gold, and below, at the springing of the dome, is the long dedicatory inscription in gold letters on a blue ground. On the wall below are mosaics between the windows. An angel occupies the central pier, and on the piers on either side is a saint, probably SS. Maurus and John the Baptist. On the wide wall spaces beyond the windows are the Annunciation on the north, and the Salutation on the south. The soffit of the triumphal arch has medallions of female saints within wreaths, and at the summit an Agnus Dei. The lower part of the wall is separated from the mosaics by an ornamental plaster moulding, and is decorated with a remarkably fine series of panels in opus sectile, eight designs in couples answering to each other on either side, with a single design above the bishop's seat in the centre, on which the monogram of Euphrasius again occurs. The colours and materials used are green and red porphyry, two blues, a green vitreous paste, a dull-red marble, and a bluish-green marble which has perished a good deal and is now preserved under glass plates cut to fit the shapes, occasional spots of a beautiful orange colour, like a marble used in inlays at S. Vitale, a very dark blue, almost black, a pale yellow-green, and a pale purple like chocolate powder. The white is generally mother-of-pearl, or marble, veined with a pale grey, and a good deal of Oriental alabaster is used. The panel above the simple bishop's throne has a hill, with a golden cross on a green ground diapered with mother-of-pearl, and with tall panels at the sides with the seven golden candlesticks. On a lower level than the throne a marble seat runs round the apse, terminated by two slabs carved with dolphins.



The architect, Signor Tommaso Natale, discovered a mosaic above the triumphal arch a few years ago, which had been hidden by the late Renaissance "improvements." It consisted of a long strip of gold, on which the Apostles stood, clothed in white robes gemmed with crosses, six on each side of a central figure of Christ, robed in purple and seated on the globe. He has a cruciferous nimbus, and is blessing with the right hand, whilst with the left He holds an open book inscribed "EGO SVM LVX VERA." On the right are S. Peter with the keys, S. Andrew with a book, S. James with a crown, SS. Bartholomew and Thomas with books, and S. Simon with a crown; on the left S. Paul with two scrolls, S. John with a crown, SS. Philip and Matthew with books, S. James Alpheus with a crown, and S. Jude with a book. The names are inscribed above the figures, and a band of dark red with golden gems surrounds the whole. The heads of Christ and SS. Bartholomew and Matthew were damaged by brackets belonging to the roof. The whole of these mosaics have been restored by a Roman mosaicist, Signor Bornia.

The altar of Euphrasius was retained till the time of Bishop Folcherius (1208-1220), who substituted a larger one to contain more relics. A few years after, Bishop Adalpert raised the level of the choir about eight inches, and the altar to correspond, reconsecrating it May 8, 1233. The present ciborium was put up in 1277 by Bishop Otho, using the old columns and caps. It has slightly pointed arches, with Venetian dentil borderings, and mosaics in the spandrils. On the west side is the Annunciation, and on the other three sides heads of saints in circles; the vault is also covered with mosaic. A long inscription in Lombardic letters gives the date and the name of the donor.

The pala was made in 1452, and cost 600 ducats of gold, half of which the commune contributed by selling useless church objects, while half was paid by Bishop Giovanni, a Parentine by birth. It is a fine work in the style of the early Renaissance, with a Virgin and Child in the centre, S. Mark to the right, and S. Peter to the left, and outside of them a bishop with an elaborate crozier, and a deacon holding a model of the town—SS. Maurus and Eleutherius. The figures are within classical niches, the sides of which vanish in perspective towards the central point. Along the cornice runs a series of small medallions with busts of the Apostles. In the chapel of the Sacrament are some stalls to which the same date (1452) is given. They are quite Gothic as to the ornament and structure, and even the figures present considerable contrast with those of the pala. There are five seats with backs, canopy, and ends at each side of the altar. At each end are well-executed figures among foliage scrolls, which are out of scale—on one side, a Virgin and Child and a bishop; on the other, two saints, one of whom is an ecclesiastic. The uprights between the seats are faced with twisted colonnettes, and the backs have a quatrefoil pattern made by cutting the bars of a rectangular framing ornamentally.



In the sacristy is a picture by Antonio da Murano in the original frame. Both frame and picture are in a bad state, the gesso having scaled off in places. In the centre is the Madonna and Child, flanked by two full-length saints on each side, SS. Francis and Nicholas, S. Simeon, and another male saint; above the Virgin is a half-length of the dead Christ; and, above the other saints, half-lengths of SS. Mary Magdalene and Christopher, Catherine and Anthony. It is signed "Antonius de Muriano, 1448." In the treasury is a Greek Benedictional cross, with subjects carved in wood, and a silver-gilt enamelled case. There are five subjects on each face, well carved and traditional in their design. On one side is the Annunciation at the top; in the centre, the Baptism, with angels assisting; at each end, an Evangelist seated; below, Christ as Judge between two saints, and at His feet men in the abyss. On the other side is the Presentation in the Temple at the top; in the centre, the Crucifixion, with the thieves, the Virgin, and holy women. Two Evangelists are seated in the arms, and below is either the Resurrection, or the Harrowing of Hell. The case has jewels and pearls inserted plentifully, and is decorated with floral enamelled ornament in green, blue, and red enamel. It is made to take to pieces. The handle bears the name of the maker, "Ezechiel, monk of the monastery of Laura." It is ascribed to the thirteenth century, but is very like those at Kloster Savina in the Bocche, which are seventeenth-century, the character of the floral design agreeing well with that period.

In 1847 Bishop Peteani made considerable alterations, which included the re-arrangement of the high-altar to face the east; and at that time the relics of SS. Julian and Demetrius were found in a square chest of white marble inscribed with the date of consecration and the name of the maker, Adalpert. The ambo in the right aisle, made up of columns and carved slabs of the sixth century, is due to him, as are the chapels to right and left of the nave. The present pavement was laid down in 1880, when some inscriptions of the Euphrasian period were removed to the baptistery. The triapsidal chapel, entered through an elliptical ante-room, beyond the sacristy, was probably a relic chapel, and is of the sixth century—a mosaic of that date was found here five feet below the surface; but the vaulted passage by which it is approached is of the thirteenth century, while the superstructure of the chapel is Venetian, added to assist in the defence of the place from this side, for the sea is quite close. To the east of the city towards Torre Nuova a Christian cemetery was discovered in 1893 close to the road, consisting of three little apsed buildings close together, a larger one with a small one contiguous, with buildings belonging to the original villa which occupied that site at the end of the first or beginning of the second century. A coin of Vespasian was found at the time, and a ring with a palm engraved on it. There are several tombs of the kind in Rome belonging to the fourth century. The mosaics found in the fifth building are now in the baptistery. It is believed that these buildings were memorial chapels erected over the tombs of the Parentine martyrs, and that the greater part of the materials was used in the erection of the church of S. Eleutherius near, after the translation of the relics to the cathedral.



The plan of the atrium of the cathedral is Roman, not Byzantine like those at Grado, Ravenna, and Constantinople, which have a portico and the baptistery at the side, separate from the basilica. In this case the pavement of the atrium was seven or eight inches above that of the narthex. Along the facade a herring-bone pattern pavement of white and red tesserae was found which continued farther to the north. The gable of the church was decorated with mosaic; between the windows the seven Apocalyptic candlesticks were represented, and there were figures at the sides, all within a containing border. This has been restored. Above, in the centre, the feet of a figure of Christ seated on the globe may be traced, and folds of the draperies of figures at the sides. Scarcely any of the tesserae remain, but the lights of the drawing appear in relief. A certain test of the age of the different parts of the building is afforded by the quality of the mortar used. By this it is proved that the eastern apse is due purely to Euphrasius, the foundations being set in mortar of the kind used by him; and also that he kept the atrium pretty much as it was, only adding the columns with Byzantine caps. The baptistery on the other side also was very little altered. It had a floor of stucco, and was circular internally; enough was found between the campanile and the door from the piazza into the atrium to develop the whole curve. Euphrasius made it octagonal, and surrounded the font with marble slabs, the marks of which still remain; a few fragments were found, together with some gilded and coloured tesserae, showing that it had mosaic enrichments. It is now used to store discarded portions of the early buildings. Here is the Euphrasian altar, standing on a slab of marble with sunk squares in the corners for the bases of the ciborium columns, and enough panels and colonnettes to make a restoration of the chancel of the choir, though it is equally likely that they belonged to a baldacchino above the font, similar to that which still exists at Cividale, and once existed at Pola and at Cittanova. Here are also two caps from the fourth-century church, fragments of mosaic pavement found in mediaeval tombs, and a good many pieces of eighth and ninth-century carving.



