The Shores of the Adriatic Part 5

IX

PARENZO

The next town along the coast, Parenzo, is celebrated for its fine sixth-century cathedral, the pride of the whole of Istria "the land of basilicas," and is the headquarters of the Istrian Archaeological Society, several of whose members have devoted much time and money to the elucidation of the history, construction, and decoration of the building.

The excavations undertaken by the late Monsignore P. Deperis, Parroco Decano, showed that there have been four main epochs of construction, as well as restorations and embellishments: (1) Roman, or Early Christian, (2) Byzantine, (3) Gothic, and (4) Modern. There was a primitive Christian basilica to the north of the present one; and Euphrasius, in the sixth century, built his church upon the foundations of a second, which had succeeded it. The site of the first was used as a cemetery till the end of the eighteenth century, and was then made into the garden of the bishop's palace. It was oblong in shape, like the most ancient Christian churches, and had no apse, being 75 ft. 6 in. long and 55 ft. 9 in. wide. It had one main door of entrance, and the altar was at the eastern end of the northern portion. The pavement is 5 ft. 9 in.

below the level of the basilica of Euphrasius. In the south wall of the portion first discovered (one half of the total area) a door, the cill of which is still preserved, led to an oratory. On the mosaic pavement is this inscription in black letters on a white ground:

[Lu]PICINVS [et Pa]SCASIA [c.u.m r]EVERENTIA PA[mula]

FE[cerunt pedes] C[entum].

The remains of this pavement are good in design and execution, and the colours are well distributed. The nave was surrounded by a broad white band, within which was another still broader, sown with starred crosses.

The panels with subjects were also surrounded by a similar band. In the first panel from the door is a crown formed of a triple row of leaves within a double circle; the outer one has an octagon formed of meanders, and the inner a circular treatment of the same kind. Outside are lilies and other flowers within geometrical forms, and the whole is bordered with interlaced lines. In the small circle is a portion of an inscription, the right part of which has been destroyed by a tomb:

INFAN[tius]

ET INNOC[entia]

EX SVO P[alatio]

BASI[licam et]

TES[sellati]

P[edes].

The middle panel is square; within it is a handled _crater_ with a high foot. Two branches spring from it, which are bursting into flowers and leaves; they fill the whole s.p.a.ce with their convolutions. At the top is an inscription:

[Lu]PICINVS ET PASCASIA P[edes] CCCC F[ecerunt]; and at the bottom another:

CLAMOSVS MAG PVER ET SVCCESSA P[edes] C[entum]

FELICISSIMVS CVM SVIS P[edes] C[entum].

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF THE THREE BASILICAS, PARENZO]

This inscription is interesting as showing that there was a school attached to the basilica before the fourth century. The third panel surrounded the altar, the rectangle of which is marked by the sunken places in the marble slab where the columns stood. A piece of marble of the same size as the sinkings was found not far away. At the right is a square of about 3 ft. 3 in., with a framing of white bands and triangles of colour 10 in. broad, reducing the internal square to 19 in. In the centre is a portion of a cross based on the swastika, and a fish. On the left a cross, formed by the intersection of two oval rings, appears above the fish. These symbolic crosses point to a very early date. The doorstep of the oratory shows signs of considerable wear, and the mosaic has been roughly repaired near the word PICINVS. The fishes are apparently insertions, later in date than the original mosaic (which has the structural characteristics of the second century). This suggests that the first basilica may have been a portion of the house of a Christian of position, of which examples occur in Rome. It was probably burnt when Diocletian ordered the destruction of all Christian churches in 303 A.D., since charcoal was found amongst the masonry. The pavement, much broken up by tombs and by the old cistern constructed in the garden, extended under the north aisle of the present building; and the site of the altar is shown by lifting a trap-door in the chapel in the north arm of the cross, for the present basilica was made cruciform in plan in 1846-1847, by the erection of two chapels. The mosaics found in the garden have been completely excavated; they are covered over with glazed outhouses, and can be easily seen. Later excavations made in 1900 have proved that this first basilica had two equal naves, and remains of a marble chancel recalled the phrase in the S. Maurus inscription found beneath the high-altar in 1846: "ideo in honorem duplicatus est locus."

