Chapter C: Ivlio (5)

Our priest left us at a little convent with a chapel and two houses standing close to the water's edge; and at Novaglia we took on board a party of emigrants, some of whom were quite boys, while one was grey-headed. Most of them wore the picturesque costume of the Morlacchi; but the next day we saw them again, clad in the characterless, sack-like slop-suit which seems to be thought a mark of civilisation, having lost much of their individuality without gaining anything in exchange. A number of friends lingered on the shore to see them off; but there was no such singing as we heard next day at Loparo beyond Arbe, the birthplace of the founder of the Republic of S. Marino, where some twenty or more were waiting for us on a barge in the pretty bay, singing a farewell song which wailed over the water as we approached. As they boarded the steamboat they kissed their friends on both cheeks, and crowded to the side as we got under way again, repeating their melancholy song and waving adieus; while all along the tops of the hills which flank both sides of the harbour figures silhouetted against the sky, waved in response, and stood watching the boat as long as we could distinguish them.

When we reached Arbe, cresting its rocky point with a picturesque confusion of walls, campanili, and house-roofs that seemed to grow out of the rocks, so well do they harmonise with them, the afternoon was sunny and delightful, though the roads showed signs of the rain which had recently fallen. At sunset we climbed again to the public garden and enjoyed the well-remembered view of towers and walls grey against the glowing sky, the most beautiful grouping of one of the most picturesque places that I know, intensified by the charm of the changing colours as the glow gradually faded, and the opalescent sea by slow degrees took its place in the quiet harmonies of twilight.

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XVIII

ZARA

The continuation of the Canale della Morlacca, which washes the mainland, is the Canale della Montagna, on the west side of which is the island of Pago, the Gissa of the ancients. The city of the same name was founded by the Venetians, and was originally a defensive military post against the Uscocs. The bay upon which it is situated lies open to the "Bora," and therefore cannot always be entered in winter. For this reason Val Cassione, on the west side of the narrow island, is the usual port. A road over a slight hill conducts to the south end of the bay and the city, in front of which the water is so narrow that it is bridged over. On the near side are the celebrated salt-works, the richest in Dalmatia. There are a few Roman remains, including those of a camp; and near Novaglia is a tunnel 300 yards long, lighted by pierced apertures, said to have belonged to a Roman aqueduct. The scenery outside the island of Pago is uninteresting; the islands have little elevation, beauty of form or colour, nor is there sufficient vegetation to disguise the dull grey of the rocks, though, as the boat turns to the west to gain the mouth of the Canal of Zara, the Velebit Mountains behind may become imposing under certain circumstances. The first time we went to Zara the sun was setting at this part of the voyage, and the sky effect was fine, while the Velebits flushed a pinkish purple with blue-purple shadows, the silhouette only showing in places beneath heavy masses of cloud, in which some of the summits were hidden. Falling showers here and there softened and veiled the strong light and shade, relieved by the prismatic hues of a rainbow. As the sun sank lower the mountains and clouds gradually became a pallid grey, while the sky to westward passed through many gradations of colour and tone as the clouds slowly dispersed and night fell. Far away over the darkening water the electric lights of Zara flashed and glittered, reflected in chains of sparkles which grew longer as we approached.

The boat turned to the left into the old port, and thus we escaped the ordeal of the dogana to which passengers landing at the new quay are subjected, and entered the town through the Porta Marina, the entrance for all travellers arriving by water until, in 1868, the walls towards the sea were thrown down, and the Riva Nuova constructed. It is proposed to extend this fine promenade to Borgo Erizzo eventually. In making it some remains of Roman walls were found. The city was declared "open," and the cannon were transported to the arsenal. On the other side of the water is the island of Ugljan, with its conspicuous Venetian castle of S. Michele, to which the peasants make a pilgrimage on Michaelmas Day. From the height which it crowns, the second Canal of Zara may be seen, and the islands of Incoronata, Isole Grosse, and the open sea beyond. It is said that the coast of Italy can be seen with a telescope on a fine day. The remaining portions of the fortifications have been planted with trees, or turned into gardens, and form pleasant promenades both during the day, when the shade of the trees is acceptable, and at evening, when the sea breeze blows cool from off the water. Among the trees are found palms and Paulownia in flower. Outside the Porta Terra Ferma a large bastion has been made into a public park, named after General Blazekovic, who created it in 1888-1890. The fortifications, commenced by Sanmichele in 1533, were finished ten years later by his nephew Giovanni Girolamo: a drawing for the Porta Terra Ferma exists in the Uffizj at Florence, showing the whole depth to the bottom of the ditch, which much improves the proportion. It was approached diagonally across a wooden bridge; the road is now direct, and the ditch filled up. The isthmus joining the peninsula to the land had been cut through to strengthen the older fortifications, of which one tower, the pentagonal Bo d'Antona, alone remains. When the new works were carried out, as a stronger defence against the Turks, the suburbs were destroyed, and the ditch was subsequently turned into the cisterns below the Cinque Pozzi. This great reservoir, made in 1574, was provided with an elaborate system of filtering-beds, the water being collected from the roofs until the aqueduct was opened in 1838. The sand was renewed once in a hundred years.

