In the early Middle Ages Arbe was prosperous owing to its trade and its position on the high-road between Venice and the East. The plague of 1456 depopulated it, and all the richer people fled except the bishop, Johannes Scaffa, and five canons. In 1463 Bosniaks flying from the Turks came to increase the population and were well received, but the town never recovered its prosperity. The empty streets and ruined houses and churches near the cathedral testify to the desolation. The style of the houses is Venetian for the most part, as might be expected, since it was the port of call for those going to Greece or the Holy Land. Some of them are very interesting and beautiful. The quay has several fronting on to it, specially a lofty tower-like building of the fourteenth century with later windows and balconies inserted. Many marble coats of arms may be seen here and there, and the windows and door-jambs often have charming carved ornaments. The Palazzo Nemira shows a pleasing combination of late Gothic and Renaissance detail in pierced panels and balustrading; and the parroco lives in a house which has a good doorway of the usual Venetian-Gothic type. The house in which Archbishop De Dominis was born (for some time Dean of Windsor, and celebrated for his scientific attainments), a palace of somewhat later date, is now a kind of club and reading-room, in which the innkeeper apparently has the right of serving his patrons with meals. The families of De Dominis and De Hermolais gave many bishops to the see between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. The loggia is well preserved or has been well restored. Overlooking it is a window from which a parrot screams insulting remarks to passers-by.
Arbe was known to the ancients as part of Liburnia. Pliny mentions it, and so does Porphyrogenitus. There was a second city in the island in antiquity called Colento, of which every trace has disappeared. The island belonged sometimes to the Croats, sometimes to Byzantium, and sometimes to Hungary, but from 1115 was mainly under the influence of Venice. The history of the Church goes back to the tenth century, but the first bishops' names are uncertain. A Zaraitan record of 986 mentions a Bishop Petrus. In 1062 a Bishop Dragus is named as being at the consecration of S. Pietro in Valle, the oldest Benedictine convent in Arbe. In the communal archives are preserved the oldest MSS. of the kings of Dalmatia and Croatia of the tenth century.
The cathedral is a basilica with nave and aisles. The main apse is octagonal outside and semicircular within; the apse to the north aisle also exists; that of the south aisle has been replaced by a square chapel. The nave arcade consists of six bays of round arches, resting on five pairs of columns which, though they are made up with plaster and painted, are probably antique, since the caps differ enormously in height and column and cap frequently do not fit. Some of the capitals might be late Roman, but most of them are very rude imitations. Super-abaci are used. The ciborium is hexagonal and rests on six columns of Greek cipollino, with the top and bottom mouldings worked on them; the caps are Byzantine of the sixth or seventh century, but without super-abaci. The front arches have huge Renaissance swags in the spandrils and a moulded cornice with classic enrichments; at the back are three ninth-century panels with arch and spandril in one piece, carved with ornament similar to that on the baptistery of Calixtus at Cividale; the pyramidal roof terminates in a carved finial. The greater part of the building is of the thirteenth century. The church, having become ruinous in 1237, was restored in 1287, and again in 1438 and 1490. It is now the chief parish church of the diocese of Veglia. The west door belongs to the last restoration; in the tympanum is a poorly carved Pietà. It is flanked by some remains of a flat arcading. The wheel-window above, though Romanesque in design, bears the date 1439. A pink marble is used in this façade with very good effect. In the north wall is a square marble panel with an enthroned Christ, of Byzantine type, like the ciborium and the nave columns a relic of an earlier building. The stalls are fine of their kind, and we were told that an offer of 50,000 florins and a new set had been made for them and refused. They are dated 1445, and are elaborately carved with figures and the usual nerveless foliage of the period, of which other good examples occur at Zara and Parenzo. In a chapel in the north aisle is a polygonal Renaissance font of rather pleasing design, with S. John the Baptist in the central panel and fruit, &c., hanging in the others. In the apse of the north aisle is an early Madonna with the Child, robed in red and blue with golden diaper patterns; and over an altar in the south aisle is an interesting tempera picture in a frame of the fourteenth century, painted on a gold ground, with Greek inscriptions and technique. In the central panel is a Crucifixion, on the left is S. Matthew, and on the right S. Christopher.