The survival of the Constantinian plan is explained by the slight alterations made by Euphrasius. The walled-up doors in the baptistery show that it was not an isolated building. They probably gave entrance to dressing-rooms for the two sexes attached to it, waiting-rooms for the baptized and their relations, &c.; and an arch of the fourth century, near to which the herring-bone pavement runs, was probably the entrance to a portico joining the basilica with the baptistery, or the consignatorium, where the bishop anointed the neophytes directly after baptism, before they made their solemn entry into the church. This latter building still exists as the "cantina" of the bishop's palace—a true basilica, with a nave almost square, and with a double-walled apse on the north, and corridors east and west, approached on the south side by a portico. In front was an oblong court. The walls are all of Roman work, and the outer apse has an arcade on pilasters, with large arched windows. A few years ago repairs to the roof led to the discovery of windows in the inner apse. The work round the doors is Euphrasian. The corridors were spanned by arches, which are now built up, and thus make small rooms. There was a second story, which was the bishop's palace; but the second floor of the west wing is mediaeval, and it is probable that the great hall was made at that period by dividing the basilica horizontally on the level of the second story. After the custom of anointing the newly baptized in the consignatorium was abandoned, it became the chapel of S. Nicolo, then of S. Mary Magdalene, and the original use was quite forgotten. The campanile is of the fifteenth century and uninteresting.

It was Easter Eve on the occasion of our first visit to Parenzo, and while we were studying the architecture women were constantly bringing their Easter cakes and other food to be blessed at the altar of S. Maurus in the north aisle. Later there was a Resurrection service with a fine procession, with many men and boys robed in scarlet carrying long candles. A crucifer in purple bore the capitular cross, followed by canons in violet and other officials, the bishop's coachman in a long blue buttoned coat, two little acolytes in surplices, with cloths embroidered with crosses on their shoulders and censers, deacons in dalmatics of cloth of gold, a suffragan bishop in cope of cloth of gold and a white mitre, and the bishop similarly robed. A large painted flag of red silk was carried in the procession, and two small painted figures of our Lord, one on the cross, and the other, a half-length, emergent from the tomb. The bishop, fully robed, went first into the capitular chapel and then to the chapel of the Holy Sacrament, where the dead Christ was laid out in a tomb, took the Host and brought it out, being then bareheaded beneath a canopy. The procession then filed out into the atrium, leaving it by the bishop's door at the side of the baptistery, and, passing through the street, regained the atrium by the usual entrance. The Host was then placed on the high-altar, and a kind of benediction service held, in which a fine bass sang several solos. The church was thronged by a devout crowd of both sexes and all classes.

The city was called "Julia Parentium" under the Romans, from the colony of legionaries sent by Augustus. The tribute to Rome was as much as that paid by Pola, the capital of the province. There were temples to Mars and Neptune, of which there are some remains, drums of a few of the columns and a portion of the podium and steps, now used as the lower courses of poor houses. The buildings were destroyed in the fifteenth century, the materials being used to construct the quay. The main street leading from this part of the town to the Porta a Terra may be the Via Decumana of a Roman camp. The site of the amphitheatre is indicated by the curved line of the houses built on its foundations, but there are no remains of Roman work visible. Reliefs of the tenth century are encrusted in the wall of a house on the site of the ancient church of S. Peter; and the Casa dei Santi in the Via Predol, which probably occupies part of the area of the convent and church of S. Cassiano, has two figures on brackets between the windows of the first floor, apparently late eleventh-century work. The Canonica, built in 1251, a fine piece of Romanesque domestic architecture, has six two-light windows on the first floor, and shell-headed niches round the door, with a cross and inscriptions. It was burnt in 1488, and in the eighteenth century was converted by the chapter into a store for the tithes of wine, corn, oil, and fruit, but has been restored, together with the adjoining entrance to the atrium. There are several Venetian palaces in the main street. One, of the fourteenth century, is especially fine. It has big cable string-courses and brackets of lions' heads and necks, and a large and imposing window on the first floor.

There have been three enceintes: (a) Roman; (b) that completed about 1250 under Patriarch Warner of Gillach; (c) a third commenced in the fifteenth century on the same lines, but a little larger. In the eighteenth century the circuit of the walls was about a mile. There were two principal gates—the Porta a Mare and the Porta a Terra—and two posterns made for the convenience of the inhabitants. The city was divided into four Rioni—Pusterla, Porta Nuova, Marafor, and Predol. The existing square tower flanking the Porta a Terra was erected in 1447 under Nicolo Lion; he signs it with initials, and there is a coat of arms beneath the panel of the lion of S. Mark. At the bottom of the frame are the date and an inscription giving the name of the architect, "Mag. Johannes de Pari Tergestinus," and of his son Lazarus, the sculptor. His name occurs on the architrave of the rebuilt church of S. John the Baptist of Volciana on the Carso, with the date 1429. The round tower dates from after the incursion of the Turks into the Carso in 1470, built under Pietro da Mula, 1474. On the Porta della Campana the length of the dagger which was allowed is marked, and the town still preserves one of the "Bocche de' leoni" which were used for secret denunciations. The communal palace was built in 1270, one year before Parenzo gave herself to Venice. Games of cards and dice were allowed under its portico and in the loggia, where the players were under the eyes of the guards.

During the latter half of the thirteenth century Parenzo was in constant contest with her bishop, resisting the financial demands of the ecclesiastical authority with threats and violence. A podesta, at the head of the people, broke into the cathedral, burst open the treasury, and seized the precious objects. In 1270 Marco Michiel, in the name of the commune, forbad the citizens to pay tithe, proclaimed liberty of fishing and pasturage, and took possession of several of the church properties, saying that they had returned to those to whom they properly belonged. In 1278 Bishop Otho excommunicated them for refusing to pay tithe, and because of a rising, in which the palace was invaded and all the authentic privileges and documents thrown into the sea; but the citizens were the stronger, and bishop and canons were driven away from the city. In 1280 there was a delimitation of the land belonging to church and commune. The next bishop, Boniface, renewed the episcopal pretensions denying freehold to both commune and individual citizens. The podesta, Jacopo Soranzo, the commune, and citizens were so enraged that the bishop, in fear of his life, fled to Rovigno, and from thence to Venice. The podesta lodged soldiers in his palace during the war; and in 1284 Boniface fulminated a comprehensive excommunication from Venice against podesta and city. Matters were arranged and he returned to Parenzo, but only to renew his claims. In 1293 the podesta, Jacopo Querini, was disputing with him over a feud at Cervera which he claimed, though it had been in the possession of others for eighty years, and both lost their tempers. The podesta turned to the bishop and said: "I promise you that when my term of office is over I will do you all the harm I can, both publicly and privately; and I pray God and His saints to let me live long enough to see with my own eyes the prophecies fulfilled of the destruction of the Church of Rome, for one may well see that the time is near." On September 14, 1296, the podesta, Giovanni Soranzo, attacked the bishop's palace at the head of the armed populace, intending, as the bishop asserted, to kill him. The prelate took refuge in the Franciscan convent, and escaped by ship to Pirano. Thence he went again to Venice, and excommunicated the whole of his opponents. The podesta threatened to cut off hand and foot from whoever published or executed the ban; and Boniface ordered the prepositum of Pisino to send it to the clergy, which was done next year, but without the desired effect. He acted in the same way with other podestas, and was often absent from his seat in consequence, thus incurring reproofs from the patriarchs Raimondo and Pietro Gerra. The latter went so far as to attack and destroy the castle of Orsera, where the bishop took refuge.

The people of Parenzo now are more concerned with developing their commerce than with insisting upon their rights, and the quay presents a busy scene when the wine-boats are lading. The casks are so large that two are a load for a yoke of oxen. The cart has sloping sides, and a bed of fresh-cut boughs and hay acts as springs. One of the sides of the cart (of wicker or staves) is removed at the quay, and the casks are rolled down an inclined plane. There were much excitement and some danger as the lumbering weight was turned at right angles to its former course, which was towards the water. The fishermen were busy too; they catch spider-crabs with long spears ending in five prongs, at right angles to the shaft, and forming a kind of cage, which the crabs find it difficult to negotiate when they are raked out of the crannies of the rocks. There was a semi-lunar implement in the boats also, with four internal prongs, at the end of a long shaft, used for catching cuttle-fish.

At the hotel in which we stayed on our first visit there was a green-and-yellow parrot which was very tame. His accomplishments included the saying "Marietta, padrona, and hello" quite clearly, singing and laughing. Its mistress made it flirt with a highly coloured young lady on a poster in a very diverting fashion. At Fiume we saw two parrots of the same kind on perches outside a shop; and my friend, recollecting the friendly bird at Parenzo, made overtures to them, which were not received in the proper spirit, and I am sorry to say that his finger was sore for days after.