The second basilica was probably Constantinian. The present one coincides with it, except that the apse is polygonal and projects towards the east, and that the lines of the walls bend a little to the left from a line drawn across between the modern chapels. The floor of this basilica is about 2 ft. 9 in. below that of the present one. The mosaic pavement is well preserved nearly all over the surface; and the sacristan opens numerous trap-doors, and puts down tapers, to show the most interesting portions. The cills of two of the doors still remain 9 in. higher and much worn by traffic; the third was destroyed to place a sarcophagus against the wall of the church. Between the two pavement levels several unfinished caps and columns of limestone were found, and also two pedestals and one base among the foundations of the present nave arcade.

Beneath the presbytery is a choir and presbytery of the form used in the most ancient Constantinian basilicas. A sloping platform led up to the step upon which the bishop's seat stood at the centre of the semicircle, flanked by seats on each side for presbyters, the places being marked by red lines painted upon the fine plaster which covers the low wall, rising about 8 in. above the floor, itself 2 ft. 3 in. above the level of that of the nave. The diameter of the semicircle is about 18 ft., and it is floored with mosaic. Outside runs a white band 6 in. wide, within which is a band of ornament with two black lines at each side; one of them dentilled. This feature is 20 in. wide, with a waving stem with volutes and leaves of ivy occupying the central 12 in., black and grey on white. In the centre of all are other black leaves and scrolls in red, damaged by a mediaeval tomb. Three steps led down to the choir, for the singers, sub-deacons, and deacons. It has a plaster floor of a porphyry purple colour, and reaches as far as the third column of the present nave, counting from the east. It was afterwards extended on a lower level, reached by steps on each side, one of which is still in place. The mosaic pavement of this lower nave continues as far as a line which cuts across the central apse, appearing outside the ends of the aisles, as well as outside the semicircle of the presbytery just described, as at S. Maria, Grado. The presbytery wall is rough masonry, as if it had been external, and there are no signs of its having been decorated in any way; but the oblong plan with the apse some way within is found also at Salona, and in Syria and North Africa. Traces of a wall parallel to that of the north aisle, and beyond it, suggest the existence of rooms to the north.

An excavation in front of the door of the sacristy discovered a square mosaic on this level with inscription--

THEOFRASTVS [et]

IANVARIVS DIAC FEC P CCC

--which commenced beneath the chord of the existing apse and terminated in a line with the end of the wall of the earlier presbytery. West of it, and separated by a smooth and even division, as if a wall or screen had been there, mosaics previously discovered stretched to the west door. On the south side a similar division of the mosaic was found, a bit of a colonnette and a few fragments as of a bal.u.s.trade or _cancellum_. The s.p.a.ces thus marked off were probably _prothesis_ and _diaconicon_, the latter being to the left, where the two deacons gave the pavement. In the left aisle were five different designs given by as many donors. The right aisle was simpler. In the nave an inscription was found mentioning the Clamosus who was named on the earlier pavement, but in conjunction with Victorina, either his daughter or a second wife.

This proves that no great time intervened between the erection of the second and the regular use of the first basilica. The inscription found beneath the high-altar, already referred to, mentions two churches, and states that the first was repaired by the prayers of S. Maurus, and that his body was transferred to that place; and calls him bishop and confessor. Till 1354 his relics remained there, when the Genoese admiral, Pagano Doria, took them to Genoa as booty when he had sacked the city, placing them in the abbey church belonging to his family. The Marquis Doria soon returned them. In mediaeval doc.u.ments the district of the city of Parenzo is called "territorio, terra di S. Mauro."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARBLE CAPITAL OF THE SIXTH CENTURY, PARENZO

_To face page 113_]

The present cathedral was erected by Euphrasius between 531 and 542.

This is proved by his mosaic inscription, which states that "in the eleventh year of his episcopate" (543) he had endowed it; for the endowment would naturally come after the building. He found the second basilica likely to fall, with the roof only kept up by chains. The columns are of Greek cipollino, like those at S. Vitale, Spirito Santo, S. Francesco, SS. Apollinare Nuovo and in Cla.s.se, Ravenna, and in S.

Maria, Pomposa, and were worked by the same workmen in the Proconesos workshops: for on columns at S. Vitale and Parenzo, and also at Pomposa, are found the same mason's marks, monograms uniting the letters ??? for Petrus and ?? for Joannes. The bases are Attic, as at Ravenna and SS.