S. Christopher was patron of the town and diocese, and the greatest relic is his head, now that those of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego have disappeared. The first mention of it occurs in the eleventh century, when Bishop Dabrana or Domana (1080-1086) brought it forth with prayers and hymns to deliver Arbe from an attacking horde which had besieged the city for a month. A great stone fell from heaven into the camp of the besiegers on that occasion, and the missiles which they shot recoiled upon them. In Arbe, S. Christopher's Day is kept on May 9, the day of this discomfiture, instead of July 25 as elsewhere. Other deliverances took place in 1097 from Coloman of Hungary, and in 1105 from a Hungarian Count Sergius, according to tradition. The shrine appears to be work of the twelfth century, and is based on the antique, but betrays Byzantine influence also. It is decorated with gilded reliefs upon a ground of silver. It is a rectangular wooden box with a pyramidal lid, to which the silver plates are nailed. The subjects upon the four sides are: 1. A seated king and an archer shooting at S. Christopher, who is bound to a stake; the arrows fall deflected and broken by the hand of God, which appears by the saint's head. Above is a canopy supported on twisted columns. 2. The saint is beheaded beneath a canopy; the hand of God again appears by the headless trunk. Two soldiers in Roman costume stand by, one with lance, and the other with raised sword. 3. Three holy men holding scrolls, barefoot and robed in tunic and toga. 4. Three holy women, two holding a cross; the heads have been restored. All these figures have large heads, especially those standing under the round-arched arcade, with alternate twisted and ringed colonnettes. The lid has repoussé subjects upon all four surfaces: 1. Christ enthroned, blessing and holding a book, with the monograms IC and XC; in the corners the lion and eagle with books. 2. S. John with the eagle and monogram IONS. 3. S. Christopher, beardless, as a standard-bearer, and with a royal
S.XPO
mantle, with inscription FOR; at his feet a male
VS
and a female figure—donors probably. 4. The Virgin standing with monograms ΜΗ Θϒ. An angel with a book stands near. The skull is surrounded by a double crown, the outer of gold set with precious stones, the inner of silver ornamented with lilies. The tradition is that the reliquary was the gift of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary.
In the sacristy are also three strips of champlevé enamel from a destroyed reliquary, with figures of eight of the Apostles—Matthew, James, Bartholomew, Andrew, Thomas, Philip, Thaddeus, and Svhon (Simon)—seated and holding symbols in one hand and churches in the other (which have central domes sometimes, and pediments over the doors, while the roofs and towers look much later than the thirteenth century, to which they are generally ascribed). The colours used are blue, green, yellow, white, and red, and the style resembles that of the Maestricht school. Eitelberger describes another plaque on which SS. Peter, John, Mark, and three others were represented. This seems to have disappeared since his time, as it was not shown me with the others.
The campanile of the cathedral is one of the finest in Dalmatia, and is older than the year 1212, in which year there is mention of it. It is 20 ft. square and more than 100 ft. high, with four stories separated by ornamented string courses, a base and a pyramidal top. The base has a door and eight windows, two on each side, on a higher level. The lowest story has also two windows on each side, but beneath three corbelled arches. In the next the windows are each coupled, with a central colonnette and an arch above springing from the central and angle pilaster strips. In the third the windows have three lights and coupled colonnettes beneath a similar arch, but the story is loftier. In the top story (which is as deep as two of those below) there are four lights with coupled colonnettes and a square framing round them; a cornice slightly projecting and a balustrade complete the perpendicular part. All the arches are round and the window shafts have neither cap nor base. The leaf ornament of the strings imitates the antique. The pyramidal top is octagonal, and bears an inscription recording its restoration after damage by lightning; the lower portion seems to be original.
Four of five other churches have campaniles, of which S. Andrea is the best, apparently twelfth-century work, as are the three apses at the eastern end. S. Giustina has a curious bulbous top, plastered and painted red. The churches generally have a semicircular apse and flat wooden ceilings; those without campanili have bell-turrets on the west wall, many of them no longer in use. S. Andrea was rebuilt in the middle of the fifteenth century, and has a good Venetian Renaissance doorway. In S. Antonio, just beyond the cathedral is a fifteenth-century altar-piece with carved and painted figures. In S. Andrea is a woefully repainted Bart. Vivarini, signed and dated 1485, and in the Franciscan convent of S. Eufemia, some way outside the walls, there are said to be two pictures by the same artist.
