Part 7 (1/2)
The bride has a kind of turban of brilliant colours on her head, from which ma.s.ses of vari-coloured silken ribbons hang, covering her to the shoulders and breast except for her eyes, nose, and mouth. Her chemise is finely pierced and embroidered on neck, bosom, and cuffs, and her stockings are of open work, while her shoes are almost like sandals.
Rows of coral deck her neck, and her fingers have as many gold rings on them as possible. The bridegroom's hat bears a crown of artificial flowers, as does that of the best man; all the friends have a similar bunch in their hands or caps. After the marriage the pipers play, and the whole of the company form up in a straight line outside the church.
Then the best man comes forward with a kind of cake, which, after various feints, he throws among the crowd of children which quickly collects, and they scramble for it. Then the husband and wife, with the best man, go to the goldsmith's to buy the marriage present. Later there is a dance. The men and women face each other in line. They pace rapidly back and forth without moving forward. Then the couples advance, the man raises his right arm and opens the hand to the woman, who grasps it, and turns herself under the arch of the two arms. Then the man pa.s.ses his arm round his partner's waist and they go round in measured walk.
Between San Vincenti and Pola are Valle and Dignano. At the former the fortifications are earlier than the fourteenth century, heavy and imposing, with five lofty towers (two of which are embattled), so that projectiles were dangerous rather from the force of gravity than from the impulse given. A portion of them is ruined, and one of the towers is now the communal cistern. In the crypt of the church are fragments of ninth-century carving, cut up disgracefully and made into a modern altar, and there is a sarcophagus of the same period in the cemetery.
The campanile is considered to be the oldest in Istria. In the treasury are a silver-gilt monstrance with many pinnacles and Renaissance scrolls on the foot, a cross and a chalice of silver-gilt with medallions on the foot, which once had an enamel ground. The most interesting thing, however, is a chasuble of the fifteenth century, with embroidered figures of silver-gilt thread in high relief upon the cross. At the back, on the upright part, is a half-length of our Lord in a chalice, and two saints, all three beneath canopies, and on the arms SS. Peter and Paul. On the front are two figures and an Annunciation on the arms; the Virgin on one side, and the angel on the other. The flesh is painted.
XII
POLA
The town and a.r.s.enal of Pola lie at the head of one of those convenient inlets which provide the Austrian coast so plentifully with fine harbours. As the steamer pa.s.ses between Cape Compare and Monte Grosso the naval port appears to the right with many powerful s.h.i.+ps-of-war anch.o.r.ed in the bay: beyond and above the island of Olivi, occupied by part of the a.r.s.enal, rises the town, its buildings climbing the hill towards the castle which crowns the summit. To the left is the ample commercial port with its long quays stretching towards the railway station, the imposing ma.s.s of the amphitheatre dominating the whole of that side of the picture. These two structures, the amphitheatre and the a.r.s.enal, show the chief interests of Pola--the glory of antiquity, and modern utility devoted to defence; for the monuments of mediaeval times are few in the city, and the destruction wrought alternately by Venice and Genoa left it poor, and in many parts ruinous, till the modern revival, with the transference of the headquarters of the Austrian navy from Venice in 1861. The mouth of the harbour is less than half a mile across and is over 100 ft. deep. The eastern portion has a depth of 20 ft. against the quays, which are all constructed on made ground. The quarries on the Brioni Islands have afforded excellent material close at hand for the buildings and fortifications both in antiquity and in modern times.
The castle hill was the capitol of the Roman city, and the streets ran round it, with others diverging like the ladders of a spider's web. A ca.n.a.l isolating the city from the land existed to the east. Of the land gates two still remain--the Porta Gemina (anciently the Porta Jovia) and the Porta Ercole; the arch of the Sergii formed the interior face of a third (of which a portion of the lower courses remain), the Porta Aurea, so called probably from its having had grilles of gilded bronze. There were also seven gates in the walls towards the sea. The forum was twice the size of the present piazza, which occupies part of its site, and had twin temples at one end, with the comitium between them, of which one remains in good preservation, and a portion of the back part of the other. There was a temple of Jupiter Conservatorius, upon the site of which the cathedral stands; and one to Minerva, afterwards the site of the destroyed basilica of S. Maria in Canneto. The theatre was near the Porta Aurea, and is now marked only by the excavation of its curve in the hillside and a few ruined arches in a private garden. The destruction of ancient Pola is largely due to Venice, who appeared to think that when the communes gave themselves to her she acquired the right of removing any of the monuments to beautify herself; and it even went so far as for a patrician to seriously propose to bear the cost of transporting the amphitheatre to Venice, and re-erecting it on the site of the present public gardens!
