The treasury contains some exceedingly interesting objects, and is rich in reliquaries. It is kept in the wall between the body of the cathedral and the baptistery in a rather evil-smelling vault, which opens into the latter building. The most ancient reliquary, once belonging to the cathedral at Grado, is that of Sant' Orontius; it contains a portion of his head, and is work of the eleventh century, material of an earlier date having been used in its construction. Upon the sides and front is an arcade with alternate twisted and fluted columns, beneath which are figures of saints robed in the Greek manner, and holding Benedictional crosses. The names of the saints, inscribed in mixed Latin and Greek letters, are Sabinianus, Felix, Vitalis, Satorus, Repositus, Septimus, Januarius, Arotatius, Onoratus, and Fortunatianus. On the back is a plate inscribed in Roman letters: "[Symbol: maltese cross] Sergivs F. Mai Nepos zallae fecit hanc capsam sco capiti Arontii Martins."[1]



On the top are the escutcheon of Archbishop Pesaro (1505-1530) and two quatrefoils. The casket has been mended with strips of stamped silver of various periods. Two reliquaries of the twelfth century described by Eitelberger and Mr. T.G. Jackson were not shown to us, though we were assured that we had seen everything of interest. One contains the head of S. Giacomo Interciso, a martyr of the fifth century. It has a domed top, and round the ring is an inscription: "[Symbol: Maltese cross] Ego Bosna ivssi fieri anch capsam ad onorem scs iacobi martiris ob remedivm anime chasei viri mei et anime mee." On the lid in round medallions are six figures—Christ with the monograms IC and XC, "Jachbus, martyr," Judas, Simon, Johannes, and Maria. Round the drum is an arcade supported on twisted, fluted, or diapered columns, under which are the figures of nine Apostles, named SS. Petrus, Paulus, Andreas, Jacobus, Tomas, Jacobus again, Filippus, Bartolomeus, and Mateus. The ground is plain silver; the figures are gilded. On the summit is a classic head with flying hair, a relief which did not form part of the original work. The letters are like those of the monument to Vekenega, who died in IIII; and Bianchi says there was a prior named Chaseus or Chaseo in 1096. An arm reliquary bears the inscription in raised Lombardic letters: "Ego Chacia usor Dimitrii feci fieri hoc opus." It is of plain metal enriched with filigree, and set with stones and patterned cloisonne enamels, and stands upon a triangular cast base with three feet; on each side is a winged figure with sceptre and orb amid twelfth-century scroll-work. Bianchi says Demetrius, husband of Chacia, was prior in 1162. An interesting reliquary inscribed "Hic est spongia dni quo potat fuit in patibulo crucis" is supported by four dragons without wings, but with raised tails. It is a tube of crystal, surmounted by a crucifix, below which is a band of natural leaves with birds. Between this and the foot is a cube of crystal surrounded by cast and pierced metal—a figure of a man in civilian dress blowing a horn, alternately with a knight tilting and carrying a falcon through a wood, typified by a tree behind him.



The treasury contains many interesting things of a later date, of which the reliquary of S. Crisogono is perhaps the most attractive, showing earlier enamels in a good fourteenth-century setting. On the front are two square enamels of SS. Zoilus and Anastasia, with little chapels at their sides supported on slender twisted columns. Upon the lid are three similar vesica-shaped medallions—S. Crisogono in the middle, S. John the Baptist on the left, and S. John the Evangelist on the right. Cypress-trees are on each side of the figures, enamelled dark green. S. Crisogono is robed as a king, crowned, and holding a cross before his breast; angels at each side of his head hold tapers. The material is silver. The figures are delicately drawn, and the ground is filled in with deep blue enamel, red and green also appearing. The borders show good vine-leaf scrolls. The ends have a rough sexfoil rose, which is repeated on the back between modern scrolls imitating the old. The inscription is round the lid in Lombardic letters of silver on a ground of red enamel: "Hoc op fvit fact tvr nobiliv viror viti cadvl vvlcin martinvsii et Pavli de Galcign ann D. MCCCXXVI." An ugly head reliquary of S. Mary Magdalene, dated 1332, is inscribed with the same name, Volcine de Martinusio, who was one of the three rectors or judges of Zara. It has flowing hair down to the shoulders. Several arm reliquaries of late fourteenth century are up to the usual standard. One is of S. Crisogono; one of S. Donate, with many jewels and a pierced band of quatrefoils with some of a larger number representing the opening of the sleeve; one with plaques of translucent enamel and vine scrolls said to contain a finger of S. John the Baptist, &c. An hexagonal pyx on a stem has on the knop and foot a half-length of our Lord erect in the tomb. A foot of S. Crisogono in a shoe-shaped reliquary with jewelled bands has a pretty flowing scroll pattern of the early Renaissance in low relief. A casket reliquary of S. Daniel (which, according to Bianchi, also encloses relics of SS. Peter and Paul and Martin) is rather coarser work of the Renaissance (1496) upon the same lines as the early reliquaries. It has figures of a Risen Christ and SS. Anatasia, Donato, and Daniel. On the sides and top are double-headed eagles with "M" on the breast. Bishop Valaresso's pastoral staff is also preserved here—a fine work of 1460, 6 ft. 6 in. high. It is hexagonal, divided into eight sections by bands, of which every other one is broader and more decorated. These bear a pierced pattern and projecting triangles, serving as spandrils to the trefoiled arches, which are incised on the spaces between. The knop is an elaborately niched and pinnacled architectural feature of two stories with figures in the niches and beneath the canopies. It terminates in a foliated form (a later addition), from which the crook springs. Round the outside of this are half-lengths of prophets emerging from foliage, facing in two directions, with a statuette of Christ on the summit. Within are two figures, a crowned woman holding a book, and a mitred male figure, probably intended for the Virgin and Valaresso himself.

The baptistery is an hexagonal building with niches in each side within, vaulted without ribs in wagon divisions, and with four windows above the niches. Altars stand in two niches, a confessional-box in another, and through the remaining three there are doors. In the centre is the octagonal font raised on three circular steps. It is 6 ft. 6 in. broad and 3 ft. 3 in. high, and has an enclosure in the centre. It is panelled on the sides, sometimes with two panels, each of which has round-headed sinkings like windows, sometimes with one panel containing three such sinkings, separated by coupled colonnettes; the cornice and base are moulded. The material is red Veronese marble like that used at Grado. A white marble basin, quatrefoil in shape, upon a fourteenth-century cap, holds the baptismal water, very green and slimy, and there is water at the bottom of the font itself.

The sacristy, a Gothic building with two bays of cross vaults, was the ancient church of S. Barbara, in which the Zaratines swore fealty to the Hungarian crown on the arm of S. Crisogono on July 8, 1384. In 1794 a mosaic pavement was found beneath the existing pavement. Between it and the apse is a little wagon-vaulted room, perhaps the ancient sacristy.

S. Crisogono belongs to the most ancient Benedictine convent in Dalmatia. The church was originally S. Antonio Abate; but when the body of S. Crisogono was brought from Aquileia it was deposited here, and the dedication was changed. In 906 the church and monastery were recorded under the name of S. Crisogono, and as being ruined by barbarian invasion. In 986 Majo, rector of Zara and proconsul of Dalmatia, rebuilt both, and made Madius, a monk from Monte Cassino, abbot. The standard of the city then bore S. Crisogono on horseback, added to the earlier white cross on a red ground. Destroyed by the Venetians, the church was rebuilt in 1032, and in 1056 the buried relics were re-discovered. The final rebuilding was in the twelfth century, and it was consecrated on May 4, 1175, by the first archbishop, Lampridius, though additions were made at a later date. The central portion of the west front, though Romanesque in style, is nothing like as fine as the eastern apses, and may be work of the end of the fourteenth century, since a consecration is recorded in 1407, though Bianchi states that the inscription in his time gave the date 1298. It has a central door with three unmoulded orders and a sunk tympanum beneath a gable. Above this is a heavy string course from which two pilaster strips spring, a window flanked by four arches on slender coupled columns, with semicircular niches, filling the space between them; above, a space from which it is cut by a second string forms the next stage; over it is another string and two small windows beneath a gable cornice of corbelled arches, the same cornice raking over the aisles. Beasts project at the gable angles, and the summit it crowned by a finial. All the arches are round, and the little arcade has red and grey voussoirs. To the left is a large squat campanile which was built in 1546-1562, and was then higher. A fire damaged it in 1645. The north aisle wall has an arcade of twelve arches with twisted columns, and the cast end has three apses, the central one larger and with a fine open arcade beneath the cornice; above its roof in the gable is a cross which had scodelle in the arms and centre. The interior has an arcade of seven arches, arranged three, two, and two, between piers, with a flat pilaster running up to what was once the wall plate. The columns are antique, as are some of the caps. The horizontal moulding above the nave arcade is the same as that above the apse arcade, and is ornamented with beasts' heads, &c. A twelfth-century mosaic in the apse was destroyed in 1791. The pavement of the presbytery is of coloured marbles, and on the aisle wall hangs a great painted crucifix which was once in S. Domenico, and recalls the work of the early Tuscans. The church was the burial-place of many distinguished Zaratines, and the body of Elizabeth of Hungary, who was killed in the castle of Novigrad by Giovanni Palisna, prior of Vrana, in 1386, was buried here for some years. When the church was restored, nineteen historic gravestones were set in the outer wall. At the same time a relief of S. Crisogono, remains of an early ciborium or chancel, and traces of a crypt were found, also the Limoges pastoral staff now in the museum. The cloister has been pulled down, and a school erected on the site.