Sergius and Bacchus, Constantinople; and, of the eighteen caps in the nave, six are exactly similar to those of the lower arcade of S. Vitale, several are like others at Grado, two are like a damaged one at Pomposa, and others are much like some at Otranto and Rome. At Venice, too, capitals of the same types occur in considerable number. The super-abaci are of Greek marble, with a circular plaque bearing the monogram of Euphrasius. On the north the soffits of the arches retain the original stucco ornaments, all different; on the south they have disappeared.

The mosaics in the apse closely resemble those of the Arian baptistery at Ravenna in style. The figure of S. Maurus might almost have been worked from the cartoon of one of the Apostles there. In the centre of the semi-dome is a figure of the Virgin with the Infant Saviour, clothed in white and gold. Above, a hand holding a crown emerges from clouds. On each side are an angel and three large figures; on the left are Archbishop Claudius, Euphrasius the bishop, with a small figure of his son, and S. Maurus, holding a jewelled urn; Euphrasius holds his church.

The three figures on the other side are unnamed; one bears a book, and the other two crowns. The ground is gold, and below, at the springing of the dome, is the long dedicatory inscription in gold letters on a blue ground. On the wall below are mosaics between the windows. An angel occupies the central pier, and on the piers on either side is a saint, probably SS. Maurus and John the Baptist. On the wide wall s.p.a.ces beyond the windows are the Annunciation on the north, and the Salutation on the south. The soffit of the triumphal arch has medallions of female saints within wreaths, and at the summit an Agnus Dei. The lower part of the wall is separated from the mosaics by an ornamental plaster moulding, and is decorated with a remarkably fine series of panels in _opus sectile_, eight designs in couples answering to each other on either side, with a single design above the bishop's seat in the centre, on which the monogram of Euphrasius again occurs. The colours and materials used are green and red porphyry, two blues, a green vitreous paste, a dull-red marble, and a bluish-green marble which has perished a good deal and is now preserved under gla.s.s plates cut to fit the shapes, occasional spots of a beautiful orange colour, like a marble used in inlays at S. Vitale, a very dark blue, almost black, a pale yellow-green, and a pale purple like chocolate powder. The white is generally mother-of-pearl, or marble, veined with a pale grey, and a good deal of Oriental alabaster is used. The panel above the simple bishop's throne has a hill, with a golden cross on a green ground diapered with mother-of-pearl, and with tall panels at the sides with the seven golden candlesticks. On a lower level than the throne a marble seat runs round the apse, terminated by two slabs carved with dolphins.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OPUS SECTILE IN THE APSE, CATHEDRAL, PARENZO

_To face page 114_]

The architect, Signor Tommaso Natale, discovered a mosaic above the triumphal arch a few years ago, which had been hidden by the late Renaissance "improvements." It consisted of a long strip of gold, on which the Apostles stood, clothed in white robes gemmed with crosses, six on each side of a central figure of Christ, robed in purple and seated on the globe. He has a cruciferous nimbus, and is blessing with the right hand, whilst with the left He holds an open book inscribed "EGO SVM LVX VERA." On the right are S. Peter with the keys, S. Andrew with a book, S. James with a crown, SS. Bartholomew and Thomas with books, and S. Simon with a crown; on the left S. Paul with two scrolls, S. John with a crown, SS. Philip and Matthew with books, S. James Alpheus with a crown, and S. Jude with a book. The names are inscribed above the figures, and a band of dark red with golden gems surrounds the whole. The heads of Christ and SS. Bartholomew and Matthew were damaged by brackets belonging to the roof. The whole of these mosaics have been restored by a Roman mosaicist, Signor Bornia.

The altar of Euphrasius was retained till the time of Bishop Folcherius (1208-1220), who subst.i.tuted a larger one to contain more relics. A few years after, Bishop Adalpert raised the level of the choir about eight inches, and the altar to correspond, reconsecrating it May 8, 1233. The present ciborium was put up in 1277 by Bishop Otho, using the old columns and caps. It has slightly pointed arches, with Venetian dentil borderings, and mosaics in the spandrils. On the west side is the Annunciation, and on the other three sides heads of saints in circles; the vault is also covered with mosaic. A long inscription in Lombardic letters gives the date and the name of the donor.