[Ill.u.s.tration: ARCH OF SERGII, POLA
_To face page 145_]
The Porta Gemina consists of twin arches, beneath a simple frieze and more elaborate cornice supported by modillions, which rest upon three engaged composite columns raised upon pedestal blocks. The key-stones are flat, and the piercing of some holes in them suggests that metal enrichments were affixed. It was an important gate, being the direct way to the amphitheatre from the Capitol, and also the starting-point of the military road towards the Arsa and Albona. By it also the aqueduct pa.s.sed into the city. The Porta Ercole is simpler, and probably older; it bears the names of two duumvirs, Lucius Ca.s.sius Longinus and Lucius Calphurnius Piso, and some rough carving. Of the Porta Aurea itself, which had a central gate for chariots and two side gates for pedestrians, little remains. Beneath the arch of the Sergii the ancient pavement has been uncovered, bearing wheelmarks made many centuries ago, and the lower courses of the gateway adjacent, but all the part above the present street-level has disappeared. The carving on the arch of the Sergii shows a curious economy. Since the gate was so close to it only a portion of the coupled Corinthian columns could be seen; the fluting, therefore, was carried only a third of the way round, and the capitals were left merely roughed out, as were also the mouldings of the attic which would be hidden by the cornice, except in the portions visible from the external sides. The soffit of the arch is carved, and the face of the pilaster below has a very rich and graceful vine arabesque upon it. The other side is fully decorated with victories in the spandrils, festoons and chariot-races on the frieze, and the attic develops three pedestals for statues, inscribed to members of the family of Salvia Postumia, who erected it in honour of her husband, Lucius Sergius, his father of the same name, and his uncle Cnaeus Sergius. Lucius Sergius was tribune of the 29th Legion. The work is probably of the time of Augustus.
The finely proportioned temple was erected at a later period during his lifetime by the grateful Polese; such adulation could be tolerated only in Asia, and Augustus declined to allow the dedication without the addition of ”Rome.” The facade has four Corinthian columns, and at the angles of the cella are four channelled pilasters; between these and the four columns of the facade is a similar column on each side. The roof is modern. Within it and around are collected numerous sculptured fragments, antique and of the early mediaeval period for the most part, which would be the better for s.p.a.cing and arranging. The other temple is of a later date. They both stood upon a platform twelve steps above the forum, themselves raised further by seven steps and a stylobate. The rostra were on the forum side of the comitium.
Till 1875 the amphitheatre--which was built in 198-211 in honour of Septimius Severus (who had been governor of Illyria) and of Caracalla--lay open to the street. It was then railed round, and since that time systematic excavations have disclosed the plan of the sub-structures. The circuit, which is nearly perfect, consists of seventy-two arches, and the elevation has a bas.e.m.e.nt and a princ.i.p.al story, with an attic of square windows to light the promenade, and a finis.h.i.+ng cornice through which the masts for the Velarium pa.s.sed, resting upon stone blocks above the cornice of the main story. The arches at the extremities of the long diameter are wider than the rest, and therefore cut into the frieze above, an unusual licence. There are four towers, two towards the sea and two towards the hill, which probably contained double staircases, but no sign of them remains, though the doorways and grilles of pierced stone testify to their usefulness. Excavations have brought to light forty or fifty pieces of the steps of the auditorium, upon some of which the seats are marked by dividing lines and by letters. The podium of the arena shows by its lowness that fights with wild beasts did not take place in it. Until the fourteenth century the interior remained nearly complete, the patriarch having forbidden the removal of stones. At that time the seats were taken to repair the town walls, and a great deal of the material was subsequently sold to Venice. The stone of which the amphitheatre is built has taken on a beautiful warm colour from the suns of centuries, and glows in the sunset light as if it were the marble which makes so many Italian buildings lovely in colour.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE AMPHITHEATRE, POLA
_To face page 146_]
The most important church in Pola was S. Maria Formosa, or del Canneto (of the marsh), built on the foundations of the temple of Minerva. It was founded by Maximian, archbishop of Ravenna, the friend of Justinian, who was born at Vistro, now Porto Vestre, a village to the south of Rovigno. He came to Pola to consecrate it in 546. He also founded a Benedictine monastery near, which soon became the richest in Istria by its connection with Ravenna, endowed the convent of S. Andrea, and built a house for the rector of the basilica. The site of the abbey is now occupied by the buildings of the Hotel Central and other houses in the parallel streets Via Minerva and Via Abbazia. It was a basilican church with nave, and aisles raised two steps above it. There were ten columns on each side, with varied capitals. The aisles were vaulted, and the semi-dome of the apse was decorated with mosaics on a gold ground. The high-altar was under a baldacchino; there was a throne for the abbot, and seats in the choir for the monks. The windows were small and round-headed, filled with pierced slabs. The ancient door of entrance is between Nos. 27 and 33, Via Abbazia--a round arch simply moulded, with a dentil round the tympanum and a lintel below. The nave stretched along the s.p.a.ce now occupied by the stable-yard of the hotel, and the wall of the north aisle forms part of the stables. It has external pilaster strips opposite to the places where the columns of the nave arcade stood. The apse, with triumphal arch, still exists, and two round chapels which flanked it and were entered from the aisles; one of them was dedicated to the Madonna del Carmelo, and the other to S. Andrew.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF S. MARIA FORMOSA, POLA]
The S. Maria del Canneto of to-day is a cruciform chapel which lay to the right, and has an apsidal eastern end. The entrance is past the kitchen of the hotel; and from a window of an upstairs corridor one can ”a.s.sist” at Ma.s.s when it is performed, for the church is entirely enclosed in the hotel buildings. The arms of the cross have wagon vaults; at the crossing is a quadripart.i.te vault with ribs and central oculus on a higher level; rough projections along the ribs suggest the copying of leaf ribs of early mosaics. It is about 22 ft. 6 in. high, and there is a window in each wall. The roof shows ancient material and in some parts the ancient manner of using tiles. On the face of the bell-turret a piece of eighth-century carving is fixed. The walls are now whitewashed, and the floor covered with red tiles. The round chapel to the left of the apse has a cupola with an oculus and a lantern at the top. There are still remains of the mosaic pavement of the apse in No.