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The inner portion of the other gate, the Porta Marina, was, according to local tradition, brought from Ænona. It is part of a triumphal arch erected by a Roman lady, Melia Anniana, to her husband, Læpicius Bassus, with additions of the period of the Renaissance. It bears a long Latin inscription referring to the battle of Lepanto, October 5, 1571, and on the water side has a pretty, early Renaissance upper part, with the lion of S. Mark and _amorini_ supporting a shield within an architectural framing.

Zara (anciently Jadera) is traditionally the capital of the Liburnians. It became a Roman colony in 78 B.C., and many Roman fragments have been found which attest its splendour and prosperity under the Empire. Trajan built an aqueduct, of which traces have been found through Borgo Erizzo to and beyond Makarska. Stone pipes of the same kind were found on the shore at Zara Vecchia, in the ruins of the Templars' castle on the hill Kastel; above the lake of Vrana, and in the marshes through which the road from Vrana to Benkovac passes. It is believed that the source was a spring at Biba on this hill. Salona, during the time of its prosperity, was of more importance than Zara; but after its destruction by the Avars in 639 the latter again became of first importance in Dalmatia, the Byzantine fleet being stationed there when Ravenna was taken by the Lombards in 752, and the town becoming the dwelling of the "strategos." In 804 Donatus, bishop of Zara, acted as envoy with the doge of Venice in concluding peace between Charlemagne and the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus. In the tenth century it was known as Diadora. In 991 it became Venetian for the first time, but without severing its relations with Byzantium; and Orso Orseolo fortified it in 1018. Somewhat later, the Venetians made it their principal city, putting the bishoprics of Arbe, Veglia, and Ossero under the metropolitan in 1154, and making Domenico Morosini, son of the doge, Count of Zara. The inscription on the nuns' church of S. Maria records the fact that Coloman entered Zara in 1105; from that date the Hungarian period commences, though apparently the Venetians still had rule over maritime Dalmatia. The sacking of the city by the French in 1202 appears to have been due to the greed of the Venetians, and to their desire to get even with the Hungarians also. Between 1169 and 1201 a Pisan fleet, probably allied with Hungary, took Pola from the Venetians; but it was retaken before long, and the discords between Henry or Emeric, son of Bela of Hungary, and his brother Andrew facilitated the taking of Zara. It is recorded that Andrew had most of the magnates on his side; but Emeric went alone and unarmed to the malcontents, saying: "Now I wish to see who of you will dare to raise his hand against his king"; and all quietly and in silence let him pass. He then took his brother, led him out, and imprisoned him in a certain castle. The magnates fell at his feet asking pardon. Truly in those days divinity did hedge the king!

The French Crusaders had engaged the Venetians to take them to the Holy Land, but did not assemble at Venice at the time appointed, nor had they the money ready to pay for their transport. The Venetians, being men of business, demanded cash down; and so the favourable time for reaching Syria was allowed to pass without the expedition setting forth. Provisions and ships had been prepared, and the Venetians, wishing to use them, with the consent of Doge Enrico Dandolo, proposed to the French an attack on Zara, part of the booty to be used to pay for their passage. The attack took place on November 10, 1202, and the French stayed till April 7, 1203. The Venetians took all the booty, and threw down the wall on the seaward side, but it was restored shortly after. They also sent colonists to Zara after a rebellion and a reconquest in 1243.

