Part 10 (1/2)

and a female figure--donors probably. 4. The Virgin standing with monograms ?? T?. 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 champleve 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 bal.u.s.trade 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 gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s 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 facade with three great conventional sh.e.l.l 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 flas.h.i.+ng 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 c.o.c.k. The c.o.c.k'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 s.h.i.+eld 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 pa.s.sage notwithstanding the doubtful weather. As we turned down the bay to Val Ca.s.sione, however, the wind s.h.i.+fted 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 rea.s.sure 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 Ca.s.sione the wind s.h.i.+fted 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 pa.s.senger 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 sh.o.r.e 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARBE FROM THE Sh.o.r.e]

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ASCENT TO THE RAMPARTS, ZARA

_To face page 205_]

XVIII

ZARA

The continuation of the Ca.n.a.le della Morlacca, which washes the mainland, is the Ca.n.a.le 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 Ca.s.sione, 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 Ca.n.a.l of Zara, the Velebit Mountains behind may become imposing under certain circ.u.mstances. 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 ma.s.ses 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sengers 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 a.r.s.enal. 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 Ca.n.a.l 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PORTA MARINA, ZARA

_To face page 207_]

The inner portion of the other gate, the Porta Marina, was, according to local tradition, brought from aenona. It is part of a triumphal arch erected by a Roman lady, Melia Anniana, to her husband, Laepicius Ba.s.sus, 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 s.h.i.+eld 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.