There is record of a joust held at Parenzo as late as February 14, 1745. There must have been diverting incidents on that occasion, since the combatants contended with unfamiliar weapons which had been long out of use!

Parenzo is poor in records of craftsmen, and its only artist of repute is Bernardo of Parenzo, who was much employed in his day; pictures by him are preserved in the Accademia at Venice, the Doria Gallery, Rome, in the Louvre, and at Modena. He studied at Padua with Mantegna, under Squarcione, and executed frescoes and chiaroscuro arabesques in the cloister of S. Giustina in that city. When the Austrians converted the convent to military uses the paintings were plastered over, and, although again uncovered in 1895, they were found to be in a much damaged condition. Bernardo died in 1531.



X

TO POLA BY SEA

From Parenzo Pola may be reached either by land or sea, the latter being the more convenient way. The only place of importance passed is Rovigno, though the Canal di Leme, an arm of the sea 7-1/2 miles long, from 70 to 100 ft. deep, and some 500 yds. broad, which affords accommodation for much more shipping than ever makes use of it, leads up towards Due Castelli, now ruinous, but at one time a thriving and important town. On the way, near Orsera, the little island of "Scoglio Orlandino" is passed, rocky and divided into two portions by a chasm or crack. Legend says that Orlando, passing that way, made a slash at it and left it as it now is.

Rovigno is thought to be the ancient Arupenum or Rubinum, but is first mentioned by the anonymous Ravennese chronicler, and was probably founded in the third or fourth century. In the walls of the principal church are fragments of sixth-century work. There is a tradition that it was founded when Cissa sank into the sea in the seventh century. The site of this city was near the modern lighthouse, and remains of its buildings are believed to be recognisable beneath the water at the point called Barbariga, on the further side of the Bay of S. Pelagio. The large beds of murex shells in certain places are an indication that there were purple dye-works here, an industry for which Cissa was celebrated. Rovigno is situated upon a rock, and was surrounded with walls. Within their area the houses, as seen from the sea or from the railway station behind the town, seem to be piled one over the other, and culminate very picturesquely in the campanile at the top. Beyond the railway station on the Bay of S. Pelagio are the Berlin aquarium for the study of the marine fauna of the Adriatic, and a sanatorium for scrofulous children, opened in 1888. The neighbourhood being fever-stricken the peasants live in the city, going and returning to their work morning and evening. Their Sunday costume consists of ornamented leather shoes, tight white hose of wool, a broad-sleeved white shirt with a frill in front, dark waistcoat, and flat black cap. They have the curious custom of wearing one large earring in the left ear. Rovigno is a good market for wine—considered the best in Istria—olives, sardines, and hazel-nuts which are reputed the finest in the world. Consequently, amongst the inhabitants are many merchants, and the fishers' guild is very numerous; but the steep streets are narrow and, in wet weather, noisome, and the children do not look as healthy as in many other places. During our stay we saw two funerals in the Colleggiata within a few hours, both attended by a red-robed confraternity which included boys and men. The spectacle in the darkening nave (for it was late afternoon) of the two rows of red-robed figures holding lighted tapers, with two or three ensigns or symbols in the background, was impressive, but marred by atrocious singing. The officiating priest was a fine man; and, as the cortege departed to the cemetery just below the church on the seaward side, there was an impression of solemnity which is often lacking in English funerals. A few late Venetian palaces, with fine loggias at the top to catch the sea-breezes, show above the other houses, and the arch between the fish-market and the Piazza S. Damiano, erected in 1680 under Daniele Balbi, still stands, with the Venetian lion holding a book proudly inscribed: "Victoria tibi Marce Evangelista meus"; but the walls have entirely disappeared, with the exception of one ruinous tower, the "Torre del Boraso," which has been in that state since the sixteenth century. At the beginning of the fourteenth century it belonged to the bishop of Pola; the Colleggio dei Cinque Savi acquired it in 1332, and ordered its occupation by the captain of the Pasenatico and the podesta of Rovigno, asking whether it was best to preserve or destroy it, the former course being determined on.

A curious heptagonal building, the Oratory of the Trinity, which stands some distance outside the ancient walls, appears to be rather early in date. It has a polygonal drum rising from the roof of the lower portion, and two curious little pierced and carved windows about three feet high; one of them is too much broken to make out the design. The other has a crucifix with half-length figures, and consecration cross among the piercings, very roughly cut. The head is slightly pointed. The Colleggiata has been rebuilt in late Renaissance style; and the campanile, crowned by a figure of S. Eufemia, the patron saint of the town, is a copy of that of S. Mark's, Venice. The chapel to the right of the high-altar contains the shrine of the saint, a large unfinished sarcophagus of Greek marble. It has two arches on the side with figures scarcely begun, and an octagonal tablet with curved sides in the middle. The legend is that the body of the saint floated over the waves in the great sarcophagus, and was driven by a storm into a little inlet called the "Armo di S. Eufemia," a short way from the pier, where a square pillar with an inscription of 1720 and the communal arms marks the place where it grounded. Some fishers who went out at dawn were attracted by the miraculous light which shone around it. Several days passed before the heavy sarcophagus could be moved. A certain pious widow, with the suggestive name of "Astuta," had a dream, as a consequence of which a pair of bullocks was yoked to it by her little son, and so it went up the hill to the summit at such a rate as to run over one of the bystanders, who was nearly killed, and fainted. When he revived he revealed the name of the saint, and her bones were found within the sarcophagus together with the history of her martyrdom. From that time the hill has had the name of S. Eufemia. The relics were taken by the Genoese in 1380 and carried to Chioggia. The Venetians rescued them, but carried them to S. Canciano, Venice, where they stayed for thirty years. On their return to Rovigno in 1410 a storm drove the ship to the salt-works in the Canal di Leme, where certain cattle-boats were sheltering. The cattle jumped into the water and danced round the ship! So, at least, a manuscript in the capitular archives relates. Scenes from this legend are painted on the walls of the chapel. In the sacristy is a fourteenth or fifteenth-century picture on a gold ground—a figure of S. John the Baptist, with incidents from his life. It came from a church dedicated to him which was destroyed in 1839.



Rovigno and the neighbourhood have suffered much from piracy. In 965 the Slavs sacked the city. Into the harbour the Uscocs entered one night at the beginning of 1597, and sacked a galley and ten ships laden with rich merchandise belonging to Venice. In the port of Vestre (the birthplace of Maximian of Ravenna), about three miles from Rovigno, an Uscoc ship, with 150 men, attacked a ship of Cattaro which carried letters from the doge of Venice, 6,000 ducats of public money and 4,000 of private, with valuable merchandise. They took everything and also stripped the other Venetian ships in the harbour, leaving the sailors nothing but their shirts!

The Canal of Fasana, between the Brioni Islands and the mainland, a little to the south, was the scene of the crushing defeat of the Venetians by the Genoese in 1379. The quarries in these islands, together with those of Rovigno, provided stone for the ducal and other palaces, the Procuratie at Venice, the murazzi at Chioggia, and the mole at Malamocco. It is but a short distance hence to the entrance to the magnificent harbour of Pola.

Craftsmen of Rovigno have made the name of the town celebrated, such as the sculptors Lorenzo and Antonio del Vescovo, who worked in 1468 at the Camaldulan church of Murano, and Taddeo da Rovigno, who did much decorative carving in Venetian palaces. A more distinguished man was Fra Sebastiano da Rovigno, the lame Slavonian (il Zoppo Schiavone), the teacher of the still more celebrated intarsiatore, Fra Damiano of Bergamo. Some of his works are in the choir and sacristy of S. Mark's, Venice. The name of Donato of Parenzo is also coupled with these Rovignese craftsmen.



XI

TO POLA BY LAND

One Easter Sunday we drove in lovely weather from Parenzo to S. Lorenzo in Pasenatico, and on to Canfanaro. By the road we passed every now and then farmers' houses, such as the one illustrated, and met groups of peasants going into Parenzo to the festa. As we got further from the city the men were collected in groups, talking, smoking, or playing bowls; whilst the women also by themselves, in knots of as many as twenty, were seated together enjoying a gossip. The landscape was pleasant, but rather featureless, except for the bulk of Monte Maggiore blue to the south-east. We reached S. Lorenzo at the moment of the elevation of the Host, and found the ancient basilica crowded with worshippers, while several men knelt with rosary in clasped hands outside the open doors, their eyes fixed intently upon the altar. After a time the congregation poured out, dressed in most picturesque costumes, and evidently found our appearance quite as interesting and strange as we found theirs. The men had one big earring (as at Rovigno), and wore white shirts with full sleeves, sometimes embroidered, hose of woven wool, a jacket hung loosely over the shoulders, and a little black cap on the head. The women had full skirts of beautiful tertiary colours, rows of coral round their necks, and large silver-gilt brooches, and rosette ornaments on their breasts with chains attached. On their heads, tied round the base of the skull, they had white handkerchiefs, sometimes with ornamented borders. Over the bodice a kind of loose waistcoat was worn.