The Venetian counts were generally citizens of Venice, and had no defined term of rule. In 1311 the city again returned to the Hungarians, and the result was the siege of 1312-1313, which ended in the condottiere Dalmasio, who was besieging, being offered the countship by the ban of Dalmatia and Croatia. To prevent this the Venetians offered to leave the Zaratines free to choose their own count, only reserving the right of confirmation. In 1345 Zara rebelled for the seventh time, when Andrea Dandolo was doge, and in consequence a long siege commenced on August 12. The Venetians had at Nona 20,000 men, horse and foot, who devastated the fields for three days and set fire to the villages; the countrymen fled to the city, so that there were more than 20,000 within the walls, of whom 6,000 only were armed. On August 30 they closed the port with a chain made of thirteen beams, and on September 1 sent an envoy to Andrew, king of Naples, to ask for aid. On the 8th they received letters from the King of Hungary promising help, and raised the Hungarian flag. The king sent the bani of Bosnia and Croatia to help them, but the Venetian senate bought the rescuers off! In January, 1346, the Venetians took the Castle of S. Damian and broke the chain of the port. The Venetian trenches consisted of a bastion 200 yards long and 100 yards broad built of wood on three sides. On the east it had ten towers, as many on the west, and fourteen on the north, being open on the south towards the fleet. They now controlled 25,000 men. On June 2, Ladislas of Hungary came to help the besieged, and encamped at Zemonico, seven miles away, with 100,000 cavalry. On July 10 he advanced close to the city with 2,000 of his best men. The citizens welcomed him with much joy, and the next day sent legates with great solemnity to offer him the keys of the city. On the 16th he attacked the bastion. On the 20th, Bernardo, patriarch of Aquileia, entered the city; but the king held aloof. The Venetians tried in vain to make terms, and the Zaratines attacked the bastion with good heart, burning one of the towers; but the Hungarians only looked on while the Venetians repelled the assault. The king's behaviour is mysterious. On July 30 he returned to Vrana, and so to Hungary; and, although his promised envoys went to Venice, they went for other purposes. He appears to have been using Zara as a pawn in some great game. Famine obliged the Zaratines to surrender, and the Venetians entered the city on December 21, 1347, the war having lasted two years and six months, and having cost the Republic from 40,000 to 60,000 ducats a month for soldiers' pay alone, without counting the shipping. Eleven years later Zara again became Hungarian, but was finally ceded to Venice in 1413 by the peace of Trieste.

The dialect spoken in the city is pure Venetian, and the municipality is the only Italian one in Dalmatia. Zara is still the capital, and the diet meets in the city. Here, too, are the only Italian schools in the province, the Slav majority in most places exercising its power to veto everything Italian. The only flourishing industry is the manufacture of maraschino, of which 300,000 bottles are exported annually. The cherries, which are the raw material, are imported from Sebenico, Almissa, and Poljica, near Spalato. The streets are narrow and impossible for carriage traffic; merchandise is put upon long narrow carts, with long poles projecting in front and cross-pieces at the end; the cart is then pushed and pulled by several men. The population is 13,000, and is increased by many country people in the mornings, who come to market, so that the streets and piazzas are crowded with a most distracting variety of costumes. Both men and girls from the country wear little red caps. The men have great light-coloured woollen coats which they throw over their shoulders without putting their arms in, light shirts, sometimes with an embroidered jacket, trousers with embroidery round the pocket-holes (which are in front of the thigh) and a split at the lower part of the side which is buttoned up. They sometimes have a sash round the waist with a knife. The women wear leggings woven roughly in patterns like the wrong side of a tapestry curtain, and shoes somewhat the shape of gondolas, thick skirts with patterned aprons, and small waistcoat-like jackets. Their hair is plaited round the head. The dress of the townspeople is less individual; the head is covered with a white or coloured kerchief, the dress is frequently black, and the modern blouse is sometimes seen. It is interesting to watch the boatloads of country-folk arriving either by the Porta Terra Ferma, close to which are steps and a small harbour, or on the quay by the Porta Marina. Lambs and kids are brought alive and killed and skinned on the quay, the women holding pots or jugs to catch the blood, which they seem to think valuable. The wall of the quay was being rebuilt when we were there the second time, and a diver was working at it. It looked odd to see the stones and buckets of cement lowered into the water with ropes.