The pala was made in 1452, and cost 600 ducats of gold, half of which the commune contributed by selling useless church objects, while half was paid by Bishop Giovanni, a Parentine by birth. It is a fine work in the style of the early Renaissance, with a Virgin and Child in the centre, S. Mark to the right, and S. Peter to the left, and outside of them a bishop with an elaborate crozier, and a deacon holding a model of the town--SS. Maurus and Eleutherius. The figures are within cla.s.sical niches, the sides of which vanish in perspective towards the central point. Along the cornice runs a series of small medallions with busts of the Apostles. In the chapel of the Sacrament are some stalls to which the same date (1452) is given. They are quite Gothic as to the ornament and structure, and even the figures present considerable contrast with those of the pala. There are five seats with backs, canopy, and ends at each side of the altar. At each end are well-executed figures among foliage scrolls, which are out of scale--on one side, a Virgin and Child and a bishop; on the other, two saints, one of whom is an ecclesiastic.

The uprights between the seats are faced with twisted colonnettes, and the backs have a quatrefoil pattern made by cutting the bars of a rectangular framing ornamentally.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HIGH-ALTAR, PARENZO, FROM THE SOUTH AISLE

_To face page 116_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREEK BENEDICTIONAL CROSS, PARENZO]

In the sacristy is a picture by Antonio da Murano in the original frame.

Both frame and picture are in a bad state, the gesso having scaled off in places. In the centre is the Madonna and Child, flanked by two full-length saints on each side, SS. Francis and Nicholas, S. Simeon, and another male saint; above the Virgin is a half-length of the dead Christ; and, above the other saints, half-lengths of SS. Mary Magdalene and Christopher, Catherine and Anthony. It is signed "Antonius de Muriano, 1448." In the treasury is a Greek Benedictional cross, with subjects carved in wood, and a silver-gilt enamelled case. There are five subjects on each face, well carved and traditional in their design.

On one side is the Annunciation at the top; in the centre, the Baptism, with angels a.s.sisting; at each end, an Evangelist seated; below, Christ as Judge between two saints, and at His feet men in the abyss. On the other side is the Presentation in the Temple at the top; in the centre, the Crucifixion, with the thieves, the Virgin, and holy women. Two Evangelists are seated in the arms, and below is either the Resurrection, or the Harrowing of h.e.l.l. The case has jewels and pearls inserted plentifully, and is decorated with floral enamelled ornament in green, blue, and red enamel. It is made to take to pieces. The handle bears the name of the maker, "Ezechiel, monk of the monastery of Laura."

It is ascribed to the thirteenth century, but is very like those at Kloster Savina in the Bocche, which are seventeenth-century, the character of the floral design agreeing well with that period.

In 1847 Bishop Peteani made considerable alterations, which included the re-arrangement of the high-altar to face the east; and at that time the relics of SS. Julian and Demetrius were found in a square chest of white marble inscribed with the date of consecration and the name of the maker, Adalpert. The ambo in the right aisle, made up of columns and carved slabs of the sixth century, is due to him, as are the chapels to right and left of the nave. The present pavement was laid down in 1880, when some inscriptions of the Euphrasian period were removed to the baptistery. The triapsidal chapel, entered through an elliptical ante-room, beyond the sacristy, was probably a relic chapel, and is of the sixth century--a mosaic of that date was found here five feet below the surface; but the vaulted pa.s.sage by which it is approached is of the thirteenth century, while the superstructure of the chapel is Venetian, added to a.s.sist in the defence of the place from this side, for the sea is quite close. To the east of the city towards Torre Nuova a Christian cemetery was discovered in 1893 close to the road, consisting of three little apsed buildings close together, a larger one with a small one contiguous, with buildings belonging to the original villa which occupied that site at the end of the first or beginning of the second century. A coin of Vespasian was found at the time, and a ring with a palm engraved on it. There are several tombs of the kind in Rome belonging to the fourth century. The mosaics found in the fifth building are now in the baptistery. It is believed that these buildings were memorial chapels erected over the tombs of the Parentine martyrs, and that the greater part of the materials was used in the erection of the church of S. Eleutherius near, after the translation of the relics to the cathedral.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ATRIUM AND WESTERN FAcADE, CATHEDRAL, PARENZO

_To face page 119_]