The church is a basilica with nave and aisles, all terminated by semicircular apses, with an arcade of nine arches of unequal width, owing perhaps partly to the obliquity of the west wall, itself caused by the close proximity of the palace of the Count, which was still in existence till 1833. The three easternmost bays are enclosed as presbytery, and this and other alterations are the work of the seventeenth century; but two of the original pierced window-slabs are still in position in the side apses, traces of the small clerestory windows are visible, and in a wall to the left of the facade are encrusted several fragments of carving which apparently formed part of the original chancel of the ninth or early tenth century. The style of the caps of the nave arcade, the irregularity in their size, and in that of the plain super-abaci above them, also point to the same period. The apses have shallow arcading outside; the campanile is an addition built on to the tower of one of the town gates, the exterior arch of which is stopped; about the height of the nave cornice two great brackets project. Another of the wall-towers near at hand still retains the staircase by which it was ascended. Along the south wall of the church runs a loggia supported on slender columns, and in the piazza in front is the base of the flagstaff which once supported the standard of S. Mark. A gateway with a very pointed arch at the bottom of this piazza forms the entrance to the town. The walls are all of the early Venetian period, and a well-head ordered to be carved in 1331 by Giovanni Contarini has a rampant winged lion half-length, crowned and nimbed, and with a closed book.



The city swore fealty to Venice in 1271, and became in 1304 the seat of the captain of the Pasenatico, an officer who had charge of the fortresses and town walls throughout Istria, and the duty of enlisting foot soldiers, sailors, and oarsmen. Marco Soranzo was the first captain. Fifty-two years after his time a second captaincy was created in Umago, afterwards transferred to Grisignana. At some time between 1312 and 1328 Marino Faliero was governor here. In 1394 the captaincy was removed to Raspo, and subsequently to Pinguente. In 1595 it was given to the podesta and captain of Capodistria, except as regarded Pirano.

The church is said to contain the bodies of SS. Victor and Corona, taken from Due Castelli during the war of Chioggia. The "Chronicle" relates that a Genoese squadron was in the Canal di Leme, and the people of S. Lorenzo sent a deputation suggesting co-operation in an attack on Due Castelli, between which town and itself there were rivalry and hatred. The enterprise was successful, and Due Castelli was sacked and burnt. Tommasini records that the marks of fire were visible in his time. The bodies of the saints were carried off as spoil; but it seems probable that it was a Venetian and not a Genoese fleet which co-operated with the men of S. Lorenzo, since Due Castelli belonged to the patriarch, who was allied to the Genoese.

The road from S. Lorenzo to Canfanaro crosses the Draga valley (which is 600 or 700 ft. deep) by long zigzags, from which the ruins of Due Castelli are seen towards the west. They can be visited from Canfanaro. Where the valley narrows upon two projecting spurs, nearly opposite to each other, were Monte Castello, or Moncastello, and Castello Parentino, given to the church of Parenzo by Otho II., but entirely destroyed long ago. These were the "Due Castelli" (two castles). The sea is five kilometres away. The walls and towers (which were built about 1616 by the provveditore, Marco Loredan) from a distance appear well preserved, but the only buildings remaining within are two churches and the castle.

The double girdle of walls of the castle, with well-preserved battlemented towers, is the principal factor in the effect. The gateways are pointed: outside the walls, towards Castel Parentino, is the pedestal for the municipal standard; on the other side is an illegible inscription in which the date 1475 may be deciphered. The more important church, S. Sofia, still has its outside walls, the three apses, with traces of frescoes in the central one, and the walls of the sacristy. At the beginning of the fourteenth century it appears to have belonged to the Castropola, and then to the Count of Gorizia; but in 1420 the Venetians appointed a podesta. In 1616 the Uscocs sacked the place, and the plague of 1630-1631 slew many of the remaining inhabitants. The district grew malarious; and at the beginning of the next century the rector, the ministers, the chapter, and the few people who remained took the precious things which the church still retained and moved to S. Silvestro, Canfanaro. S. Sofia was abandoned on June 7, 1714. The fourteenth-century pulpit, brought with them, is hexagonal, with subjects in the panels, and supported on six columns. In one panel a female figure holds two triple-towered castles of the same shape as those in the arms of Muggia. Malaria still keeps the district clear of houses, though the land is cultivated.



A few miles from Canfanaro to the north-west is Pisino, the capital of Istria, situated upon and about the rock beneath which the river Foiba disappears. The railway winds round the sides of green and wooded hills, rising with each curve till it is some height above the city. The landscape is more striking than is usual in Istria, hills of some size appearing on the horizon, while in the middle distance the Foiba meanders through a fruitful valley, occasionally broken by a low waterfall. The copses which clothe the hillsides here and there are vocal with the song of birds, and nightingales may be heard in plenty in the spring. The situation is magnificent. The town stands upon the summit of a promontory spreading out like the fingers of a hand, and at its base the river foams and rushes, entering a deep winding ravine and plunging beneath a rocky precipice several hundred feet high, on the top of which a few houses appear. The steep sides are green with trees to a certain height, and then the grey rock appears scantily covered with grass in places; above the abyss swallows dart and hawks hover. On all sides the rushing of water is heard, and fountains in the streets betoken an unusual supply, for Istria is generally a thirsty land. The castle is so close to the chasm that from one of the windows a stone can be tossed into the water. The dwarf wall shown in the illustration runs along the top of the precipice. Upon the door the date of 1785 is cut, but the greater part of the walls with their machicolations belongs to a reconstruction of the ancient castle in the fifteenth century. It is still inhabited, and part of it is used for district offices, but there is little of archaeological interest in city or castle. In the courtyard is a well on a platform ornamented with stone balls to which twelve steps ascend, a rather curious arrangement. The place for the bar which fastened the doors is still there, but in these peaceful times they appear to stand open day and night; at all events they were open when we reached the place about 7 a.m., having left Pola soon after 5. In the cathedral are a silver processional cross with figures of saints, and a tabernacle of 1543, rich of its kind, also a picture by Girolamo da S. Croce.

There was a cattle-fair on the day we were in the town; the place was full of contadini, and the roads were thronged with cattle being driven in for sale. The lambs were slung on donkeys' backs in couples, confined in sacks with their heads out of the mouths, and one lively little black fellow escaped and caused much excitement before he was caught and reimprisoned. The type of the peasants is quite different from that of those lower down the coast; the head is long, the nose aquiline, and the countenance seamed with many deep wrinkles. The older men wore one large earring in the right ear, hose of a thick whitish woollen material, or brown or blue trousers which sometimes reached but a little below the knee, a white shirt, and a brown jacket hung over the shoulder. The daughter of the house, who served us at a rough restaurant where we had dejeuner together with some of the country folk, was anxious to know whether the language we were speaking together was Russian. I fancy English travellers are very rare in that part of the country.

A few miles south of Canfanaro is the little town of San Vincenti, in which is one of the best preserved of the Istrian castles, showing indeed little sign of ruin externally. It occupies one side of the main piazza. At right angles to it is the church, with a facade recalling the work of the Lombardi, and there is a loggia and a public cistern, made in 1808 to ensure a good supply of drinking-water. In this piazza a joust was held as late as June 24, 1713. There Maria Radoslavich was hung and then burnt as a witch on February 25, 1632.



The castle is quadrilateral with a round and an octagonal tower at the angles of the northern face. The opposite side has a square tower at the angle to the right, and to the left the house of the governor just beyond the entrance-gate; the walls splay out widely to the bottom of the ditch. The slits for the chains of the drawbridge are on each side of a little grated window, and above the door are the date 1485 and the arms of Marino Grimani, with an inscription recording a restoration in 1589 after a fire in 1586. On a small door inside is the date 1728, showing that the castle underwent restorations and rebuildings. In the middle of the cornice is an arch for the castle-bell. The town was part of the feud of S. Apollinare, and was destroyed in 1330 by the soldiers of the Patriarch Pagano della Torre. The castle belonged first to the Castropola, then to the Morosini, and finally to the Grimani. It was dismantled by Bernardo Tiepolo after the war of Gradisca (during which Loredano used it as his quarters general), with the object of freeing the people from forced service of various kinds. Low buildings used as harness and store-rooms, &c., still remain against the walls inside, but the stair to the suite of principal rooms is ruinous. It is external, and led to a terrace beneath which were prisons, and from which another flight rose to a door of entrance, walled up but still traceable, at a considerable height. Other prisons were in the towers, which were bound together by the gallery which ran round the interior. The ground floor of the seventeenth-century house which occupies the ancient keep was arranged as guard-rooms and soldiers' lodgings; an internal stair conducts to a few rooms which look into the courtyard; the floors of the rest have been destroyed. Externally there is no opening for half the height; then there are two pointed windows with a considerable space between; above these in the middle is a large loggia with two pointed doors, at the sides quadrangular windows, and higher up, beneath the eaves, four more small window-openings. Some of the towers are ivy-grown.