There are two antique columns still erect: one, fluted, is in the Piazza S. Simeone, set up in 1729, and the other is in the Piazza dell' Erbe; it was used as a pillory, and the chains with the iron collars still hang to it, having, by centuries of friction, cut deep-curved grooves in the marble with swinging to and fro. This column also has sockets for the insertion of flagstaffs, and attached to it is a much-worn piece of eighth-century sculpture, with the motif of an ornamented cross beneath an arch fastened with clamps. The chroniclers of the seventeenth century record that near this place several drums of columns projected from the earth, and that two entire pillars were erect and united by a piece of the architrave. One was moved to S. Simeone, near to which Mr. T.G. Jackson saw in 1884 the base of a Roman arch excavated beneath the level of the piazza. Other similar fragments have been used in the foundations of S. Donato.

In the year 380 a bishop of Zara (Felix) is mentioned for the first time. S. Donatus is reckoned the fourth bishop, Andrew and Sabinianus (who are shown on a reliquary with Felix) traditionally preceding him. As his episcopate lasted into the ninth century it is evident that the list is not complete. His diplomatic mission took him either to Diedenhofen or Aachen and then to Constantinople, where he had the relics of S. Anastasia given him. It is probable that the sight of the great churches which he saw during his journeys suggested the plan of S. Donato, which was originally dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Porphyrogenitus compares it to S. Sophia, Constantinople, which seems strange in a Byzantine. It is circular in plan, about 60 ft. in diameter. Six gigantic piers, wider than the arches which rest upon them, placed ten feet from the wall, sustain a barrel vault, about 28 ft. high, over the ambulatory, which has strengthening arches. The piers of the upper story sustained the drum of a cupola which no longer exists. Opposite the entrance are three vaulted apses, the central one larger and deeper than the others and with four windows, the others having but one each; and these apses are repeated above, without the windows. In front of them are two smooth columns of Oriental yellow marble 7 ft. round, in place of piers, and thinner columns cut short occupy the same relative place above. The caps are antique and a good deal damaged. Three are composite like the arch of Septimius Severus, and one is Corinthian. The roof is now tiled. A Roman inscription on the fourth pilaster seems to indicate that there was a great temple to Augusta Livia, wife of Augustus, here; and when the floor level was lowered in 1888 a number of inscriptions were found, and portions of carved friezes and pillars used as foundation material and simply laid on the pavement of the Roman forum. Among these were portions of columns resembling both of the two still upright. Part of a flight of steps was also found, which may have been part of the sub-structure of the temple. Fragments of four different buildings have been recognised. Two stairs have served the upper story of the church--an early one with carved hood mould of the ninth century to the external door, now blocked up, and a second from the interior, which lands in a vestibule where some early mediæval carvings are arranged. The upper portion is a double flight, arranged, perhaps, to use when this stair was a "Scala Santa" ascended by the faithful on their knees, whereby they gained the same indulgences as were attached to the Scala Santa at Rome. The building was a military magazine in 1649, again from 1798 to 1877, and then a wine-store till, in 1888, the museum was founded. In 1890-1891 the ancient entrance-door was found behind the eighteenth-century additions. It is a simple square-headed door with semicircular opening above, made of Roman uncarved material, with consecration-crosses sunk in the lintel and base of the right-hand jamb; to the right and left of the lintel a little above it are two simple brackets with crosses on them. The lintel itself is double, and treated as if it were wood. The cill was two feet below the ground level.

The museum contains Roman and pre-Roman antiquities, inscriptions, lamps, carved fragments, coins, bronze and glass vessels, pottery, &c.; mediæval fragments, carved and gilded panels, lanterns and ensigns from Venetian galleys, a crozier of Limoges work of the thirteenth century found under the pavement of S. Crisogono, arms and carvings of the Renaissance period, &c. But perhaps the most interesting things are the plans of the early churches which have either been destroyed or very much altered, and the early mediæval carvings; among these are two very curious slabs with figures under arches, one of which was found under the pavement of S. Crisogono, while the other, closely resembling it in style, came from S. Domenico. The former shows the Flight into Egypt and the Massacre of the Innocents; the latter the Nativity and Adoration of the Kings. They probably formed part of a chancel enclosure. There are also fragments of ciboria, altar frontals, or sarcophagi, while a column sawn in two has furnished decorated jambs to the door of the upper church. On a lintel of the early church of S. Lorenzo is a Christ in a mandorla, supported by angels with a sacred tree on each side and a griffin beyond; a rough astragal moulding surrounds the subject. The jambs have a rough arabesque scroll, terminating in a two-headed bird. These carvings are all of the ninth century.