S. Maria is first mentioned in 906. It was given in 1066 by the Benedictine monks of S. Crisogono to nuns of their order. It is called in the deed "Ecclesiola S. Mariae minoris ante portam Beltatam." The street opposite the lesser door led to the ancient city gate, Porta Bellata or Belluata, by which animals were brought into the city. The convent was rebuilt and enlarged by Cicca the abbess, who took the veil after the murder of her husband, and who was sister to Cresimir the younger, king of Dalmatia; and it was consecrated on October 28, 1072, by Andrea, bishop of Zara, five other bishops and four abbots being present, when Andrea and the President Drago gave the island of Selve to it. The fine tower was built in 1105 by order of Coloman, to commemorate his entry into Zara as king of Dalmatia, as an inscription states. Of this period is the chapter-house containing the tomb of Vekenega, the repudiated wife of the monarch, and daughter of Cicca, who died in IIII. A window in the north aisle of the church communicates with it, but is only opened when a nun professes, or when one dies. The nuns' choir is above the main door on the level of the side galleries, shut off by a gilded grating inscribed: "Placida abbatissa fieri fecit anno MCCCVI." Within are the stalls made or altered by Giovanni da Curzola in 1495. The facade of the church, which faces on to a small courtyard, is of the period of the Lombardi. At the side of the high-altar towards the sacristy Bishop Andrea was buried, and here are also the remains of Coloman, brought in 1117 from Zara Vecchia, where he died. Cicca died in 1096. Just within the door to the right is a Christ crowned with thorns, and the Virgin lamenting—a good picture of the school of Titian, if not by the master. There is also a SS. Peter and Paul by Palma Vecchio.

The treasury is above an altar at the end of the north aisle. The sacristan, who told us that he had filled that position for fifty years, lighted candles before opening the doors, kissed each reliquary before returning it to its place, and insisted upon the authenticity of each relic. The objects are scarcely so interesting as those at the cathedral, but include several fine fourteenth-century reliquaries as well as one or two which were made, or remade, in Renaissance times. The reliquary of S. Gregory has on the front Christ enthroned between standing figures of SS. Mark and John beneath a round-arched arcade on twisted columns. Three more saints are at the back, and at the ends are the subjects of the Annunciation and the Visitation. Upon the sloping parts of the lid are medallions of angels writing between scroll-work, and at the top is a figure of S. Gregory. It was a votive offering of Catherine, wife of Sandalius, Voivode of Bosnia, who died between 1433 and 1436. A reliquary of an unknown saint (which Bianchi speaks of as S. Zoilus) has on the front a fine equestrian figure of a knight with lance in rest, said to be S. Crisogono, between two figures of ecclesiastics (SS. Zoilus and Donato), all three in high relief. Upon the pyramidal cover are medallions of the symbols of the Evangelists in lower relief, with bands of running ornament along all the angles. At the back are figures of Christ and two saints, and at each end three saints. The reliquary of S. Quirinus, another work of much the same period, has saints under a pointed trefoiled arcade on twisted and horizontally ringed columns, with foliage in the spandrils. In the centre at the back is a figure of our Lord; on the lid are an angel, Gethsemane, S. Peter sleeping, and the winged lion, between scrolls. A panel of S. Gregory, with low mitre, and inscription in Lombardic letters, holding a dragon-headed crozier, and with his bird at the other side, has a stamped border of thirteenth-century character; and a fine relief of the Madonna and Child, with decorated nimbi upon a ground which has once been blue enamel, has a gabled top with a border of relics in roundels with jewels in the interstices. It must once have been used as a door, as the hinges, still attached to the wood, testify.

The reliquary of the clothes of Our Lord is of good early Renaissance design, but some of the figures appear to be of an earlier date. In the centre is an oblong panel with the Madonna "del Parto" in the centre, and S. John the Baptist and S. Paul in high relief. Outside, on brackets, are the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin; at the back are S. Anthony and another saint. Above is a medallion containing three relics from the manger at Bethlehem, from the house at Nazareth, and from the clothes of Our Lord, crowned by a crucifix and flanked by figures of the Virgin and S. John on brackets. On the foot are four medallions in niello amid arabesques. There are also six arm reliquaries of the usual pattern, two of which have little doors of niello, two or three heads, and an ostensory, at the top of which is a thorn from the crown of thorns.



The church of S. Simeone was a "Colleggiata," instituted in 1150 by Archbishop Lampridius, and dedicated to S. Stephen. It was subsequently called the Madonna della Pace, because the Madonna so called was deposited in it in 1567 from the suburban church of S. Matteo. The body of S. Simeon was brought here in 1632, having been in Zara since 1280, when it was brought from Jerusalem by Bishop Periandro. The celebrated "arca" was in the collegiate church of S. Maria to the north, destroyed in the middle of the sixteenth century to make room for the fortifications, a small chapel only being left standing, in which the wooden arca was kept, the silver one being consigned to the care of the nuns. In 1632 a new chancel was added to the church now S. Simeone; the arca was repaired and placed in its present position. The campanile was built in 1707. In the nave on one side are antique fluted columns with Corinthian caps, which belonged to S. Stefano. The area is of cypress wood, covered with silver plates, which are fastened with silver screws. It cost 28,000 ducats, and was supported on four angels of silver. These were melted down at the time of the war between Venice and Cyprus, and have been replaced by two of stone and two of bronze made from cannon taken from the Turks and given to Zara by Venice in 1647. On the lid a figure of the saint nearly life-size lies, and on the sides and ends are subjects referring to the history of the relics, and an inscription giving the date of 1380, and the names of the Queen of Hungary as the donor, and the goldsmith Franciscus of Milan as the artist. On the roof is a panel showing the artist at work on it. There is a reproduction in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the treasury is a chalice also given by Queen Elizabeth the younger, late Gothic in style, with Renaissance additions, made of silver, parcel gilt, with niello and a little enamel; it has an octagonal knop with coats of arms reversed on quatrefoil ends and on the sexfoil foot. Upon the base of the cup are subjects in outline, the Crucifixion and figures of saints in petal-like forms. The treasury also contains some curious rococo painted vestments, apparently in water-colour on silk. To the right of the choir, in a chapel just outside the sacristy, is a reredos of repousse silver—two big angels kneeling below, and God the Father above a Madonna and Child with painted faces, the rest of the figures being in relief. The frame is flanked by S. Michael and a saint, with a little angel flying below and holding a book, also with the heads only painted. These figures and the Virgin and Child have a good deal of gilding about them, and may be of the fifteenth century, since they look earlier than the rest, which is late sixteenth or early seventeenth. In the chapel to the left is a Byzantine-looking relief gilded all over except the hands and faces, which are painted pink, mounted on a polished slab of black marble. The subject is the Virgin and Child standing, the Child draped. A half-finished building not far off is all that was completed of a magnificent church designed to house the arca of S. Simeon. It was commenced in 1572, but abandoned in 1600.

Beyond the cathedral, and not far from the walls, is the church and convent of S. Francesco, consecrated in 1282 by Archbishop Lorenzo Periandro, according to an inscription on a pilaster in the choir. The choir contains a very fine set of stalls, made in 1394 by "Maestro Giovanni quondam Giacomo da Borgo San Sepolcro in Venezia," at a cost of 456 ducats of gold. They used to be in front of the altar, but were moved in 1808 when the new altar was put up. In the Cappella del Crocifisso is a large Carpaccio, an allegory of the militant and triumphant Church, with a row of portrait figures. It is in rather a bad state, painted in tempera on panel. In the sky is a pretty Madonna and Child in a vesica surrounded by angels. The rest of the sky has rows of angels in it, and below, on the earth, kneeling bishops, potentates, and others, with some nice little children in front. Between the two divisions is a landscape with a shrine in the centre, and the whole composition is contained in an upright oval, the corners being filled up with later painting. The usual white dog appears with a red collar-ribbon. The frame is well carved, but not architectural. In a side chapel is a S. Francis by Palma Giovane. The chapel of S. Carlo, once called degli Innocenti, can be entered either from the cloister or the church. In it is an enormous painted crucifix of wood in relief, with the Virgin and S. John half-length painted at the ends of the cross, and an angel above. It bears inscriptions in Greek and Latin, "ICTAVPOCIC" and "Rex Ivdeorvm," and, below the arms of Christ, "In me credentes ad me concvrrite gentes." It is believed to be of the tenth century, or even earlier. In the sacristy is a picture of 1430 on a gold ground in the original frame, restored at the emperor's expense. In the centre is the Madonna with the Child and little angels; on one side are SS. Jerome, Simeon, and James; on the other, SS. Peter Martyr, Nicholas, and Francis. A predella shows the twelve Apostles, with Christ in the centre. Above, in the centre, is Christ half-length, flanked by smaller nearly full-lengths of the Virgin and S. John; at each side three half-lengths of saints—left, SS, Martin, Stephen, and John the Baptist; right, a warrior, a bishop, and a man with green robe, and hat turned up in four pieces. The frame is fine, a blue ground and gilded arabesques. The church possesses four chalices of silver-gilt of the fourteenth or early fifteenth century. Two of them have elaborate knops with crocketed niches with figures, and one has the symbols of the Evangelists in high relief on the foot, with leaf-scrolls and big stars, the plan being octofoil. The finest has a sexfoil foot, and there are angular projections in both between the foils, and a pierced perpendicular band below. Upon the foot are six roundels, with Christ and saints in low relief, as if for basse-taille enamel. The third has a knop with window tracery, pinnacles, and flying buttresses; on the foot, of a later date, are graceful leaf-arabesques, rather like the work of Aldegrever. The fourth is smaller and less elaborate. There are also some fifteenth-century psalters and antiphonaries. One of the three bells in the modern campanile is the oldest in Zara, dated 1328, and signed "Magister Beloa Viccentius." The tradition runs that S. Francis, going to or returning from the Holy Land in 1212, visited Dalmatia, and founded this monastery among others.

The church of S. Domenico (anciently S. Michele) has a pointed Venetian door, with a relief in the tympanum of S. Michael weighing souls, with the Devil pulling the scale down, an armed angel at one side, and a woman with a lighted taper at the other. On the lintel are a Virgin and Child, and several saints in little panels also spreading beyond on to the wall.

The Greek church, S. Elia, which the Servian orthodox Christians have had since the French invasion, is nearly opposite the cathedral. One year we were at Zara at the time when they were preparing to keep Easter. In front of the iconostasis was an "Entombment," surrounded with young grass amid which little lamps shone. The whole was covered with a canopy similar to that carried over the Host. It was delicate and pretty, and a great contrast to "Tombe," which we had seen in years gone by in Italy, and a few days before at Capodistria.

There were thirty churches in Zara, fifteen of which have been destroyed or given to different bodies. Seven are now Catholic, and four preserve their outward shape, but are secularised.