In the church in the piazza is a S. Sebastian ascribed to Schiavone. The most ancient church is, however, in the cemetery to the north, a simple nave with pointed windows. The little chapel illustrated, at a crossing of the ways, is characteristic of this part of Istria. The people still speak Venetian Italian, though there are a good many Slav contadini, brought from Dalmatia by the Grimani in 1628. The type has regular and marked features, with dark eyes and hair. The costume is not quite that of the Morlacchi, being all black except the shoes, which are of natural leather. The women have short skirts, black stockings, and shiny shoes, many chains round the neck, and earrings, and on festas have a coronal of pins in their carefully arranged hair, like the women of the Brianza. Their weddings are celebrated amid great gatherings of friends; two pipers, with instruments timed in thirds, march first, playing a kind of tarantella; then follows a company of contadini two and two, not arm-in-arm, but with a coloured handkerchief from one head to the other. The bride has a kind of turban of brilliant colours on her head, from which masses of vari-coloured silken ribbons hang, covering her to the shoulders and breast except for her eyes, nose, and mouth. Her chemise is finely pierced and embroidered on neck, bosom, and cuffs, and her stockings are of open work, while her shoes are almost like sandals. Rows of coral deck her neck, and her fingers have as many gold rings on them as possible. The bridegroom's hat bears a crown of artificial flowers, as does that of the best man; all the friends have a similar bunch in their hands or caps. After the marriage the pipers play, and the whole of the company form up in a straight line outside the church. Then the best man comes forward with a kind of cake, which, after various feints, he throws among the crowd of children which quickly collects, and they scramble for it. Then the husband and wife, with the best man, go to the goldsmith's to buy the marriage present. Later there is a dance. The men and women face each other in line. They pace rapidly back and forth without moving forward. Then the couples advance, the man raises his right arm and opens the hand to the woman, who grasps it, and turns herself under the arch of the two arms. Then the man passes his arm round his partner's waist and they go round in measured walk.

Between San Vincenti and Pola are Valle and Dignano. At the former the fortifications are earlier than the fourteenth century, heavy and imposing, with five lofty towers (two of which are embattled), so that projectiles were dangerous rather from the force of gravity than from the impulse given. A portion of them is ruined, and one of the towers is now the communal cistern. In the crypt of the church are fragments of ninth-century carving, cut up disgracefully and made into a modern altar, and there is a sarcophagus of the same period in the cemetery. The campanile is considered to be the oldest in Istria. In the treasury are a silver-gilt monstrance with many pinnacles and Renaissance scrolls on the foot, a cross and a chalice of silver-gilt with medallions on the foot, which once had an enamel ground. The most interesting thing, however, is a chasuble of the fifteenth century, with embroidered figures of silver-gilt thread in high relief upon the cross. At the back, on the upright part, is a half-length of our Lord in a chalice, and two saints, all three beneath canopies, and on the arms SS. Peter and Paul. On the front are two figures and an Annunciation on the arms; the Virgin on one side, and the angel on the other. The flesh is painted.



XII

POLA

The town and arsenal of Pola lie at the head of one of those convenient inlets which provide the Austrian coast so plentifully with fine harbours. As the steamer passes between Cape Compare and Monte Grosso the naval port appears to the right with many powerful ships-of-war anchored in the bay: beyond and above the island of Olivi, occupied by part of the arsenal, rises the town, its buildings climbing the hill towards the castle which crowns the summit. To the left is the ample commercial port with its long quays stretching towards the railway station, the imposing mass of the amphitheatre dominating the whole of that side of the picture. These two structures, the amphitheatre and the arsenal, show the chief interests of Pola—the glory of antiquity, and modern utility devoted to defence; for the monuments of mediaeval times are few in the city, and the destruction wrought alternately by Venice and Genoa left it poor, and in many parts ruinous, till the modern revival, with the transference of the headquarters of the Austrian navy from Venice in 1861. The mouth of the harbour is less than half a mile across and is over 100 ft. deep. The eastern portion has a depth of 20 ft. against the quays, which are all constructed on made ground. The quarries on the Brioni Islands have afforded excellent material close at hand for the buildings and fortifications both in antiquity and in modern times.

The castle hill was the capitol of the Roman city, and the streets ran round it, with others diverging like the ladders of a spider's web. A canal isolating the city from the land existed to the east. Of the land gates two still remain—the Porta Gemina (anciently the Porta Jovia) and the Porta Ercole; the arch of the Sergii formed the interior face of a third (of which a portion of the lower courses remain), the Porta Aurea, so called probably from its having had grilles of gilded bronze. There were also seven gates in the walls towards the sea. The forum was twice the size of the present piazza, which occupies part of its site, and had twin temples at one end, with the comitium between them, of which one remains in good preservation, and a portion of the back part of the other. There was a temple of Jupiter Conservatorius, upon the site of which the cathedral stands; and one to Minerva, afterwards the site of the destroyed basilica of S. Maria in Canneto. The theatre was near the Porta Aurea, and is now marked only by the excavation of its curve in the hillside and a few ruined arches in a private garden. The destruction of ancient Pola is largely due to Venice, who appeared to think that when the communes gave themselves to her she acquired the right of removing any of the monuments to beautify herself; and it even went so far as for a patrician to seriously propose to bear the cost of transporting the amphitheatre to Venice, and re-erecting it on the site of the present public gardens!



The Porta Gemina consists of twin arches, beneath a simple frieze and more elaborate cornice supported by modillions, which rest upon three engaged composite columns raised upon pedestal blocks. The key-stones are flat, and the piercing of some holes in them suggests that metal enrichments were affixed. It was an important gate, being the direct way to the amphitheatre from the Capitol, and also the starting-point of the military road towards the Arsa and Albona. By it also the aqueduct passed into the city. The Porta Ercole is simpler, and probably older; it bears the names of two duumvirs, Lucius Cassius Longinus and Lucius Calphurnius Piso, and some rough carving. Of the Porta Aurea itself, which had a central gate for chariots and two side gates for pedestrians, little remains. Beneath the arch of the Sergii the ancient pavement has been uncovered, bearing wheelmarks made many centuries ago, and the lower courses of the gateway adjacent, but all the part above the present street-level has disappeared. The carving on the arch of the Sergii shows a curious economy. Since the gate was so close to it only a portion of the coupled Corinthian columns could be seen; the fluting, therefore, was carried only a third of the way round, and the capitals were left merely roughed out, as were also the mouldings of the attic which would be hidden by the cornice, except in the portions visible from the external sides. The soffit of the arch is carved, and the face of the pilaster below has a very rich and graceful vine arabesque upon it. The other side is fully decorated with victories in the spandrils, festoons and chariot-races on the frieze, and the attic develops three pedestals for statues, inscribed to members of the family of Salvia Postumia, who erected it in honour of her husband, Lucius Sergius, his father of the same name, and his uncle Cnaeus Sergius. Lucius Sergius was tribune of the 29th Legion. The work is probably of the time of Augustus.

The finely proportioned temple was erected at a later period during his lifetime by the grateful Polese; such adulation could be tolerated only in Asia, and Augustus declined to allow the dedication without the addition of "Rome." The facade has four Corinthian columns, and at the angles of the cella are four channelled pilasters; between these and the four columns of the facade is a similar column on each side. The roof is modern. Within it and around are collected numerous sculptured fragments, antique and of the early mediaeval period for the most part, which would be the better for spacing and arranging. The other temple is of a later date. They both stood upon a platform twelve steps above the forum, themselves raised further by seven steps and a stylobate. The rostra were on the forum side of the comitium.