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The church of S. Lorenzo is in the courtyard of the military command building on the Piazza dei Signori. The sides are in courts entered from the Calle Larga and Via del Teatro Vecchio. It has a nave and aisles about 21 ft. long and about 14 ft. broad, with four pillars, springing from which are three unmoulded arches. The arches are stilted, and at the height of the real springing an impost projects in profile. The central compartment has a wagon vault, the other two quadripartite vaults. The aisles have semi-domes running north and south, resting on cross arches, with squinches in the corners. The choir has two stories, the lower with three square-ended apses, and entered by a door flanked by pillars. The walls which separate the apses ran up to a tower. The vault is a transverse wagon pierced by wagon vaults at right angles. The architecture is very simple, and shows Byzantine influence, but the construction is hidden by plastering. The nave caps are debased Corinthian, with ornamented volutes and one row of flat acanthus-leaves, the abacus being square. The front leaf in each shows a half-length of a male figure with nimbus, his arms raised as if in prayer, the body hidden by a shorter loaf. The columns are of different sizes, but the caps are all the same. The entrance door towards the Calle Larga has a simply moulded round arch; the other has been mentioned as being in S. Donato. The upper story of the choir has pillars with carved caps supporting an arch of two orders, now built up, formerly no doubt an oratory. The church is mentioned in a document of 919.

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S. Domenico (which no longer exists) was of somewhat the same character; but the choir was without dividing walls, and thus became an upper church. It was only 21 ft. square and had three columns on each side, the last close to the wall. The vaults were domically quadripartite, springing from pilasters which rested on the caps. The arcade was round-arched, the central and right-hand apses were square-ended, and the left had a semicircular niche. The under church was wagon-vaulted without architectural features. The foundation of a chapel was found on the Riva Nuova with five niches of a six-niched circle and an entrance passage in the sixth, which turned at right angles to the north to reach the street. In the angle thus formed between the entrance and the main building a sarcophagus stood. This circular-niched plan occurs elsewhere in Dalmatia, as in the baptistery here, and SS. Trinita at Spalato, and the dimensions are generally so nearly the same as to suggest some common original design. S. Pietro Vecchio is considered to be the oldest church in Zara. It is now desecrated, but was used as a sacristy to the fourteenth-century church of S. Andrea, belonging to the Fishers' Confraternity, the sixteenth-century apse of which projected into the nave as far as the first pillar. It was cleared out by order of the Central Commission in 1886. It is about 38 ft. long by 19 ft. broad, and is built of ancient fragments with very little architectural character. One of the two columns bears a Roman inscription, and both have crosses cut in them. One of the caps is a damaged antique; the other is an antique base upside down; neither column has any base. The church is an irregular rectangle in plan, divided into two naves which end in apses by two pillars and a pier. The pilasters are not upright, the arches are deformed, and the two altar niches have half-cupola vaults on a rectangular plan, with arches thrown across the corners. There are two original doors, both built up. The pier between the two apses has a round-arched niche in it. The church is mentioned in 918 in the will of Prior Andrea.

There was a cathedral here in very early times, referred to in a will of 908 as S. Anastasia. It was originally S. Pietro, and the dedication was changed when the relics of S. Anastasia which S. Donato brought from Constantinople and placed in the church of the Holy Trinity were transferred to the cathedral. This church was destroyed by the Venetians in 1202, but probably portions of it were worked up in the new building which the Crusaders are said to have erected as a votive church after the pope had excommunicated them all for the sack of Zara. This seems, however, a legend, since the new building was not consecrated till May 27, 1285, the Archbishop Lorenzo Periandro officiating, assisted by the Metropolitan of Spalato and the suffragan bishops of both dioceses. On the vault of the ciborium and on the jamb of the main door are inscriptions, dated respectively 1332 and 1324, recording their erection by "Joannis de Bvtvane, archiep: Jadren." Certain portions show by their style that additions and alterations were made, still later. The length is 170 ft. and the width 65 ft.