The Loggia, the open hall of justice, ascribed to Sanmichele in its original form, was restored shortly before the end of the Venetian rule. It is now the Paravia library. It has three arches between coupled Doric columns, and is still quite well preserved. The Palace of the Priors, the former rulers of the town, was enlarged by the addition of private houses for the residencas of the Venetian Count and the provveditore; while the commune had to be content with the corn-magazine, near S. Simeone, which is still the communal palace. When the Austrian governor followed the Venetian provveditore the palace was restored and modernised. It is a Venetian building of 1562, with a clock-tower which was restored in 1798; the clock itself was put up in 1807.



Nona is some hour-and-a-half's drive from Zara, for the greater part of the way over stony uplands with very little vegetation, but with extensive views over land and sea when the weather is fine. We were troubled by showers and a bitter wind, against which our overcoats were an insufficient protection; and we looked with some wonder at the herd boys and girls and other peasants whom we met, many of them barefoot and with no additional clothing to what they had found sufficient in the market the day before when the sun shone strongly. The town is now a mere village of some 500 inhabitants, and, though a few antique fragments may be seen, and the ruins of several churches of different periods, it is difficult to realise that it was once one of the most important towns in Dalmatia. It appears to have been a Roman port, and the head of one of the roads to Byzantium across Dalmatia—an ancient Liburnian city, the great prosperity of which, at the end of the first century A.D., is attested by the coins found here. It was called AEnona and AEnonium by Pliny and Ptolemy, Nona by Porphyrogenitus. Destroyed by the Slavs in the seventh century, re-occupied and restored by another branch, the dukes and kings of Croatia made it one of the thirteen Dalmatian "zupanje." Later it belonged at intervals to the King of Hungary and to Venice, and after 1409 remained in the power of the latter. In 1357 Count Giustiniani valiantly but vainly defended it against the Hungarians, when the garrison was reduced to such straits by famine that they had to eat their horses. It was twice burnt to prevent it from falling into Turkish hands and being utilised as an outpost, in 1571 and 1646. The harbour has silted up, and only a small piece of the walls is traceable. Of the Venetian dominion the only remains are the entrance gateway, with the lion of S. Mark above it, and the "Stabilimento," founded in 1786 by Girolamo Manfrin for the cultivation of tobacco, but ruined by a fire, and no longer used for that purpose.

The Christian Church in Nona is said to have been founded by S. Anselm in 117 A.D. Under the Croats it had a bishop and a chapter. The ancient church of S. Croce was the cathedral, a small cruciform church with three apses in the eastward wall, and a dome over the crossing. It is 30 ft. long, and each arm of the cross is 10 ft. wide. The dome has a flat-pointed vault and windows, while the nave and transepts have wagon vaults terminating in half-cupolas. To the west is a lintelled door, with consecration crosses on the jambs and carving of the ninth century on the lintel. A Slavonic inscription upon it (inside) has been read "Godeslav Juppano Ch[risto] Domo Co[nservat]." The breaking of the upper angles of the carved portion, and the difference in the character of the crosses on lintel and jambs indicate the use of early material in a later rebuilding; but the church is considered one of the oldest in Dalmatia. From 1697 it served as an oratory to the Count of Nona, being near his palace. Its bell (hung in the gable above the west door) served to call the people together for public meetings, &c. The eastern apse has a blank arcading on its exterior, which is square, and the same kind of ornament occurs on the drum which conceals the dome. There are three windows in the west wall, and others in the transept walls and gable. The church was restored some seven or eight years ago, as well as the somewhat similar church of S. Nicolo outside the town.

The parish church of S. Anselmo was the mediaeval cathedral, rebuilt during the eighteenth century. Close to it is another church, once dedicated to S. Ambrogio, and now to the Madonna. In the treasury are various interesting pieces of goldsmith's work kept in a marble chest with glazed front and gilded metal door. When we were there the priest was enjoying his siesta, and, though we were in charge of an official from the town-hall, we were unsuccessful in rousing him from his slumbers. I therefore take the description of them from Bianchi, as I was not able to examine them critically. There are two caskets of silver-gilt with the heads of S. Anselm and his sister, S. Marcella, made by the same goldsmith. On the front are Christ, the Virgin, and S. John in relief, with a frieze of a hunting subject, the figures beneath trefoiled arches on twisted columns; on the back, SS. Anselm, Ambrose, and Marcella; on the ends, SS. Peter and Paul, and a king and queen. Bianchi says these are thirteenth century; Mr. T.G. Jackson says fifteenth, which is more likely. On the lids are the symbols of the Evangelists. Two other reliquaries contain the shoulder-blades of S. Anselm. On the front are figures of the three protectors full-length. An arm reliquary has pagan subjects in relief, and is set with precious stones. An inscription gives the name of Simeon the goldsmith, and the Bano Paolo (Lord of Bosnia also at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries). Two reliquaries of the feet of S. Anselm, given by Radoslav Utusano, chancellor of the Bano Paolo, and zupan of the church of Nona, are dated 1309. There are two other reliquaries: one of SS. Giacomo and Orontius, with three medallions of saints; and the other with the Evangelists' symbols. Mr. T.G. Jackson also saw two crosses and a sixteenth-century chalice. I particularly regretted being unable to see the wooden area of S. Marcella, which is a very remarkable example of early Christian art. Bianchi says that it is varnished, and has eleven compartments, with figures in high relief. One is entitled S. Barbara—the first on the left. Then come a king with a double cross, S. Luke's ox, S. Marcella, S. Matthew's angel, the Virgin and Child, S. Mark's lion, S. Ambrose, S. John's eagle, and a queen with a lily in her hand. The eleventh compartment is not recognisable.



North of the parish church are remains of a Roman temple, and an antique cap or two may be seen. In a private house are remains of a bath and a mosaic pavement. The ruined church of S. Michele stands on the site of the Roman arena. Antique fragments are also recognisable in the walls of S. Nicolo. There are several ruined churches which appear to be of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. Some of them have been altered at a later period, but they contain nothing of first-rate interest. Nona had sixteen in the Middle Ages. We walked out to S. Nicolo, an early church, which crowns a hillock thickly sown with asphodels in blossom, some little distance from the road and a mile or so from Nona. It is cruciform in plan, with apsidal terminations to three arms, the west being square, and having a door with a semicircular tympanum above it internally. Squinches in the angles serve as transition to the semi-dome which covers each arm. From the pilasters between the apses cross arches spring beneath a domical vault with a pendant at their intersection; in the left pilaster by the apse is a recess. The central tower is octagonal and turreted; beneath the apse eaves are rough corbels, the door has a semicircular tympanum externally, little brackets supporting nothing, and the jambs and lintel are put together rather as if the material were wood. The church is probably of the eleventh century.

Borgo Erizzo, an Albanian village, lies but a short distance from Zara. In the eighteenth century the atrocities of Mehmed Begovich, pasha of Albania, perpetrated on the Catholics, being very great, some of them emigrated, seeking the protection of Vincenzo Zmajevich, bishop of Antivari, who was living at his native city of Perasto. A little later (1726) he became archbishop of Zara, and brought twenty-seven families of Albanians with him, recommending them to the protection of Count Erizzo, commandant of the fortress, who assigned them land near the city, where they flourished and increased. There are now about 3,000 of them. The church, which appears to be in a dangerous condition, was built for them by Zmajevich. The girls work in the factories till they marry, after which they remain at home. The men are agriculturists, and some own fields and vineyards seven or eight miles away, to which they walk or go in carts. The village is dirty and not very picturesque. They get their drinking-water from the Kaiser Brunnen, a spring covered with a dome close to the sea, said to be a Roman erection. Sailors also water there. Before the aqueduct was restored, in years of drought Zara had to import water, and in 1828, 1834, and 1835 it was brought from the Kerka by Scardona.

Zara Vecchia, formerly Alba or Belgrad, is some eighteen miles down the coast. Here Coloman of Hungary, nephew of S. Ladislas, was crowned in 1102. The "porto d'oro" is all that remains of a palace built by Bishop Valaresso, with its foundations in the sea. Mention of the place is infrequent. Towards the middle of the eleventh century Crescimeno Pietro, third king of Croatia, assigned a prebend to the Benedictines of Zara Vecchia. In 1092 Busita, daughter of Roger I., Count of Sicily and Durazzo, and wife of Coloman, king of Hungary, came here accompanied by Geoffrey Malaterra. In 1114 Ordelaffo Faliero took it, and in 1115 it was destroyed to the foundations by Domenico Michieli. Some of the inhabitants, with the bishop and clergy, fled to Scardona; the rest, with the notables, to Sebenico. The nuns escaped to Zara, and the Benedictines crossed to Tkon in the island of Pasman, where they still are.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Mgr. Bianchi has found the names of Madius and Zella in documents of 1067 and 1096, and that of "Sergius tribunus" in one of 1091.]



XIX

SEBENICO

Sebenico lies within a fine harbour at the mouth of the Kerka, some six hours from Zara. The entrance to the bay is defended by the strong fort S. Nicolo, which bears the lion of S. Mark upon the landward side, showing that Venice ruled when it was built in 1540 (according to tradition, from Sanmichele's designs), though the actual sculpture is a replacement of 1824 of the original thrown into the sea by the French in 1813. During the Italian struggle for freedom and unity many patriots were shut up in the damp dungeons of this fort by the Austrians. Within the strait, the Canale di S. Antonio, there is shelter for a large fleet; and it is reported that the Austrian Government intends to make it into a naval arsenal (of which the commencement may be seen in some very ugly buildings to the left of the town). Sebenico is commanded by three castles, from the highest of which, that of S. Giovanni, constructed in 1646, a splendid view over town, bay, and islands rewards the labour of the climb. The next is Fort Barone, so named after Baron Degenfeldt, the gallant defender of the city against 20,000 Turks in 1647. It is now abandoned and in ruins. The third is Fort S. Anna, which crowns the hill just above the houses. This is thought to occupy the site of a king's castle mentioned in 1066. Fort S. Giovanni and the walls, of which a great portion of the circuit still remains, were restored in 1837. These walls are for the most part the work of kings of Hungary, though the Venetians added to them. The sea suburb the Borgo di Mare is probably the oldest portion of the place; that on the land side, the Borgo di Terra, grew up with the need for the shelter of the fortress during the Turkish wars.