20, Via Minerva: in 1898, when building the stables, some fragments were found near to the aisle wall, which, with others unearthed in 1902, are now in the munic.i.p.al museum. The patterns are a guilloche border with fishes, enclosing a field of plant sprigs, and a lotus border with a more conventional pattern within. The colours used are two reds, two greens, black and white, and pale blue occasionally. The cloister lay between the church and Via Abbazia; the houses 39, 37, and 35, stand on its site. The last notices of the church occur in the middle of the thirteenth century; later mention refers only to the ruins. The destruction appears to have taken place when Pola was sacked by the Venetians under Giacomo Tiepolo and Leonardo Querini in 1243, though some think that it was in one of the later sackings by the Genoese, of which there were three in the fourteenth century--1354, 1376, and 1380.
In 1600 a number of the pillars were still upright, and mosaics and sculptures were visible; at that time they tried to raise a chapel within its walls. It is certain that the Venetians gradually despoiled it of everything of value, with the consent of the Polese. Much of the material was used in the seventeenth century for the restoration and rebuilding of the communal palace, and two at least of the pillars of the ciborium of S. Mark's, Venice, as well as the four of Oriental alabaster, which the tourist is told came from the Temple of Solomon, were spoils from this splendid church, the latter annexed in 1605, and the former by Giacomo Tiepolo in 1243.
In 1545 Sansovino was sent by the Senate to bring away the marble columns to Venice. The African marble on the landings of the Libreria Vecchia also came from Pola, and the shaft of the holy-water basin in S.
Mark's, with dolphins and tridents, once belonged to a temple of Neptune there. The Polese presented the four central columns to S. Maria della Salute, from the theatre on Monte Zaro. In 1632 the Venetian Senate ordered the _provveditore_ of the castle, Pola, to inform himself as to the number and quant.i.ty of the columns of ”n.o.ble architecture” which were in one of the ruinous churches, and on August 21, 1638, praised the diligence of Bragadin in sending marbles for S. Maria della Salute. He had sent fourteen columns in April, and information of others at Parenzo.
Several other early churches in and around Pola were destroyed while constructing the fortifications. On the island of S. Caterina was a cemetery church, the plan of which indicated early Byzantine origin; on that of S. Andrea were a cloister and church of the sixth century; and on the hill whence the Tegethoff monument now looks over the harbour the double basilica of S. Michele in Monte, partly dating from the seventh century and partly from the eleventh. The grave of Salomon, king of Hungary, who died here in 1087 and was canonised shortly after, whose body had been venerated in the cathedral from the fifteenth century, was then found. The sarcophagus is now in the museum.
The original cathedral appears to have been contemporary with that of Parenzo, but it was restored in the ninth century. In 1884 the floor of the presbytery was lowered, and near the high-altar, at a depth of two feet, Roman fragments and ninth-century carvings were found, with an inscription of the fifteenth century; lower still were Roman inscriptions and sculptures, and then a semicircular mosaic floor of 13 ft. radius, with a lily border on a black and red ground (grey, yellow, and white tessera? also being used), with an inscription mentioning Donatian, and small medallions with cross and square. Under the first step of the demolished stairs was a second much damaged mosaic resembling the early one at Parenzo. It may be seen by lifting a trap-door, A bronze medal of Agrippina was found at the same time. Three rectangular windows were also discovered, a large one in the centre and two smaller towards the sides, the former filled with a pierced slab now preserved in the presbytery. The triumphal arch is round, with early caps and impost mouldings; other early caps and columns are visible in the walls of the choir in hollows made to expose them. The theory is that there was a confessional behind the apse instead of below it, of which these fragments are the remains. Encrusted in the outer wall of the south aisle is an inscription which runs thus: ”In the year 857, fifth indiction, under Ludovicus, Emperor of Italy, Handegis was elected and consecrated bishop on Whit Sunday, and occupied the seat for five years.” It is thought that he was the restorer of the building.
Some of the ninth-century carvings are in the museum. Several small windows high in the nave walls still retain the slabs pierced with ninth-century patterns, and two unbroken ciborium or baptistery archivolts still exist, one in the courtyard of the Beata Vergine della Miscricordia, and the other in the Piazza S. Giovanni, where it is made up into a little shrine with two fourteenth-century caps, and a Renaissance pediment with two uprights of a chancel of Lombard work, with three furrowed scrolls and crosses of the usual Syrian derivation.