The façade has three doors, and is divided by pilaster strips which emphasise the width of the nave; at either side of the central door is a shallow recess filling the space between it and the pilaster strips. The door itself has spiral and simple colonnettes in the jambs, with corresponding arch moulds of four orders. In the tympanum is a later relief of the Virgin and Child enthroned, with two saints, beneath a pointed trefoil arcade; and on brackets at the sides are four figures of Apostles. On the side doors the tympana have the Agnus Dei, and that to the left has the Annunciation on brackets, one figure on each side of the door. The colonnettes and arch moulds are both twisted in this door; in that to the right they are plain; the figures on brackets are similar. The lintels and jambs have elaborate arabesque scrolls, which remind one of Provençal Romanesque ornament. The lower part of the wall has courses of pinkish marble among the white, and bands of inlaid ornament decorate both the wall and the campanile. Above the string course over the doorways is a Romanesque-looking arcade with another which fills the slope of the aisle walls, with animals standing at the ends. The central portion has a restored wheel-window with radiating colonnettes and round arches, and above it in the gable is another with cusped tracery of a later date; round this an arcading ramps as at the end of the aisles, and the lower rose is flanked by arcading in two stages arched only in the upper one. Both of these arcadings have coupled colonnettes, and are manifestly much later than the lower part of the façade. The walls of the north aisle have an arcading separated into groups by pilasters, echoing the internal divisions, with a gallery above, like S. Nicola, Bari, and others of the Apulian churches. A cornice of corbelled arches crowns the nave wall. The campanile was commenced in 1449 by Archbishop Lorenzo Venier, and carried up by Archbishop Matteo Valaresso in 1460 to the height from which Mr. T.G. Jackson completed it. It has five stories and an octagonal pyramidal termination. The three upper stories have two window openings in each, the lowest being single lights, while the upper two have a central colonnette and two stilted round arches beneath a containing arch. A string with corbelled arches below divides the stories, and the square portion terminates with a balustrade in the usual manner.

The inside was altered in the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. The nave arcade, which continues to the apse, consists of ten round arches on each side resting alternately on columns and piers with columns attached which have cushion caps. Some of the columns are spirally fluted and have decadent antique caps. Some are cipollino, and two are apparently cut from antique columns, one having four shafts attached to the central cylindrical mass, and the corresponding one on the other side being panelled, with octagonal colonnettes attached. The pier at the choir steps has two small columns instead of one. Two bays of the aisles equal one bay of the nave, and pilasters run up from the piers, dividing the triforium arches into groups of six, on the tops of which figures stand. The triforium arcade has round arches with coupled colonnettes of red marble on the face and varied caps; the voussoirs are alternately red and grey; and a string with carved leaf pattern, much like that at Traù, runs along the triforium, between the nave arcade and the balustrade. The nave arcade terminates at each end with a single arch. The apse has a marble seat running round it, with the bishop's seat in the centre raised on several steps. It has exactly the same ornament on its sides as is on the font in the baptistery. The wall is sheeted with red marble. The ciborium has pointed arches resting upon Corinthianising caps and columns of cipollino carved in coffered patterns or spiral and zigzag channelling; a cornice of acanthus-leaves runs above the arches. It was erected by Archbishop Butuane, consecrated in 1332, and restored in 1901-1902. The presbytery pavement is of 1336. The stalls, once painted and gilt, are very fine examples of Venetian-Gothic wood carving, and were partly made for Archbishop Biagio Molin in 1420-1427, whose arms are carved on them; but those of his predecessor and successor, and those of Valaresso, under whom the work was probably completed, also appear. Between the stalls, elaborately pierced and carved scroll-work runs up to the canopy level, where little figures stand in niches. Above the canopies, which are slightly pointed fluted shells, and separated from them by curious ogee-shaped gables, are thirty-six half-length figures of prophets, emergent from scrolls and holding labels. Above one of the side altars are six small Carpaccios on panel much repainted--the one with the figure of S. Martin bears his signature; also a Palma Giovine and an Andrea Schiavone.

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Beneath the step of the high-altar is the sarcophagus of Oriental marble, with porphyry cover, of the three saints, Agape, Chionia, and Irene, whose remains are interred in the crypt. The crypt is entered by two flights of stairs from the sides of the choir. It is of an irregular shape, about 70 ft. long, 23 ft. broad, and 15 ft. high. Eastwards it suddenly broadens out to a width of 33 ft. and terminates in a semicircle. In this apse there are three windows. Two rows of nine columns extend to just above the point where the change in width begins, and four more follow the external curve of the wall. These support quadripartite vaulting. The columns have heavy square caps and square bases. In one is a grated aperture as if for relics. The sarcophagus altar has a much worn representation of the Martyrdom of Sant' Anastasia, with her name inscribed in Lombardic letters between two foliage scrolls. Fragments of early work are visible here and there, pointing to the reconstruction of the crypt. It is very dark, and is now used as a store, having become too damp for ritual purposes.

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 cloisonné 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.

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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. Mariæ 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 façade 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 _repoussé_ 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.