Of S. Giovanni Battista, which was so interesting for the construction of its apse and ambulatory, scarcely anything remains—just the exterior wall of the apse and north wall of the nave, with remains of one door with an inscription. The obliging owner or renter of the ground showed us a piece of the mosaic pavement in rather bad repair, which he said the Duke of S. Stefano wished to buy, but it was impossible to get it up from the grass which had grown round it, apart from the difficulty of the three permessi required from the bishop, the authorities, and the proprietor. He had the earth swept off the piece which we saw, and there was no grass growing just there. The patterns are interweavings rather Roman in design, the colours used being black, red, rose-pink, and white. The church is said to have been the first cathedral; later it belonged to a Franciscan convent which was used as the palace of the bishop some seventy years ago. Round the cloister were two stories of rooms, with a curious chapter-house in the corner. The site is now laid out as a garden, with pergolas and a terrace-walk looking over the sea; amid these are still a good many architectural fragments lying about, some of which appear to go back to the tenth century. Four boxes full of such fragments were sent to the Museum of S. Donato at Zara without any claim being made for expenses, but were refused.
One ought not to omit mentioning the chapel of the Campo Santo, which has a strange façade with three great conventional shell forms above a rose-window, and a carved architrave with Renaissance motifs above the door. It was restored in 1867; the adjoining ruinous building has 1657 over its door.
S. Pietro in Valle is some six miles from Arbe, and is as yet undescribed. Signor Rismondo, whose kindness I have just referred to, offered to drive us out to it, an attractive offer which I was exceedingly sorry to have to decline; but the times of sailing of the boats are not elastic, and it would have meant spending four days more on the island, an amount of time which I could not spare. He also wanted to take us to below Loparo, where he said the geological formations are strange and impressive. The cliffs facing the mainland are riven into detached pinnacles estimated to be as high as the campanile of the cathedral, and the scenery is savage in the extreme.
Our second visit to Arbe was made from Zara, which we left in rather stormy weather, the waves outside the harbour flashing with little white caps, while flaws of rain constantly hid the island of Ugljan on the other side of the channel. The boat was rather a small one, belonging to the Zaratina company, with a crew which consisted of a captain, who also acted as supercargo, an engineer, a stoker, a cook, one deck-hand, and a cock. The cock's name was Nero, and he had voyaged with the boat for two months (as the engineer testified) without suffering even from the most tempestuous weather. There was an awning over the central portion of the boat and flapping pieces of sailcloth, apparently intended to shield the very varied merchandise which was being brought on board, and we found that it was possible to shelter beneath it by observing the direction of the wind and keeping to leeward. The crew comforted some women who feared the roughness of the waves (one of whom carried a new hat in a large paper-bag, which became rather dilapidated under the attentions of the wind and the frequent showers) by saying it would be all right when we got round the point behind which Nona lies; and as the boat was very buoyant and seaworthy we found it possible to enjoy the passage notwithstanding the doubtful weather. As we turned down the bay to Val Cassione, however, the wind shifted a point and blew dead against us, and we began to think that the boat was very small for such a sea. The women and a child had to disembark here, and were almost in tears, and the length of time that the boatmen took to make up their minds to come out from the harbour and face the choppy sea did not reassure them. Nero marched bravely up and down the deck, giving vent every now and then to a rather cracked crow, and we wondered how he escaped being blown overboard! Fortunately he carried very little sail, only two feathers remaining in his dilapidated tail; but his spirit was high, and he was always ready to respond to the challenges of the engineer.
As we rounded the point after leaving Val Cassione the wind shifted again and the weather improved as if by magic. The clouds gradually melted away, and the blue of the sky palpitated through the grey; the sun shone warm upon the barren, featureless coast, adding colour to the dispiriting grey of the limestone spotted with the dark green of shrubs, a characteristic of most of the Dalmatian islands, and the Velebit Mountains became clear, in some places to the summits, though the greater part of the chain was still cloud-capped and barred with heavy purple shadows.
The party at lunch consisted of the captain, the engineer, and a priest who was now the one passenger beside ourselves. We comfortably filled the table in the little cabin. The captain said that since the phylloxera damaged the vines two-thirds of the Dalmatians (the country people) had emigrated. He seemed to hold them in slight estimation, perhaps because he was a sailor, which he said none of them are in that part of the country (a statement we had an opportunity of verifying, for we noticed that a very slight motion of the boat makes them sick), and so ignorant "that it would require 2,000 years of teaching to civilise them!" The captain himself belonged to one of the outlying islands, where his wife and family lived and where he spent two nights in each week; and he took a gloomy view of the prospects of the "Dalmati," as the Italian-speaking Dalmatians call themselves. He said when he was a boy the language used in the schools generally was Italian, then it was changed to German for a time, but Croat is now universal, so that in twenty years Italian will no longer be understood along the eastern littoral; which will be bad for the culture of the country, almost the whole of which is Italian, and has been so for centuries.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.