In 1117 the town was taken and destroyed by Ordelaffo Faliero; but in 1127, when Zara Vecchia was razed to the ground by Domenico Michieli, and the bishop and clergy were removed to Scardona, the bulk of the population took refuge at Sebenico. It was a pirate city, and there was continual strife between it and Trau. Until 1167 it was only a small place, but in that year Stephen III. of Hungary gave it the title of "city." Lago, however, says that it was only a "castello" till 1298, when the bishopric was established by Boniface VIII. in consequence of the representations of the archbishops of Zara and Spalato, and of Queen Maria of Hungary. The first bishop was Martin of Arbe. When he was consecrated, the ceremony took place in the piazza, because the church was not large enough. In 1412 the chapter was allowed to choose its own bishop; and the town and church authorities became responsible for law and order throughout certain defined territories. The city seals bear either an angel with nimbus standing on a dragon, and holding in his right hand an upright sword, and in his left an orb, or a half-length of a similar angel, holding an orb in his left hand and a sloping sceptre in his right, with the sun on one side, and a crescent moon on the other; above a city with a central gate and two side towers, with windows on each side.

Sebenico owes its chief celebrity perhaps to its cathedral, the chef d'oeuvre of Giorgio Orsini, known as George of Sebenico, an architect of exceptional genius, whose work may also be seen at Spalato, Ragusa, probably at Ossero, and at Ancona on the other side of the Adriatic. His father was known as Matteo of Zara, and was also a stonemason, as George proudly announced himself to be when he carved upon the door of his house a mallet and chisels hung with garlands which are supported in the centre of the lintel by the bear, the cognizance of the noble house which acknowledged his grandson as a relation.

When it was determined to rebuild the cathedral on a larger scale in 1402, the bishop and council of forty-five nobles made provision in various ways for the work. The territory of Vodizze was assigned for the purpose, the bishop gave half of the tithes, fines inflicted were to go to the fund, notaries were charged to remind testators to leave something to the fabric, &c. If the community of Sebenico went back from their promises they were to be fined 1,000 golden ducats. When the towers protecting the mouth of the port were rebuilt in 1409 the Venetians seized the stone prepared for the cathedral, but subsequently paid 80 ducats of gold as compensation. The city became Venetian in 1412. In 1430, after some wavering, it was decided to add the bishop's palace and the street between it and the church to the cathedral site. The building was commenced in 1431, under Antonio, son of Pietro Paolo Massegna, in the Gothic style as understood by the Venetians; but in 1441 he was superseded by Giorgio Orsini with a six years' engagement, on the strength of a design which he had made showing how he proposed to complete the building. The west door with its scroll-work of exaggerated curvature, its pinnacled canopies supported on twisted columns, and figures of various degrees of excellence, shows Antonio's capacity and his limitations. The side door, which is rather simpler and in better proportion, is in much the same style, but has foolish-looking lions on brackets beneath the columns outside the door, with figures of Adam and Eve interposed between the columns and the canopied tabernacles above, which bear great resemblance to those in a similar position at Trau. The pointed and cusped cornice of interlacing arches, surmounted by a cable moulding, which continues to the end of the transept wall, seems to show that the building had advanced as far as this point when Giorgio appeared upon the scene in 1441. The arms of the Venetian rectors also afford indications of the progress and intermissions of the work.

In the tracery of the windows of the central apse a modification of a graceful Gothic pattern has been employed, resembling patterns used in the campanile at Trau, combined with classic pilasters and colonnette forms, but the greater part of the rest of the building is early Renaissance. The aisles are roofed with a half-wagon vault above the quadripartite pointed vaulting, forming a kind of triforium, which is, however, inaccessible; the chapels at the sides of the choir have the semicircular form of the roof of the nave and choir, perhaps suggested by the temple at Spalato, now known as the baptistery; and the east end is tri-apsidal, the apses being polygonal, but roofed with a semi-dome. All these forms are evident externally, the joints of the roofing slabs being covered by an ornamented band answering to the internal supporting rib. The external sculpture is in the main restrained and delicate, and the general proportions are excellent. The angle pier at the north-east of the north transept has the simplicity of its outline destroyed to provide place for figure sculpture and the dedicatory inscription, and the string dividing the stylobate from the principal stage bears a curious decoration of heads in the round; but these are slight blemishes amid much beauty. The heads have a good deal of character, and some may be portraits of the architect's assistants. The same motif occurs round the square-headed door of S. Francesco alle Scale, Ancona. The construction of the semi-domes and of the roofs shows that Giorgio was a competent constructor; but the inventive and beautiful treatment of the decoration of the choir shows him as something more. The graceful singing-galleries at each side, terminating in the curved ambos attached to the main piers of the dome, are very delicate and beautiful; the lofty proportions of the nave and choir are impressive; and the little baptistery, with its curious mingling of Gothic and Renaissance forms, is quaint and ingenious, if not very pure in style.



In 1444 Giorgio went to Spalato to build the chapel of S. Ranier in the church of S. Benedetto, which was to have been finished in two years, but it was nearly four before the donor was satisfied. The price was 306 ducats of gold. It no longer exists. After his first contract expired at Sebenico, where the work apparently progressed very slowly, he went again to Spalato in 1448 to make the chapel of S. Anastasius in the cathedral. Here he had to compete with the work of Gaspare Bonino of Milan, who had made the corresponding chapel on the other side in 1427. They are both rather late Gothic in style. In 1449 he returned to Sebenico, his contract with the chapter having been renewed in 1446 for ten years at an advance of five ducats. The first contract was for six years, at a salary of 115 ducats. In a notice of 1450 from Zara, he is thus referred to: "Mistro Zorzi, taglia pietra, proto alia fabbrica della chiesa di S. Giacomo di Sebenico." The contract for the sacristy is dated March I, 1452. It cost 600 ducats. He was at Ancona in 1451, when he undertook the facade of the Loggia de' Mercanti, an ornate work, which took eight years to build, and has several details resembling those parts of the cathedral, Sebenico, which are ascribed to Massegna. In 1556 it was burnt, and was restored by Tipaldi. Barnabei, a contemporary writer, states that Giorgio also built the adjoining Palazzo Benincasa. He must have gone backwards and forwards between Italy and Dalmatia, for in 1455, while he was under contract with the Sebenico authorities, he completed the fine facade of S. Francesco alle Scale, Ancona, receiving a bonus of 70 ducats above the price, according to Lando Feretti. The church was built in 1323. The monastery is now half barracks and half hospital. Between 1455 and 1459, the facade of S. Agostino in the same town was built as an addition to a church of 1338, which also is now a barrack. The foliage, twisted columns, and canopies are a good deal like the earlier work at Sebenico. In 1460, Giorgio returned to Sebenico, but in 1464 and 1465 was at Ragusa, where he helped in building the Torre Menze, and in restoring the palace of the Rectors. The next year he was at Pago, improving and enlarging the courtyard of the bishop's palace. It was the Bishop of Ossero, who thought he was going to obtain the removal of the see to Pago, but failed to do so. The facade of the cathedral at Ossero has been ascribed to him, and there is nothing in its design to make his authorship impossible. In the next year he undertook work on the facade of the Cappella Grande of the parish church at Pago. In 1470 he went to Rome, where his compatriot Giovanni Dalmato, the sculptor, of Trau, was at work on the monument of Paul II. He went as representative of the procurators to Paul II., in reference to certain charities left by Bishop Vignacco, who died at Porto, near Rome. In 1472 it is stated that he had let all the houses which he had in the Venetian dominions. In this year he commenced the facade of S. Maria, Cittanova, in the Marche. During his frequent absences from home, his Venetian wife Elizabeth looked after his affairs, apparently having a power of attorney. He had many pupils, some of whom continued to work on the cathedral at Sebenico after his death in 1476.

The cost of the building is stated to have been 80,000 Venetian ducats of gold. It was thoroughly restored between 1843 and 1860; seven out of the fourteen caps of the nave arcade have been replaced, and a good deal of the framing of the panelling of red marble above. At each side of the west door are monuments to bishops, and also at each side of the choir steps. The slabs are sloping, and bear figures in relief. That on the right of the door is Bishop Sisgoreo's, made under Giorgio's direction, with an inscription added in 1874 by a descendant. The tomb of Lucio Stafileo ([Symbol: cross]1557). under whom the cathedral was reconsecrated, is to the north. Those at the entrance to the choir are Luca Spignaroli ([Symbol: cross]1589) to the left, and Domenico Calegari ([Symbol: cross]1722) to the right. The choir is raised six steps above the level of the nave, and the sanctuary seven steps higher still.

At the time of Giorgio's death the work had progressed as far as the roofing in of the apses, if one may trust the arms of Bishop de Tollentis (elected in 1468), placed above the upper arch of the transept; while upon the external arch to the north are those of Count Captain Piero Canal, who left in 1470; and on the arch of the central apse inside, behind the sculptured bust representing God the Father, are those of Count Captain Girolamo Pesaro, who began to rule in 1476. At that time, therefore, the nave and cupola remained to be completed. Upon the cupola there are no arms. Those of Count Nicolo Mulla on the clerestory north wall show that it was finished to the cornice in 1491-1493. Those of Nicolo Navager, who died 1489, fastened with iron clamps in the same place, suggest that it was not completed at his death, though it was probably in course of construction. The arms of Count Andrea Gritti, captain in 1534-1537, on the summit of the facade, show that the western end of the vault was completed by Giovanni Masticevich in 1536. The western rose (at which Giacomo, son of Matteo da Mestre, capo mastro, 1528-1535, was working in 1531) has Gothic cusped arches to the radiating bars, but the mouldings round are Renaissance, as are the angle pilasters to the nave wall and the paterae decorating the quarter-circles of the aisles. The fluted pilasters of the dome are in harmony with the pilasters of the open gallery above the nave arcade. The pointed arches, which were certainly finished in 1444, are probably Massegna's work, though the leafy cornice above bears great resemblance to carving for which Giorgio was responsible at Ancona.

The baptistery is a queer little building at the eastern end of the south aisle, and one of the entrances to the cathedral is through it. The font has a bowl and base of variegated marble, like that used at Veglia, very flat in shape and unmoulded, supported by three amorini, carved in Istrian stone, who stand round the supporting stem. The plan of the building is cruciform, the arms of the cross being semicircular niches which have shell-heads. The wall above them has Gothic tracery, on the eastern side pierced to give light. The ribs at the angles are supported on engaged columns, above which are Gothic figures beneath canopies, of which two, David and Simeon, remain; the other two were destroyed or stolen, I understand, by thieves who broke into the building. The figures bend forward awkwardly beneath the curve of the vault, which becomes domical, with angels and cherubs upon it. The boss in the centre bears a head of God the Father and the Holy Dove, with an inscription round the edge: "Hic est filius meus," &c.