Till 1875 the amphitheatre—which was built in 198-211 in honour of Septimius Severus (who had been governor of Illyria) and of Caracalla—lay open to the street. It was then railed round, and since that time systematic excavations have disclosed the plan of the sub-structures. The circuit, which is nearly perfect, consists of seventy-two arches, and the elevation has a basement and a principal story, with an attic of square windows to light the promenade, and a finishing cornice through which the masts for the Velarium passed, resting upon stone blocks above the cornice of the main story. The arches at the extremities of the long diameter are wider than the rest, and therefore cut into the frieze above, an unusual licence. There are four towers, two towards the sea and two towards the hill, which probably contained double staircases, but no sign of them remains, though the doorways and grilles of pierced stone testify to their usefulness. Excavations have brought to light forty or fifty pieces of the steps of the auditorium, upon some of which the seats are marked by dividing lines and by letters. The podium of the arena shows by its lowness that fights with wild beasts did not take place in it. Until the fourteenth century the interior remained nearly complete, the patriarch having forbidden the removal of stones. At that time the seats were taken to repair the town walls, and a great deal of the material was subsequently sold to Venice. The stone of which the amphitheatre is built has taken on a beautiful warm colour from the suns of centuries, and glows in the sunset light as if it were the marble which makes so many Italian buildings lovely in colour.



The most important church in Pola was S. Maria Formosa, or del Canneto (of the marsh), built on the foundations of the temple of Minerva. It was founded by Maximian, archbishop of Ravenna, the friend of Justinian, who was born at Vistro, now Porto Vestre, a village to the south of Rovigno. He came to Pola to consecrate it in 546. He also founded a Benedictine monastery near, which soon became the richest in Istria by its connection with Ravenna, endowed the convent of S. Andrea, and built a house for the rector of the basilica. The site of the abbey is now occupied by the buildings of the Hotel Central and other houses in the parallel streets Via Minerva and Via Abbazia. It was a basilican church with nave, and aisles raised two steps above it. There were ten columns on each side, with varied capitals. The aisles were vaulted, and the semi-dome of the apse was decorated with mosaics on a gold ground. The high-altar was under a baldacchino; there was a throne for the abbot, and seats in the choir for the monks. The windows were small and round-headed, filled with pierced slabs. The ancient door of entrance is between Nos. 27 and 33, Via Abbazia—a round arch simply moulded, with a dentil round the tympanum and a lintel below. The nave stretched along the space now occupied by the stable-yard of the hotel, and the wall of the north aisle forms part of the stables. It has external pilaster strips opposite to the places where the columns of the nave arcade stood. The apse, with triumphal arch, still exists, and two round chapels which flanked it and were entered from the aisles; one of them was dedicated to the Madonna del Carmelo, and the other to S. Andrew.



The S. Maria del Canneto of to-day is a cruciform chapel which lay to the right, and has an apsidal eastern end. The entrance is past the kitchen of the hotel; and from a window of an upstairs corridor one can "assist" at Mass when it is performed, for the church is entirely enclosed in the hotel buildings. The arms of the cross have wagon vaults; at the crossing is a quadripartite vault with ribs and central oculus on a higher level; rough projections along the ribs suggest the copying of leaf ribs of early mosaics. It is about 22 ft. 6 in. high, and there is a window in each wall. The roof shows ancient material and in some parts the ancient manner of using tiles. On the face of the bell-turret a piece of eighth-century carving is fixed. The walls are now whitewashed, and the floor covered with red tiles. The round chapel to the left of the apse has a cupola with an oculus and a lantern at the top. There are still remains of the mosaic pavement of the apse in No. 20, Via Minerva: in 1898, when building the stables, some fragments were found near to the aisle wall, which, with others unearthed in 1902, are now in the municipal museum. The patterns are a guilloche border with fishes, enclosing a field of plant sprigs, and a lotus border with a more conventional pattern within. The colours used are two reds, two greens, black and white, and pale blue occasionally. The cloister lay between the church and Via Abbazia; the houses 39, 37, and 35, stand on its site. The last notices of the church occur in the middle of the thirteenth century; later mention refers only to the ruins. The destruction appears to have taken place when Pola was sacked by the Venetians under Giacomo Tiepolo and Leonardo Querini in 1243, though some think that it was in one of the later sackings by the Genoese, of which there were three in the fourteenth century—1354, 1376, and 1380. In 1600 a number of the pillars were still upright, and mosaics and sculptures were visible; at that time they tried to raise a chapel within its walls. It is certain that the Venetians gradually despoiled it of everything of value, with the consent of the Polese. Much of the material was used in the seventeenth century for the restoration and rebuilding of the communal palace, and two at least of the pillars of the ciborium of S. Mark's, Venice, as well as the four of Oriental alabaster, which the tourist is told came from the Temple of Solomon, were spoils from this splendid church, the latter annexed in 1605, and the former by Giacomo Tiepolo in 1243.

In 1545 Sansovino was sent by the Senate to bring away the marble columns to Venice. The African marble on the landings of the Libreria Vecchia also came from Pola, and the shaft of the holy-water basin in S. Mark's, with dolphins and tridents, once belonged to a temple of Neptune there. The Polese presented the four central columns to S. Maria della Salute, from the theatre on Monte Zaro. In 1632 the Venetian Senate ordered the provveditore of the castle, Pola, to inform himself as to the number and quantity of the columns of "noble architecture" which were in one of the ruinous churches, and on August 21, 1638, praised the diligence of Bragadin in sending marbles for S. Maria della Salute. He had sent fourteen columns in April, and information of others at Parenzo.

Several other early churches in and around Pola were destroyed while constructing the fortifications. On the island of S. Caterina was a cemetery church, the plan of which indicated early Byzantine origin; on that of S. Andrea were a cloister and church of the sixth century; and on the hill whence the Tegethoff monument now looks over the harbour the double basilica of S. Michele in Monte, partly dating from the seventh century and partly from the eleventh. The grave of Salomon, king of Hungary, who died here in 1087 and was canonised shortly after, whose body had been venerated in the cathedral from the fifteenth century, was then found. The sarcophagus is now in the museum.

The original cathedral appears to have been contemporary with that of Parenzo, but it was restored in the ninth century. In 1884 the floor of the presbytery was lowered, and near the high-altar, at a depth of two feet, Roman fragments and ninth-century carvings were found, with an inscription of the fifteenth century; lower still were Roman inscriptions and sculptures, and then a semicircular mosaic floor of 13 ft. radius, with a lily border on a black and red ground (grey, yellow, and white tessera? also being used), with an inscription mentioning Donatian, and small medallions with cross and square. Under the first step of the demolished stairs was a second much damaged mosaic resembling the early one at Parenzo. It may be seen by lifting a trap-door, A bronze medal of Agrippina was found at the same time. Three rectangular windows were also discovered, a large one in the centre and two smaller towards the sides, the former filled with a pierced slab now preserved in the presbytery. The triumphal arch is round, with early caps and impost mouldings; other early caps and columns are visible in the walls of the choir in hollows made to expose them. The theory is that there was a confessional behind the apse instead of below it, of which these fragments are the remains. Encrusted in the outer wall of the south aisle is an inscription which runs thus: "In the year 857, fifth indiction, under Ludovicus, Emperor of Italy, Handegis was elected and consecrated bishop on Whit Sunday, and occupied the seat for five years." It is thought that he was the restorer of the building. Some of the ninth-century carvings are in the museum. Several small windows high in the nave walls still retain the slabs pierced with ninth-century patterns, and two unbroken ciborium or baptistery archivolts still exist, one in the courtyard of the Beata Vergine della Miscricordia, and the other in the Piazza S. Giovanni, where it is made up into a little shrine with two fourteenth-century caps, and a Renaissance pediment with two uprights of a chancel of Lombard work, with three furrowed scrolls and crosses of the usual Syrian derivation.

