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: "✠ 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: "✠ 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 "Μ" 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.

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

S. Maria is first mentioned in 906. It was given in 1066 by the Benedictine monks of S. Crisogono to nuns of their order. It is called in the deed "Ecclesiola S. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

XIX

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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