The question of the part played by Giorgio in the construction of the cathedral is difficult to decide, being complicated by the mixture of styles and the possibly later insertion of several of the coats of arms of the rectors and bishops. The western piers of the crossing are considered to be part of the earlier work, because of the close resemblance of the carved foliage to Venetian-Gothic ornament; but it must be remembered that Giorgio was trained in Venice, just as Massegna was, and would be familiar with such work. Foliage of similar style occurs in domestic work at Trau, and in other places along the coast, so that it is scarcely safe to consider it the sign-manual of any one sculptor. The time from 1441, when he signed a contract for six years, to 1443 was spent in widening the street to allow of the eastward extension of the church. On June 16, 1442, the demand for the rebuilding of the facade of the count's palace (which was on the other side) was formally made for the bishop, procurators, and chapter. This additional space was necessitated by the design of the apse, &c., as laid down in Giorgio's plan, and still existing.[2] The Gothic character of the domestic doorway illustrated, with the late form of shield in the tympanum, shows that such forms lingered late in Dalmatia. The same may be said of the design of the rose-window, finished in 1531, and of similar details which occur in undoubted work by Giorgio in Ancona.

The door of the lions in the north aisle is quite Gothic in character, yet the arms above it are those of Leonardo Vernier (1453-1454), Bishop George Sisgoreo ([Symbol: cross]1453), and of Bishop Vignacco (elected 1454), apparently fixing its date thirteen years after Massegna had received his conge. If it be contended that these arms are a later insertion, which the arrangement of the masonry makes possible, the value of all the coats of arms as fixing the dates of the portions of the building on which they occur must be discounted. The design of the lowest portions of the shafts in the right-hand jamb is different and apparently later than the rest of the work, and the foliage on the brackets beneath the lions also is very different from the fine caps to the west of the crossing, so that one scarcely likes to assume that they are by the same hand. Upon the pier, above one of the capitals attributed to Giorgio, which has been compared disparagingly with the caps last named, is the date 1524. This is below the level of the door of the sacristy, which we know Giorgio built, and one would assume that the pier must be anterior to the door, as the construction of the sacristy would scarcely precede the roofing in of the aisle from which it is entered. Moreover, the baptistery is beneath the apse which terminates this aisle, and it was certainly completed in 1452, since it is mentioned in the contract for the sacristy. The mixture of Gothic and Renaissance forms is characteristic of Giorgio's work throughout; and it is difficult to agree wholly either with Mgr. Fosco or Mr. T.G. Jackson in the different conclusions on this subject which they draw from the same data. The fact of Massegna having been dismissed on the definite ground of errors made and defects discovered, with the additional complaint of the throwing away of money upon ornament, suggests that the earlier portion was not left as we now see it by the first architect, of whom Mr. Jackson says: "To us there seems no fault in the design of Antonio." The design of the western pair of caps of the piers at the crossing is as different from that of the nave caps, which are certainly Massegna's, as from that of the two eastern piers. Mr. Jackson says, probably quite rightly, that the torus moulding decorated with the laurel above the leaf cornice of the nave marks the commencement of Giorgio's work in that part; the same moulding occurs in the same relative position in the ambos to which he assigns the date of 1547: and one does not quite understand why the same detail should not have the same origin in both places. The only contract of 1547, quoted by Mgr. Fosco, is one with "Checcus" of Padua for 350 squared paving-stones and for laying them.



Whatever part George of Sebenico had in the construction he must be classed with the great architectural designers. Leo Battista Alberti commenced the recasing of S. Francesco, Rimini, which is generally quoted as the earliest Renaissance work in Italy, in 1446, and the stone for the work was imported from Istria. In that year Giorgio's first contract was renewed for ten years. The Lombardi were then only commencing their work. S. Zaccaria at Venice was built by Martino in 1456, and the Scuola di S. Marco in 1485. Pietro was engaged on the Madonna dei Miracoli in 1483. So that Giorgio's work antedates theirs by some years. He had numerous pupils, whose names have been recorded; the other workmen came from Durazzo, Curzola, and Spalato. The best known of them, Andrea Alexis, the Albanian of Durazzo, was much employed in Spalato, Arbe, and Trau.

The votive church of S. Salvatore, just inside the Porta Pile, Ragusa, built in 1522 after the earthquake of 1520, and designed by Bartolommeo da Mestre, master mason at Sebenico in 1528, bears considerable resemblance to the cathedral.

The door of Giorgio's house is beyond that of the sacristan, in a narrow street, the Contrada S. Gregorio. To reach it, one leaves the piazza by a slope beyond the Loggia, the ancient palace of the council of the Nobles, a building of 1522, now a social club. The slope affords a view of the enclosure in which the "vere" of the communal wells still remain, four circular well-heads, with the symbols of the Evangelists and coats of arms in roundels upon them, surrounded by cable mouldings, four on each. Sebenico now has a fine water-supply brought from the Kerka, twelve miles away, and they are no longer in use. The aqueduct—the first constructed in Dalmatia in modern times—is named the Lott-Brunnen, in commemoration of the clever engineer who designed it.

Near the cathedral is the little church of S. Barbara; the bell-turret on the wall is used as its campanile. In the north wall is an ogee-headed window, deeply splayed and with pretty tracery; below it a little shrine to the Virgin is set most oddly, with an arch projecting up into the window space. A little higher up the street is the fine Venetian door illustrated a few pages back, with columns and pinnacles, and returning wall with elaborately shaped battlements. At the church of S. Giovanni Battista is a fine external stair of fourteenth-century Venetian type, a double flight returning on itself, with a landing at the change of direction. The balustrade is continued round the side of the church and the tower, but with square unmoulded shafts in place of the colonnettes. The trefoiled heads are cut in the rail with the carved spandrils between. There are many pieces of sculpture of the Venetian period, windows, balconies, &c., in the walls here and there, and wheel-windows occur with quatrefoils filling the heads of the spaces next the circumference.



There are also a few pictures to be seen. In the cathedral is an Andrea Schiavone (who died here in 1582), "The Adoration of the Three Kings." In S. Domenico alla Marina there are said to be fine Renaissance altars, and pictures by Lorenzo Lotto, Palma Giovane, and Marco Vecellio. We did not see them, as, on the occasion of both our visits to Sebenico, the church was being restored or rebuilt. The interior of S. Francesco is harmonious. It was in the archives of this convent that Mgr. Bulic discovered a gradual written on parchment of the ninth or tenth century, which had been brought from S. Maria di Bribir in 1527.



The Greek church has a very interesting belfry of late Renaissance style in the gable; two arches with projecting semicircular pierced balustrades for the ringers, and the bells (which are clappered) hanging in the free space beneath the arch above. A third bell is in a higher arch without the balustrading. The Greek Christians celebrate the Church festivals with processions about the town, treated with great respect by their Roman Catholic fellow-citizens, of which one held on the Assumption may be described as typical. Boys and girls with garlands led the way, followed by women with coloured aprons and voluminous draperies. Then came a band in gay uniforms and plumed head-gear, then priests in vestments of cloth of gold, swinging silver censers, or bearing holy pictures; they were big men of fine appearance, with religious earnestness in their faces. In the middle, under a silken canopy with gold fringes, a higher ecclesiastic walked, a venerable figure, with long silver hair and beard, bearing the most holy object and looking like a high-priest, surrounded as he was with clouds of incense. After the priests came a long line of men in country costume, powerful figures with flashing eyes, and faces full of character. They held themselves upright like soldiers, and bore large white tapers fastened four together. The sides of the narrow streets were lined with Roman Catholics who looked on with sympathetic interest at the religious ceremonies of their fellow-citizens of a different creed, an example which might be commended to sects nearer home.

The people are hospitable, and very generous, but proud, and, like the Spaniards, easily moved both to acts of violence and kindness. There is no nobility, the patrician families being either extinct or impoverished, partly owing to a severe epidemic of smallpox which smote the town in 1872. The men wear a ridiculous small red cap, like that worn at Zara, but smaller, often requiring an elastic round the back of the head to keep it on, and waistcoats and coats ornamented with large silver buttons of filigree work (older examples of which are works of art, but the modern mere articles of commerce). The collar is curious, with a facing of red or black worsted, apparently intended to imitate fur (shown in the drawing of the costume). The trousers are dark blue, with a slit towards the ankle, laced up with silver wire, and strong shoes are worn with turned-up toes covered with hide lacings. The women have a white head-dress, a cloth twisted round and fastened to the hair in the manner of that worn at Lussin Piccolo. One of the waiters at the restaurant who came from Spalato, but whose side-whiskers stamped him as an Austrian, told us he had been in Glasgow and other British towns—a rather unusual thing with the men of his class, though many of the sailors are acquainted with British ports. The dustmen reminded one of the days of one's childhood when in England; they went round ringing a bell and calling "Dust-ooh!" At the sound all kinds of refuse were brought out to the cart, which went slowly along the narrow street.

Sebenico was the birthplace of the celebrated Nicolo Tommaseo, to whom a statue has been erected in the public garden below the piazza, where Sanmichele's gate stands. He was born in 1802, and was philologist, philosopher, historian, poet, novelist, critic, psychologist, statist, politician, and orator, leaving behind him, when he died in 1874, some two hundred works. In its time of prosperity the city owned several islands, of which Zlarin is the most populous and the richest.