The church was subsequently much altered, the transepts and apse have vanished, and stones found which bear the marks of fire suggest that it was burnt, either by the Venetians in 1243 or by the Genoese in 1379, when they took the bronze doors away and burnt the archives. An inscription on the front of the reliquary tomb, which is to the right of the high-altar, and claims to contain the bodies of SS. Basil, Demetrius, George, and Theodore, and of Salomon, king of Hungary, states that Bishop Biagio Molin rebuilt the church in 1417. To this building the retable of the high-altar, dedicated in 1469 and now in the north aisle, belongs, still called La Madonna del Coro. It has figures of saints in the upper row, half length, and full length in the lower row, in high relief; the Madonna in the centre, and above her Christ over His tomb, showing His wounds, and attended by the Virgin and S. John, with fine tabernacle work and pierced pinnacles, all gilded except the flesh, which is painted, and the ground behind the pinnacles, which is blue. It is rather over-restored and looks quite new. The ciborium has cipollino columns, antique caps, pointed arches, and Venetian dentil enrichments with marble inlays. The nave arcade, of nine columns, has slightly pointed arches, unmoulded except for a simple hood-mould and a kind of engrailed crown above the abacus. The caps are for the most part late fourteenth century in character, but some are antique. The columns have been made up to the same size with plaster, and painted to imitate granite, only a few having escaped. The last one on the south has a ring round the centre; one base looks antique, many of them have spurs. The restorations of 1640 and 1712 have obliterated all appearance of antiquity. Bishop Giuseppe Maria Bottari, the last restorer, used so many inscribed slabs in repairing the interior and building the campanile that he was nicknamed "the sexton of inscriptions." There was a cruciform baptistery to the west, the remains of which were destroyed in 1850 in connection with the harbour works. To the north of the cathedral is the communal cistern, which covers a great part of the site of the early church of S. Thomas. In 1860 some reliquaries were found here between the cistern and the cathedral sacristy, where the centre of the apse probably was, and further investigations disclosed the steps to the presbytery, remains of the apse, and stones carved with ornament. In 1332 this church was used for service in place of the ruined cathedral, and as late as 1812 some remains of the walls were visible. The reliquaries were contained in a stone chest some three feet below the ground level. Within it was another smaller chest of Greek marble, with Byzantine ornament, and a gable roof with an inlaid cross of green stone. This was preserved in the cathedral for some time, but has now disappeared. Within it the workmen found a flat rectangular casket, described as being divided into sixteen compartments, which held silver reliquaries, and in the middle a small golden box, in which were two little finger-bones. In another was a small yellow piece of silk with blood-spots on it. The sacristan asserted that there were also twelve golden statuettes a span high, and some smaller silver vases; but all the reliquaries have disappeared except two, which have been preserved at Vienna since 1888. The more important of the two is an hexagonal box with an ogee-shaped lid and a little rosette on the apex; on the sides are repousse figures, the upper parts of which are repeated with some modifications on the lid. These figures are: Christ, between SS. Peter and Paul, and three single figures, two of which hold symbols, a roll, and a tau-cross. The Christ is youthful, without a nimbus, and holds an open book in the left hand. The draperies are all antique in style, and the work is believed to be of the first or second century. A hasp is attached to the lid, but there is no sign of hinge or corresponding button. The smaller casket is rectangular, resembling that found at Grado. On the lid is a cross in dark-blue enamel with surroundings of filigree.

The church of S. Francesco is halfway up the hill to the castle, and is now used as a military magazine. Towards the road the wall terminates in a gable, with two pointed openings for bells; below is a red cross inlaid within an enclosing moulding. A ramping cornice of shallow arches with dentils above it finishes the wall, the centre portion of which is pierced with a two-light trefoiled window blocked up below, while a chapel to the north is lighted by simple-pointed windows. The fine entrance door, with its rich mouldings, twisted columns, and round arch, looks rather older than 1314, which is the date of the first certain mention of the church; but in Istria and Dalmatia styles lingered late. It is said to have been built by the Castropola in 1285, and a half-obliterated inscription by the door records the date of 1406, when a provincial Franciscan council was held in the church. On each side of the door is a window of two trefoiled lights with slender shafts, and above it a rose with Gothic tracery. The interior has a simple unvaulted nave, a choir of one bay with cross vaulting, and a small chapel, probably the sepulchral chapel of the Castropola, since their arms are on the windows. The only remaining piece of the cloister serves as entrance portico. The little garden outside the principal door has a bowling-alley beneath a vine pergola, from which there is a beautiful view over the bay; and in it grow trees of euonymus and oleander with thick trunks, and an aloe, besides the usual roses, peaches, and mulberries.



The communal palace was built in 1296; the back portion is part of the second temple. Some portions of the ancient building remain on the right flank. It was the palace of the Margrave of Istria, and later of the Venetian rectors or counts of Pola. According to Kandler, the figure of a knight upon it represents Albert II., Count of Istria. The Genoese damaged the palace in 1390, but it was restored the next year. After the facade fell in 1651, it was rebuilt in its present form, with material from S. Maria Formosa, but it was not finished till 1703. During the last years of the Republic the count lived in the back portion, had his stables in the temple of Augustus and his kitchen in the other temple.

The castle was built on the ruins of the Capitol, probably about 1200. Within was the habitation of the count, a three-naved chapel, arsenal, lodging for two hundred soldiers, &c. The Sergii seized it in 1271 and became known as Castropolae. Here the captains of the people lived, who ruled Pola for the sixty-three years before 1328. The count was a civil governor, and after 1331, when the Polese gave themselves to Venice, had authority in the lower city; but a provveditore was appointed for the castle, who had a captain, a sergeant, two lieutenants, and eighty soldiers under his command. In 1638 the two offices were united. The new castle was commenced after the plague of 1632 from the designs of the Frenchman Deville, who used the material of the theatre. Kandler says that he remembered this castle, which had double walls with four towers to each, and one larger tower towards Monte Maggiore. The present castle is quite modern, and one is warned off when approaching it. The mediaeval walls were demolished in 1848. They appear to have been generally in a bad state of repair, and records of their restoration are frequent. The sea-walls were thrown down by the Venetians, who did not like the cities under their sway to have defences on the water-side, though they were sometimes obliged to permit something of the sort. For instance, in 1351, the Polese were allowed to build a wall 10 ft. high towards the sea, which was a sufficient defence against a sudden raid, but of little use in the case of a strong attack. As a matter of fact, the Genoese broke it down in 1380, sacked the city, and put all opponents to the sword.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century Pola was surrounded by a number of carefully built polygonal towers. There were eight gates with machicolated defences above them, and the arms of fifteen rectors in different places showed that the walls had been long in building. In 1610 the Uscocs sacked the city, entering through certain holes in the walls, which, as Fra Paolo Sarpi relates, rendered the closing of the great gates useless. The neglect of the Venetians in the matters of pay and provision of war material in the seventeenth century reduced the defences to a farce.

The laws of many of the cities prescribed penalties for crossing the wall. Pola, 1442: "No person shall dare to pass over the walls of the city of Pola in any manner, neither going nor returning, neither with nor without a ladder, and neither shall they enter nor leave the gates of the city, neither below nor above, under penalty of 50 lire di piccoli and three months in prison." The inhabitants of walled places had little liberty. Besides the duty of guarding the gates, a citizen could neither enter nor leave except between certain fixed hours; if he reached the opposite side of the ditch after the evening bell he found the drawbridge raised, and had to seek a bed outside, or climb the wall, in which case he ran the risk of being surprised and punished.

The communal museum contains many very interesting things belonging to different periods of Polese history. Here are some very ancient stones with Mycenean whorls cut upon Istrian material, perhaps by some prisoner taken by Istrian pirates; also stones with these whorls half obliterated, and hollows sunk here and there, which, it is thought, were a kind of star map made by shepherds when Istria was wooded, to direct them in driving their flocks. Here are two inscriptions mentioning an entirely unknown god and goddess, and the inscription of Gordian in which the name of Nesactium occurs, the discovery of which fixed the site of the most important of the Istrian cities, the scene of the massacre of the women and children by the hands of their husbands and fathers, to prevent them from being taken by the Romans.

Many things found there are also in the museum—skulls, an ivory spindle, fragments of pottery and glass, and two curious statues, very archaic in style, from a tomb-building. One is a nude rider upon a horse, the other an unclothed woman suckling a child, thought to be the indigenous god Melescos and one of the goddess mothers. There are also a prehistoric oven, bronze vases found in the well at Tivoli, near Pola, fragments from S. Maria in Canneto and other destroyed churches; and here also the chapter of the cathedral has deposited portions of the cathedral ciborium and other architectural fragments.

Pola was founded as a Roman colony in 129 B.C., at the same time as Trieste. It fought for Pompey, and was punished by destruction, but was restored in 33 B.C. as "Pietas Julia"; and in 27 B.C. Augustus raised the Istrian cities to the rank of municipia by adding the province to Italy. The Polese were inscribed in the tribe Valeria. Pola was also called Polentia in honour of the mother of Vespasian, and Herculanea in honour of Commodus. It had been the judicial capital under the Republic, and was prosperous under the Empire, being the place where two lines of traffic crossed, that from Rome through Ancona and so to the Danube, and that from Britain to Constantinople, and also had agricultural riches and manufactures of its own. It was the base of operations during the reconquest of Italy from the Goths, both for Belisarius and for Narses, and was made the principal city and harbour on the east coast of the Adriatic. It was also the granary of the Exarchate, owing to the Lombard destruction in Italy, and had a population of some 25,000. During the plague of 1348, which lasted for several months, a fifth of the population died, fifty patrician families became entirely extinct, and privileges were offered to foreigners to induce them to re-people the city. At the downfall of the Venetian Republic the population barely amounted to 600 souls.