The plan of the atrium of the cathedral is Roman, not Byzantine like those at Grado, Ravenna, and Constantinople, which have a portico and the baptistery at the side, separate from the basilica. In this case the pavement of the atrium was seven or eight inches above that of the narthex. Along the facade a herring-bone pattern pavement of white and red tesserae was found which continued farther to the north. The gable of the church was decorated with mosaic; between the windows the seven Apocalyptic candlesticks were represented, and there were figures at the sides, all within a containing border. This has been restored. Above, in the centre, the feet of a figure of Christ seated on the globe may be traced, and folds of the draperies of figures at the sides. Scarcely any of the tesserae remain, but the lights of the drawing appear in relief. A certain test of the age of the different parts of the building is afforded by the quality of the mortar used. By this it is proved that the eastern apse is due purely to Euphrasius, the foundations being set in mortar of the kind used by him; and also that he kept the atrium pretty much as it was, only adding the columns with Byzantine caps. The baptistery on the other side also was very little altered. It had a floor of stucco, and was circular internally; enough was found between the campanile and the door from the piazza into the atrium to develop the whole curve. Euphrasius made it octagonal, and surrounded the font with marble slabs, the marks of which still remain; a few fragments were found, together with some gilded and coloured tesserae, showing that it had mosaic enrichments. It is now used to store discarded portions of the early buildings. Here is the Euphrasian altar, standing on a slab of marble with sunk squares in the corners for the bases of the ciborium columns, and enough panels and colonnettes to make a restoration of the chancel of the choir, though it is equally likely that they belonged to a baldacchino above the font, similar to that which still exists at Cividale, and once existed at Pola and at Cittanova. Here are also two caps from the fourth-century church, fragments of mosaic pavement found in mediaeval tombs, and a good many pieces of eighth and ninth-century carving.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW ACROSS THE NAVE, CATHEDRAL, PARENZO

_To face page 121_]

The survival of the Constantinian plan is explained by the slight alterations made by Euphrasius. The walled-up doors in the baptistery show that it was not an isolated building. They probably gave entrance to dressing-rooms for the two s.e.xes attached to it, waiting-rooms for the baptized and their relations, &c.; and an arch of the fourth century, near to which the herring-bone pavement runs, was probably the entrance to a portico joining the basilica with the baptistery, or the _consignatorium_, where the bishop anointed the neophytes directly after baptism, before they made their solemn entry into the church. This latter building still exists as the "cantina" of the bishop's palace--a true basilica, with a nave almost square, and with a double-walled apse on the north, and corridors east and west, approached on the south side by a portico. In front was an oblong court. The walls are all of Roman work, and the outer apse has an arcade on pilasters, with large arched windows. A few years ago repairs to the roof led to the discovery of windows in the inner apse. The work round the doors is Euphrasian.

The corridors were spanned by arches, which are now built up, and thus make small rooms. There was a second story, which was the bishop's palace; but the second floor of the west wing is mediaeval, and it is probable that the great hall was made at that period by dividing the basilica horizontally on the level of the second story. After the custom of anointing the newly baptized in the _consignatorium_ was abandoned, it became the chapel of S. Nicol, then of S. Mary Magdalene, and the original use was quite forgotten. The campanile is of the fifteenth century and uninteresting.

It was Easter Eve on the occasion of our first visit to Parenzo, and while we were studying the architecture women were constantly bringing their Easter cakes and other food to be blessed at the altar of S.

Maurus in the north aisle. Later there was a Resurrection service with a fine procession, with many men and boys robed in scarlet carrying long candles. A crucifer in purple bore the capitular cross, followed by canons in violet and other officials, the bishop's coachman in a long blue b.u.t.toned coat, two little acolytes in surplices, with cloths embroidered with crosses on their shoulders and censers, deacons in dalmatics of cloth of gold, a suffragan bishop in cope of cloth of gold and a white mitre, and the bishop similarly robed. A large painted flag of red silk was carried in the procession, and two small painted figures of our Lord, one on the cross, and the other, a half-length, emergent from the tomb. The bishop, fully robed, went first into the capitular chapel and then to the chapel of the Holy Sacrament, where the dead Christ was laid out in a tomb, took the Host and brought it out, being then bareheaded beneath a canopy. The procession then filed out into the atrium, leaving it by the bishop's door at the side of the baptistery, and, pa.s.sing through the street, regained the atrium by the usual entrance. The Host was then placed on the high-altar, and a kind of benediction service held, in which a fine ba.s.s sang several solos. The church was thronged by a devout crowd of both s.e.xes and all cla.s.ses.