Sebenico is the usual starting-point for the excursion to the Kerka falls; and, on the arrival of the boat, tourists make arrangements to share carriages. It is a drive of about twelve miles, through a barren, stony land, till one reaches the park-like country along the banks of the river. The falls can also easily be reached from Scardona, to which a little steamboat runs in the morning; but there is none back in the afternoon, so those who are pressed for time generally drive. Scardona is an ancient city mentioned by Pliny as a principal market-town of Liburnia. The ruins which remain are late Roman. In the Middle Ages, Venice, Hungary, and Turkey all coveted it, and it suffered accordingly. In 1411 it became Venetian, in 1522 was sacked by the Turks, and retaken by the Venetians in 1537. The fortifications were destroyed, and the town abandoned and afterwards burnt; but the Turks held it till 1684, when they finally evacuated it. The falls are about three-quarters of an hour's walk away up the river, which was the ancient boundary between Liburnia and Dalmatia. They form its final plunge to sea level, for two tributaries join it, one on each side of Scardona, where it virtually becomes an estuary. The water precipitates itself over five terraces some 300 ft. wide, a magnified artificial cascade with a fall of 150 ft. The main fall occupies the centre of the stream, and is slightly horseshoe in shape; to the right and left are numerous smaller cascades with a little island between. Many partly artificial channels conduct the water to flour and fulling mills on both sides of the stream, of which there are some fifty, the sound of the mill-wheels and the fulling-hammers mingling with the rush of the waters. On the Sebenico side are a mill for insect-powder made from the pyrethrum, and the pumping-house for the water-supply of the city, the power for the electric lighting being also generated here. The mills are not so busy as they used to be, for the Hungarian and Russian flour is driving the home product out of the market. The spray from the falls rises high in the air, and bathes the overhanging trees and reeds, keeping the neighbouring rocks clothed with ferns.

After dinner we strolled along the quay to the south of Sebenico. There was no moon, and the stars were not as brilliant as they sometimes are in these southerly latitudes, making it rather difficult to pick one's way among the mysterious darknesses, which meant obstacles of one kind or another. As we rounded a corner a lamp or two flashed in our eyes from the other side of a little cove, and sparkled in broken lights upon the uneasy wavelets which splashed and tinkled against the sides of several coasting-vessels moored near at hand. The semi-silence of the night was broken by musical sounds, scarcely melody, but an uneven kind of chant, commencing in unison, and dying away in a prolonged melancholy, wailing chord, swelling and falling, almost like the notes produced by an AEolian harp as the wind sweeps over its strings. The glow of light which showed the door of a wine-shop across the water marked where the singers were enjoying their melancholy music, which, in its formlessness and dying cadences, was in strange harmony with the shapeless undulating dark masses, which by day were rocky islands sparsely clad with trees, now only relieved by the glimmer of the paler water, whose lapping formed an undertone to the stronger notes of the voices.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Mgr. Fosco states that Giorgio submitted a plan of his proposed work, with cupola, apses, and transepts, with the little choirs—possibly a model, such as we know he prepared at the time the contract for the sacristy was signed.]



XX

TRAU AND THE RIVIERA DEI SETTE CASTELLI

From Sebenico, Spalato can be reached either by boat or by rail. On our first visit we chose the train, since it gave us greater choice of times for making the journey. The railway stations are generally far away from the piers; we had observed this at Pola and Parenzo, and the same thing occurs at Sebenico. The hotel porters are not allowed to carry baggage to and from the steamers or the station; we were told there was a law against it, which a man sitting by said was just enough, for the odd-job men must live! The retrospect from the railway is fine. The southern end of the inlet is in the foreground, with a training-ship upon it; the city on its hill lies to the right, crowned by Fort S. Anna, and higher still the Fort S. Giovanni; while to the left is the other portion of the inlet which stretches towards Scardona and to the entrance, dotted with islands and terminated by low hills. A bright sun illumined the whole scene, increasing the lustre of the rocks and buildings, which contrasted sharply with the colour of the sea, blue as the luminous over-arching sky it reflected.

The line climbs slowly up the slopes of Monte Dinara, towards Perkovic-Slivno, the junction for Knin through a rather stony landscape above rich and well-cultivated valleys. The hills in the middle-distance look barren, but the foreground is interesting on account of the variety of broken forms caused by projecting rocks and stones. It is starred with green humps, and there are trees in places. The humps are stunted growths of juniper, sloe, bramble, hawthorn, or a trifoliate plant, with grass growing in the shadow. The trees are hawthorns, ilex, olive, fig, almond, chestnut, mountain ash, hornbeam, or elm, and I thought I saw oak, though it is said that it does not grow in Dalmatia. Colour was added by many flowers, orchids, iris, yellow daisies, asphodel, and fields of pink pyrethrum; while the dresses of groups of peasants on their way to or from Mass gave brilliant patches of reds and blues. Vines grew in pockets of earth among the rocks from which loose stones had been collected to build rough terrace walls.

At Perkovic-Slivno, the song ol nightingales beguiled the tedium of waiting, shut within a barrier, for the train from Knin, for one is not allowed to stray about until the train arrives. After a little further climbing, the summit of the range was pierced, and the lovely Riviera of the Castelli lay spread before us far below. The long island of Bua stretched towards the strait, by which the ancient port of Salona was approached; a land-locked bay, from the other side of which above the peninsula of Monte Marjan rose the campanile of the cathedral of Spalato, swathed in the scaffolding of its long-continuing restoration; beyond was the sea, with the southern islands in the distance, and the littoral chain growing pale in aerial perspective. It formed an enchanting whole, equalling views which have a world-wide reputation, opalescent in the morning sunlight, with pale purples, blues, and greens thrown like a veil over the rich soil and the grey limestone of the mountains. The line descends rapidly, too rapidly for one's desires, and approaches the shore near the fourth of the castelli, rounds the bay in which Vranjic lies, passing beneath Salona, and, crossing the Jader, arrives at the Spalato station through cuttings which prevent one from seeing anything of the palace wall.

On other occasions we went by boat, reaching Spalato in the evening. After the Punta Planka, the ancient Promontorium Syrtis is passed, where the water is often rough, since there is no protecting screen of islands, the campanili and towers of Trau come into sight, between which and Bua there is a swing bridge across the channel. Beyond this the boat passes under the lee of Bua, on the shore of which is a solitary white monastery; whilst on the opposite shore the buildings of the Castelli throw long tremulous reflections across the water, and boats with sails painted in various colours and patterns pass to right and left, flushed with the rays of the setting sun, and leaving trails of light or dark behind them according as the water reflects the land or the sky. As the sun sinks lower, leaving the sea in shadow, the glow upon the hills becomes more and more roseate, till at last it fades, as the strait is passed and the harbour opens. The smoke from a cement factory hangs in the air like evening mists in an English valley; and, as we approach still nearer, the long line of buildings upon the quays, dominated by the great campanile and the colonnade of Diocletian's palace, gradually grows more impressive in the failing light.



It is distinctly asserted by Strabo that Trau, the ancient Tragurium, was founded in the fourth century B.C.. by Greek Sicilians from Lissa. At a later date it was certainly a Roman colony. After the fall of the Western empire it was subject to the emperors of Byzantium, and for forty years or so in the ninth century to the Franks, after which Hungarians, Byzantines, Genoese, and Croats struggled for it, till in 1420 it was taken by Venice. Its first privilege was granted by Coloman of Hungary in 1108, renewed and amplified by Stephen in 1124, Geysa III. in 1151, and Bela III. in 1182. Bela IV., with his family, treasures, and a brilliant following, took refuge here in 1241 from the Tartar hordes. He was received with due honours, and conceded in return the confirmation of ancient privileges, &c. The city was mainly Slav during the Middle Ages, and, on the whole, was happy and peaceful under Hungarian rule, though sacked by the Saracens in 1123, and by the Venetians in 1194, under the leadership of Vitale Michiele. Between 1322 and 1358 it belonged to the Venetians.

Under Venetian rule the walls of Dalmatian cities, towards the sea were weak, and often formed merely by houses and towers belonging to private persons. Those of Trau are no earlier than the thirteenth century, and only small portions of that date remain by the tower of the nuns of S. Nicolo. In 1289 a wall was commenced round the suburbs; and Law XX. of the first book of the Statutes obliged each count to build ten "canne" of wall in the suburb each year, as Lucio states. Notwithstanding this regulation, it was not finished till 1404, and one tower even was not completed till 1412. The suburb was called Citta Nova, and the dividing wall was subsequently demolished. In 1290 Stefano d'Ugerio of Ancona, podesta, was freed from the obligation of paving fifty paces of the street between the two main gates, which was laid on every podesta, so one may suppose that the paving was completed. In Venetian times Trau had seven gates. Of these three remain—a plain pointed arch near S. Nicolo, the Porta Marina, and the Porta a Terra. This latter is also known as Porta S. Giovanni from the figure of S. Giovanni Orsino which crowns it, and before which a lamp continually burns. The gate is Renaissance, with the S. Mark's lion in an oblong panel above the arch. From the middle of the base of this panel a little cypress grew, which remained the same size for generations. The country people believed that its growth was due to the wonder-working power of the saint, and that its colour foretold scarcity or a fruitful year. When I was there the second time, in 1906, the podesta told me it had died. The sea gate is also Renaissance; from the jambs still hang the ancient doors thickly studded with iron nails, and behind the door is a S. Mark's lion with the book closed, though they say it was open till the fall of the Republic. Above the gate is another lion with an inscription of 1642. Close by is the custom-house, which groups picturesquely with the gateway.

The castle at the end of the quay, the Castel del Camerlengho, was built in 1424. It is very well preserved. The three smaller angle towers have been altered for cannon. It is now a store-house for sand and such things, with a small garden and a few almond-trees. In the corner is a little chapel nearly covered by the sand, and I was told there was a shallow cistern in the middle. The round tower to the north-west dates from 1378, when the Dalmatian towns were allied with Genoa against Venice, and Trau was the rendezvous. The walls are battlemented, the octagonal angle towers have had machicolations (tolerably well preserved on one of them), and above each of the two entrances is a projecting defensive work of the same kind.



A few discoveries have been made of pre-mediaeval things. In 1899, some half-mile towards Spalato, two terra-cotta urns were found, one of which had been mended with straps of lead. It contained seven bits of a statuette of Bacchus, which have been put together, and three bits of a larger figure. They are now in the museum at Spalato. In 1903, remains of an early church were excavated on the mainland, close to the wooden bridge which crosses the isolating arm of the sea, bringing to light a mosaic pavement, part of the apse, and one column. It was probably part of a cemetery basilica of the fifth or sixth century, just outside the ancient wall of Tragurium. Two Christian inscriptions of the fifth century have been found near, upon one of which are the words "sancta ecclesia"; and close by was discovered the torso of a prisoner of war, apparently Roman work. Close to the cistern is the reversed cover of an antique sarcophagus, and part of the front of another with a sixth-century cross. A curious custom still existing suggests a traditional memory of the site of the ancient cemetery. On Holy Thursday the Confraternity, after visiting the churches in the town, and that of the cemetery (about half a mile away), returns to the cistern, and, gathering round it, prays for the dead.