The popular tradition of the destruction of the Castropola (who had made themselves lords of Pola) runs thus: Andrea di Tonata, the head of the popular faction, arranged a conspiracy to free the city. The moment chosen was the evening of Good Friday, during the annual procession called "of the wood of the Holy Cross," which went round the city, starting from the cathedral. Near the church of S. Stefano (which was within the walls at the foot of the castle hill) the conspirators, disguised in the dress of members of the Confraternity of S. Stephen, drawing their daggers at a given signal, threw themselves upon the Castropola, who were in a separate group in the procession, not thinking of danger, and killed them. Then, calling on the people to rise, the conspirators led them to the assault of the neighbouring castle, which they took by surprise, killing any of the family or their adherents whom they met. Only one child escaped, owing his life to the devotion of a servant who hid him when the crowd had actually entered the castle, and let him down by a cord into the Franciscan convent just below, from which a monk took him secretly out of the city to one of the country places belonging to the family. This tradition is not historical, for the family continued in Pola till the fall of the Signory, and flourished afterwards in Venice and Treviso; but there was certainly a rising then in which the houses of certain of their adherents were sacked. Two members of the aristocracy were appointed captains of the people, but after a month they decided to give themselves to Venice; by the Act of Dedition the Castropola were banished from Pola, Istria, Friuli, and Schiavonia, though they were allowed to retain their property. Their principal adherents were also banished. In 1334 an attempt to regain the Signory caused the Polese to ask the Senate to dismantle the castle, which was done, and the houses of the two heads of the family were also destroyed. So Pola became a mere appanage of Venice.



XIII

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ISTRIAN COAST

Istria is in great part a dry and stony land, but there are valleys with streams and woods. It slopes to the west and south with a tolerably continuous declivity, so that the base of the triangular peninsula is on the whole the highest part. Much of the vegetation is greyish, and the rocks also are generally a pale grey. It is divided into three districts, named, from, the prevailing colour of the ground, white, yellow, and red. The first is the stony portion, the grey limestone of the Karst; next the yellow sandstone formation which begins at Trieste and extends through middle Istria; and then the southern portion where the white limestone is underneath, and clay of a red ochreous colour occurs in streaks. Round Pisino and Pinguente and between them are fields, meadows, and even woods, with plenty of streams which burst from the sandstone, while limestone hills jut out here and there. Pisino lies on the edge of "yellow" Istria, and hills rise around it; on the south side is a hill of the red land; and the houses are on an outcrop of the white limestone. The Foiba runs along the junction of the two formations. Middle Istria undulates from about 1,200 ft. to 900 ft. above the sea, while Lower Istria is but 500 ft. The hills are lower and less steep, there is more cultivation, and the villages and towns look more prosperous.



COAST TOWNS

The shore (except for the deltas of a few streams) has no flat portions, and the banks (scarcely cliffs), though generally perpendicular and difficult to climb, are not at all lofty. The coast is broken into bays by projecting tongues of land, making harbours of differing degrees of safety, with an enormous number of small islands, many of which are mere rocks, obliging the steamers to keep some considerable distance from the land. The first navigable passage between them and the coast is the Canal of Fasana, within the Brioni Islands. The view from the sea shows rough steep stretches of bank with picturesque harbour towns; the stone walls and towers, the tall campanile, generally reminiscent of that of S. Marco, Venice, the white houses, the grey of the bare shores and the varied greens of the surrounding country, with its woods, fields and gardens, harmonise pleasantly, especially in the afternoon and evening light. Nearly every town has an upper or more ancient portion built for security on a hill which was once an island, and a newer part close to the water. From the outer harbour the "mandracchio," the inner harbour, opens with the fish-market close by. The "piazza," in and near which are the municipio, the loggia, and the patricians' palaces, is generally approached by one of the steep streets, many of which are on the natural rock and impassable for wheeled vehicles. Above the coastline the hills of the interior rise in bluer distance, with here and there a town crowning a lesser elevation. Montona appears, cresting its isolated hill above the Quieto, and Buie, the look-out of Istria, while to the south-east the blue mass of Monte Maggiore is hidden or disclosed as the clouds gather and disperse.

Beyond the harbour of Pola is the low point of Promontore, where the coastline turns and runs north-east. All around the harbour forts are seated on points of vantage, some older, some very modern; and little villages occupy those elevations left vacant by the military authorities. To the south are the large islands of Cherso and Veglia. At the mouth of the Bado valley lies the little port of that name, around which are many tiny islands. From Caorano, near the mouth of the canal of the Arsa, the land begins to rise, and with Punta Nera, an outlying spur of the chain of Monte Maggiore, the coast becomes rocky and precipitous, from 950 ft. to 3,200 ft. high, furrowed by valleys running down to the sea. The villages are high above the water, and there is little green except in the lower parts, the grey of the rock being varied only with brushwood. Albona may be taken as a typical example of the situation of these villages, being high above its harbour, Rabaz. As the boat approaches nearer the shore the range of cliffs plunging down into the green water is impressive. Towards Abbazia the red soil becomes more abundant, the hills are terraced, and vegetation is more luxuriant, great chestnuts and bay-trees appear, and cypresses when Lovrana is reached. This north shore of the Quarnero, stretching to Fiume, is the Riviera of Austria. The Dinaric Alps surround it from Monte Maggiore, and the Liburnian Karst to the Velebits. In this district hedges of bay flourish, and in the Villa Angiolina park may be seen many varieties of trees in blossom or fruit, which luxuriate in the sheltered situation. The view from the harbour at Fiume in the afternoon is delightful, the mass of Monte Syss on Cherso guarding the entrance to the Quarnero on one side, while the many spurs of the Monte Maggiore range on the other troop to the sea, blue in the shadow, and paling and lowering with greater distance.



XIV

FIUME AND VEGLIA

Fiume is one of the few towns along the coast in which the Italians are in the majority. It lies at the north-eastern end of the Bay of the Quarnero, and is the chief seaport of Hungary, to which it has belonged in the main since the beginning of the twelfth century; and permanently since 1870. Though it was a thriving town in the Middle Ages, and existed in Roman times, there is very little to be seen older than the period of the late Renaissance. It is a busy modern town, and for the archaeologist is merely a convenient place of departure for other more interesting sites, though there is some picturesqueness of costume and situation about it; and the Englishman is pleased to see many ships with the national flag, and to know that one of the great industries of the place is the Whitehead torpedo factory. The Tarsia, as the Rjeka was called, gave the name of Tarsatica to the ancient Liburnian city. The Romans built a castle on the bank of the stream to rein in the ferocious Gepids. Round this castle the ancient Tarsatica grew up. The only Roman remains existing are: a triumphal arch said to have been erected in honour of the Emperor Claudius II., Gothicus (268-270), which resembles the Arco di Riccardo, Trieste, in its situation on the side of the hill in the old city, but is much less ornamented and more dilapidated; some remains of Roman construction in the Castle of the Frangipani; and at the top of the hill above the Porto di Martinschizza (called "Solin"), the remains of another Roman fortress, which protected the city to the east, commanding the ravine of La Draga, a mile and a half from Tarsatto. Tarsatica was destroyed in 799 by Charlemagne.



The wine-quay, by the Porto Canale, Fiumara, is shaded pleasantly with trees, and always busy with its own particular trade, supplemented by stalls at which various goods are offered for sale. Close by is a street, which in the spring is bright with Judas-trees in flower. The ravine down which the stream flows has always been the boundary of the Croatian kingdom. On the further side is the ascent of 410 steps to the pilgrimage church of the Madonna del Tarsatto, on one of the spurs of the hills which surround the city; an ascent which devout pilgrims are said to have negotiated on their knees. A chronogram over the church door gives the date 1730, but it was founded in 1453 by one of the Frangipani counts on the site once occupied by the Nazareth House now at Loreto, the tradition being that this rested here for three years and seven months, from 1291 to 1294; and in a dark passage behind the high-altar a room is still shown said to be a part of it.

The church contains a picture of the Madonna and Child, ascribed as usual to S. Luke, of which a little copy hangs by the choir arch in the aisle; the two heads and hands are painted. The rest is covered with silver-gilt plates modelled in low relief to represent the drapery, nimbi, &c. Near the high-altar are frescoes with Latin inscriptions, of no great interest, also two great silver candlesticks and portions of Turkish harness, gifts of the Emperor Leopold I. The pillars are hung with the votive offerings of rescued mariners. The church has only one aisle, to the north. At the west end is an organ gallery on slight columns with fifteenth-century carving. The choir has a fine seventeenth-century wrought-iron grille with two amorini, a crown and heart, &c., interwoven with scrolls, gilded and painted. The beaten work is mixed with scrolls of flat thin material between strong uprights and cross pieces. At the height of the face of a kneeling figure is a row of small balusters. The upper portion is painted white.