At one time there were twenty-one churches in the city. Those of S. Nicolo and S. Barbara are early. S. Nicolo (formerly S. Doimo) was founded in 1064 by Giovanni Orsini for ladies of noble descent, but little remains to show its age. There is said to be a Greek fragment of the third century B.C. in the court of the convent. Two early caps in the entrance portico appear to belong to the period of foundation.



S. Barbara was originally dedicated to S. Martin, but the name was changed when the altar from the church of S. Barbara was brought here during the Turkish siege of 1537; it is mentioned in 1194. It is the most ancient church in Trau, and the lintel of the door has an inscription upon it with diamond-shaped O's, as used in the eighth century. The ornamental carving also is consistent with that period in its design, with crosses of interlaced work in the centre and at the ends, two griffins with tails entwined in a circle, one on each side of a central feature, with a rosette within a cable moulding, and rough trefoils filling up gaps. The interior has nave and aisles, with four stilted arches resting upon columns on each side, and three apses (of which the central one is larger and longer than the others) with two niches in the wall, covered by a semi-dome on squinches, the plan being square. The caps and columns appear to be antique for the most part, and just outside is a shallow cap of the same pattern as one at Kairouan. The aisles are very narrow, and are vaulted with cross-vaulting without ribs, but with strengthening arches thrown across to the wall. The nave has a barrel vault with pilaster strips running up to the springing of the strengthening arches, which are all round and unmoulded. A moulding with three projecting corbels runs round the base of the apse vault. It is said that there was once a central cupola. The east window still retains a lattice-pierced slab. The church is now a store-house for odds and ends, with a floor halfway up over the western part, but the podesta told me that they hoped to clear it out and make it into a museum.

S. Domenico retains portions of Gothic work. The building was finished in 1372. A rough relief in the tympanum shows a Virgin and Child, and on the right a local saint, Augustino Cassioti, canonised by Pope John XXII. (1313-1334), with mitre and pectoral, and on the left S. Mary Magdalene. At the feet of the saint kneels the foundress, his sister Bitcula. A Gothic inscription gives her name, and that of the sculptor, "Maiste Nicolai de te dito cervo d Venecia fecit hoc opvs." Within are a picture of the Circumcision by Palma Giovane, with a pretty Virgin, the marble sarcophagus of the family Sobota, a grandiose Renaissance production, and six panels of saints on gold ground, rather like the Gubbio school in style, arranged in threes on the wall of the choir.

The cathedral, however, is the glory of Trau. It replaces an earlier building, reported to have dated from the sixth century, but destroyed by the Saracens in 1123. At this time the Traurines fled to Spalato, and apparently did not venture back till 1152. The builder of the main part of the cathedral was Bishop Treguanus, a Florentine who came from Hungary, and was bishop from 1206 till about 1256. The south door bears the date 1213, the great west door 1240, but the west gable has the arms of Bishop Casotti (1362-1371) upon it, and the campanile was not finished till 1598. The plan shows a nave and aisles five bays in length, terminating in three apses, while to the west is a broad and lofty porch, above one end of which the tower rises. This porch is entered by an arch at the south end, but there is another opposite the great west door; and at the further end is the fifteenth-century baptistery. Round it runs a low seat with arcaded panelling, which serves as base to all the shafts. It is vaulted in three bays, with twisted colonnettes in the angles of the piers. The vaulting is quadripartite, with ribs and two arches three feet broad repeating the divisions of the nave, all the arches being round. The central compartment rises like a dome upon the surface of the terrace above. In the aisle walls are two pierced circular windows, Romanesque in design. In one, two dragons are represented devouring a man; in the other are two lions rearing against a twisted pillar on which is a cup. The bodies are broken, and the tails, which remain, encroach upon the wall surface.



The great west door is the pride of all Dalmatia, and is unsurpassed in the elaborate richness of its carving. It is dated in the lintel inscription 1240, and signed Raduanus, a Slav name Radovan latinised. There are two orders and a tympanum with octagonal shafts in the angles, those nearest the door apparently having fragments of highly carved work inserted, since the plain octagonal shaft is visible both above and below the carving. A flattish gable surmounts it, with a kind of tabernacle work at each end above the figures of Adam and Eve, and a cresting of crockets shaped like eighth-century crockets in a similar situation. In the centre is a little niche with a later figure of S. Laurence, the patron saint. The tympanum is occupied by the subject of the Nativity, arranged in two stages. In the centre above is a curtained recess, with the Virgin in bed, and the Child in a kind of cradle, above which the heads of the ox and ass appear. Over them are two angels, one of whom holds a star from which rays stream down on the Child, whilst the other speaks to the shepherds. Below are Joseph and two women, one of whom pours water into a tub, while the other washes the Child in it. Behind Joseph is a shepherd (these two figures are named). On the left are the shepherds and their flocks; on the right the three kings ride up. "Guasper" and "Balthssar" are also named. The arches above are unmoulded, but carved on the face. On the outside order at the top is the Crucifixion, with the Virgin and S. John and two kneeling figures. Commencing from the bottom on the left the subjects run: the Flight into Egypt; the Entry into Jerusalem; the Marriage of Cana, or the Feast at Simon's House; the Scourging of our Lord; the Watchers at the Grave, or the Resurrection; the Temptation, or Casting out of Devils; and the Baptism of Christ. Some of the reliefs are damaged. The inner order has at the top the Adoration of the Kings (Joseph stands behind Madonna's throne); at the base the Annunciation (the Virgin spinning on one side, and Gabriel with a long staff on the other). This and the cupola on the building behind the Virgin suggest a Byzantine model, as well as the incorrect monogram, which is [Greek: YTh]. The rest of the arch is filled with censing angels. The jambs bear four-feet figures of Adam and Eve outside the orders of the arch, holding fig-leaves in the same manner as the figures at Sebenico, which they much resemble. Below Eve is a lioness with two cubs under her, and a lamb in her claws; below Adam a lion with a dragon in its claws; very decorative in their effect, and standing upon brackets with channelled supports enriched with balls. The pilasters are not quite homogeneous, and indeed scarcely agree even with their fellows on the opposite side. Next to Adam are three figures of Apostles with nimbi, in panels made by the crossing of foliated stems; next to Eve are also three figures without nimbi, but smaller, though the panels are similar; two have small canopies. On the other face are foliage scrolls with animals within them; on Eve's side an ass, horse, camel, elephant, hippopotamus, and the Oriental motif of a griffin stooping over its prey; on Adam's side a woman riding on a horse, a centaur with a dart, a mermaid, a sea-horse, and at the bottom a griffin devouring a scroll, with a human head attached. Below the ornament are semi-nude caryatid figures on one side; on the other they have turbans and shoes, and one has ankle band-ages. In the angle is an octagonal shaft of green marble which continues round the arch. The reliefs on Eve's side in the next order show details of burgher life and agriculture, probably labours of the months or seasons—pruning leafless trees, the preparation of leather, a man seated by a fire on which is a cauldron, whilst a woman fills his cup from a skin over her shoulder, behind hang sausages. Above is a pig which a man is about to kill. The other side is similar. Above are shepherds shearing sheep in a wood; then comes a figure holding a scroll upon which there is no inscription; below is a warrior with sword, baton, and shield, below him a nude man with flying hair, both among twining branches. Upon the other face are spirals of leaf ornament with heads of men and beasts, resembling a piece of antique carving at Spalato, finished with extraordinary care and mastery. Caryatid figures support this order also, turbaned and clothed with tunic and cloak. The carved portions of the inner columns are of a white limestone, while the octagonal shafts are of green marble; and this gives some support to the legend that they were brought from Bihac, a castle of the kings of Croatia and Dalmatia, and later of the kings of Hungary, a short distance away, of which scarcely a sign now remains.[3] These shafts have elaborate scrolls of intertwining branches and leaves, with animals, including some not found in Dalmatia. The hunter has a greyhound. There are a stag, a bear, a sow, hares dragged out by peasants, &c.; here there is a female centaur; there a girl seated on an ox, a wood-devil with two horns, &c. On the other side are lions and bears, figures fighting, a young man with a falcon, loose dogs, &C., all most carefully carved. Beneath the lintel two caps with amorini of the fifteenth or sixteenth century have been inserted.



The south door is simpler, but in the same round-arched style. It has square orders with rolls laid in the reveals, of which the inner one resembles a cable, and the outer chain mail. In the semicircular tympanum is a round window enclosing a quatrefoil surrounded by an inscription with the date 1213 and the name of Bishop Treguanus. The side walls are divided into five spaces by piers; an arched corbelled cornice terminating in mouldings runs along them, and returns up the slope of the east wall. Above it is a curious little loggia with very squat pillars and brackets imitating the wood forms of Venetian courtyards, but cut in stone. The alteration in the slope of the east end shows that it is a later addition. The same kind of cornice finishes the east gable and the nave walls, and also runs round the apses, but with richer mouldings above it, especially round the central one. The curious Dalmatian square-leaf enrichment, channelled in six radiating striae, and terminating in a small volute at the top corner occurs here. There are two shafts to each small apse dividing the wall space, and one window, but the central apse has four twisted shafts and three windows, of which the central one is largest. In the gable is a rose-window. On the roof of the northern aisle the lines of the plan and elevation of parts of the campanile are cut, working drawings for the masons. Heads of beasts project beneath the aisle cornice as gargoyles. Above the ground story the tower is Gothic, and has two Gothic windows of two lights on the south side, with octagonal shafts and traceried heads. The other sides have arcading divided into two panels. Here there is an inscription giving the date of 1422, and the names of the Masters Mateus and Stefanus, probably the Matteo Goykovic who contracted for the repair of church and campanile with the "operarius" of the church in 1421. The stage above has tall square-headed windows, with reticulated tracery in the heads of cusped circles or quatrefoils, and two lights below with central colonnette. The angles have shafts, and there is a pointed trefoiled cornice with carved mouldings and cornice above. The third story is Renaissance, finished in 1598 by Trifon Boccanich. Gothic details still appear as in the shafted two-light windows, with the pierced quatrefoils above and the twisted shafts at the angles. The whole finishes with a pyramidal spire, imitating the Venetian campanile. The gable above the portico has an enormous wheel-window of sixteen divisions, which had a door beneath it.

The nave is 19 ft. 6 in. broad. Its piers vary in width, and the round-arched arcade is irregular in its spacing. The north aisle is broader than the south. The piers and arches are unmoulded; the arches have two orders, carved imposts, and a very small base. The main arches of the vault have mouldings at each side of a fiat surface, and are pointed; the lesser ribs are twisted. The central bay only has a rib running east and west at the summit of the arch. The aisles are vaulted in the same manner, but with semicircular section. All the vaults are domical, and those of the nave spring from corbels carved in the style of Venetian fifteenth-century work. This agrees with the statement that the vaulting dates from 1427-31, and was strengthened by chains and iron anchors in 1440. The central bay has the south door on one side of it, the chapel of S. Giovanni Orsini to the north; and the pulpit against the north-eastern pier marks the commencement of the choir, which is raised two steps above the level of the nave. A stone bench runs round the apse, but there is no sign of an episcopal seat in the centre. The ciborium is somewhat of the type used by the Roman marble-workers in the twelfth century, but the proportions resemble those at S. Nicola, Bari, more than the other Italian examples. It is of grey marble, and bears upon the western angles of the square portion figures of the Virgin and the Angel Gabriel, the latter kneeling, for which the change to octagonal plan for the upper portion leaves room. The figures are fifteenth-century in character, and on the bases are the names of the artist and of the overseer—on that of the Virgin, "Mavrvs me fecit"; on the angels', "Bitalis qda Martini oprarii," in Lombardic letters. The "operarii" were generally nobles, and had control of the church works. A gilded inscription on the front of the architrave gives the angelic greeting. The columns are of cipollino; the caps, once gilded, are very like those of the pulpit, which seems to be of the same date. It is octagonal and surrounded by round-arched arcading, two arches to a side, with coupled columns on the sides and three at the angles, above single arches resting upon shafts of precious marbles with elaborate caps which also at one time were gilded. The design suggests the copying of a metal original in the treatment of the foliage scrolls and the heads of the monsters, and contrasts with the pulpit at Spalato, in which a wood treatment of the capitals is suggested. The column for the book-rest stands on a little lion bracket; of the eagle which once surmounted it only the claws remain. Beneath it William, son of Baldwin, emperor of Constantinople, was buried in 1242. The choir stalls are of the fourteenth-century Gothic type, like those at Arbe and Zara, touched with colour and gilding. They cost eighteen ducats of gold each, and were restored in 1757 and 1852. The carved portions are added, not cut out of the solid. The chapel of S. Jerome at the west end on the north was built in 1458. It has a qua trefoil wooden grille, made by cutting triangles out of the uprights and cross-pieces equal in size to the angles remaining. On the west wall is a little relief of a Virgin and Child, S. Jerome, and a saint with halberd, beneath early Renaissance niches and channelled pilasters. On the nave piers are paintings, most of them of little value. A S. Jerome and S. John the Baptist show decorative feeling in the landscape and its combination with the figure; and on the second pier on each side is a row of nine saints and angels, small figures as if from a predella, which show a combination of Peruginesque and Florentine design and colour. Eitelberger says the paintings above the side altar are ascribed to the younger Palma. The cross of lamps which hangs in the nave recalls S. Mark's, Venice, as do the harmonious tone of the interior and the colonnettes of precious marbles of the pulpit. The great crucifix was brought from Venice in 1508. The organ was made by Frater Urbinus in 1485. Its wings, painted in 1489 by Giovanni Bellini, are now on the first pier. In 1767 another organ replaced it. The sacristy, an irregular building of 1444-1452, cost 4,020 zecchins. It has a pointed barrel vault, and contains a very fine row of cupboards worked by Gregorio di Vido in 1452, made of walnut, carved and inlaid, and costing 125 ducats. The treasury was once the richest in Dalmatia, but now only contains a few objects—arm reliquaries, ostensory, and a silver-gilt ewer, &c. The most interesting things are some embroideries and a MS. of the ninth or tenth century, with very beautiful script. The embroideries are the centre of a cope, with S. Martin dividing his cloak, in high relief (the horse, drapery, and crown in seed pearls, the hair in gold, and the canopy ornamented with gilded discs and seed pearls) of the beginning of the fifteenth century, and a mitre said to have been Bishop Casotti's, with the Virgin and Child standing in the centre (at each side Byzantine roundels painted on gold, the whole set in jewels and with seed pearls).



The chapel of S. Giovanni Orsini and the baptistery remain to be described. S. Giovanni was the greatest of the bishops who rilled the see of Trau, and was canonised in 1192. He came to the city with the legate John of Toledo in the time of the Croatian king Cresimir. The papacy desired to unify the ritual of the Church, substituting the Latin language and the Roman use for the national liturgies, as it had done in Spain, in Milan, and Aquileia. At this time there was no bishop of Trau. The piety and strict life of S. Giovanni were soon noised abroad, and the people desired him for their bishop. In this they were supported by the legate, and he was consecrated in 1064 by Archbishop Laurentius of Spalato. He dismissed his servants, and went through long night-watches, lying naked on straw spread on the floor, to mortify the flesh. The fame of miraculous occurrences accompanied his austerities. His hand on the wine-press produced abundance of juice; he escaped dry-shod from a wreck near Sebenico; and destroyed by his words the war-engines of Coloman in 1105, when he was attacking Zara. A white dove which settled on his head when in conference with the king at Castell, near Sebenico, was taken as a spiritual symbol. He prophesied his own death and the destruction of Sebenico, and miracles were performed at his grave. The body was found in Bua after the Traurines returned from Spalato in 1152, though another account says that it was discovered within the area of the cathedral, near the high-altar where there is now a well. In 1174 he is reported to have appeared above the building in the form of a shining star; and after that the commune adopted a comet as the arms of the city. The chapel stands on the site of the more ancient double chapel of SS. Doimus and Anastasius. It was begun under Bishop Turlon in 1468, the architects being Masters Nicolo Fiorentino and Andrea Alexci of Durazzo, the stipulated price being 3,300 ducats, and the work occupying six years. The chapel is rectangular, with a barrel vault. Round the walls a seat runs, the front of which is ornamented with diamond forms filled with foliage. Above it is a kind of stylobate with pilasters supporting the columns of the next stage, the spaces between them decorated with reliefs of torch-bearing putti, who are represented as issuing from partly open double doors, some of which are very pretty. Each side contains six arches, two of which are pierced with windows, the others having shell-headed niches divided by channelled pilasters or twisted columns, and tenanted by statues nearly life-size. Those which are named are "S. Tomas, S. Ioannes Evangelista, S. Pavlvs, and S. Filippo." Others recognisable by their attributes are S. John the Evangelist as an old man, with the eagle at his feet, S. Mark with his lion, Madonna and S. John the Baptist on the end wall, with our Lord in the centre. Vasari says that Alessandro Vittoria did four Apostles in the church of Trau, and it is suggested that the named figures are these four. The architects carved the first figure, that of S. John the Evangelist, in 1482, at a cost of twenty-five ducats. Between the heads of the niches little children stand on the capitals, and above the cornice is a space pierced by oculi between pilasters. The ceiling is coffered with a cherub's head in each panel, except the central one, which is four times the area of the others, and contains a half-length of Christ, surrounded by a wreath, holding an orb, and blessing. On the lunette is the Coronation of the Virgin. Above the altar is the ancient tomb of the saint, upon the lid of which is his effigy, with silver-plated mitre, and crozier, gloves and shoes. It is of red marble, the front being divided into three panels by twisted colonnettes, once gilt, with statuettes at the corners, and bears an inscription giving the date 1348. The angels are modern. On the pier opposite the side door an inscription records the gift of the right femur of "B. Jo. Ursinus" to Benedict XIII. by the Venetian senate in 1724.

The baptistery is of the same date as the chapel, and was founded by the same bishop, who belonged to the Anconitan family of Turglonia. The door externally is square-headed, and has an architrave with sculptured della Robbia like fruits. Over it is a Baptism of Christ, with God the Father and the Dove above. Within is a frieze of putti bearing garlands, with shell-head niches and channelled pilasters below. Above this is a band of Venetian-Gothic leaves, and in the coffered ceiling are rosettes. This ceiling is a pointed wagon vault, cut from two great blocks of marble, which meet in the centre. A round window in the west gable lights well a life-sized figure of S. Jerome above the altar, the warm brown tint of a portion of the stone being cunningly used to give the effect of shadow on the upper part of the figure. A seat runs round the base of the wall as in the chapel. An inscription gives the name of Andreas Alexius of Durazzo, and the date 1467. The cost was 4,980 zecchins. The resemblance of this baptistery to portions of the cathedral at Sebenico is striking.

The Loggia faces the cathedral at the other side of the piazza. One of the shorter ends is open; the other is closed by the clock-tower, and on this wall is elaborate carved ornamentation, behind the seat of the judges. The floor is three feet above the piazza, and is approached by five semicircular steps. Towards the piazza, five marble pillars (in several pieces) support moulded brackets, upon which an architrave beam rests, and there is one on the shorter side. The caps are of different dates, and for the most part come from older buildings, one indeed being antique. Between the columns is an early Renaissance balustrade. Stone benches run along the walls. Above the judges' seat the wall is panelled. In the central top panel is a figure of Justice seated upon a winged globe; right and left of her are half-lengths of winged figures with inscribed scrolls, laudatory of Justice, emergent from circles. Below Justice is a great lion of S. Mark, and below the other figures are S. Giovanni Orsini with a model of Trau, and S. Laurence with his gridiron. At each side is a long panel with a candelabrum very like those in panels in the chapel in the cathedral, which make it pretty certain that the carving is by the same hand, especially as the date 1471 appears in one of the inscriptions. There are other inscriptions with the dates 1513 and 1606, and later coats of arms. On the corner shaft are the arms of Pietro Loredano. By the judges' seat is a piece of iron which marks the place where the criminal was chained when his crime was announced. The restoration was carried out in 1892 by Professor Hauser. Right of the steps three standard measures stood till 1843.