The Shores of the Adriatic Part 9

[Ill.u.s.tration: LUSSIN GRANDE

_To face page 181_]

Lussin Piccolo lies at the head of a deep bay, and climbs the ridge along which the road runs to Lussin Grande, a place which is now much smaller than its neighbour, but more picturesque and pleasant. The bigger hotels are at Lussin Piccolo, where the larger harbour allows the steamers to call. It has become a winter residence for Russians and Austrians; and the keeper of the largest cafe told us that many of the former came, instancing an officer of the guards who stayed six months, and told him he was better off there than in St. Petersburg, or indeed Manchuria, where he expected to be sent if he returned! The harbour is called Val d'Augusto, because the fleet of the Emperor Augustus is said to have remained at anchor there for a whole winter. It may be true, for at the battle of Actium his fleet was princ.i.p.ally manned by Dalmatians.

From above the town the view looking towards Ossero is rather fine, the summits of the hills along the spine of the island rising one beyond the other, culminating in Monte Ossero, paling and getting bluer with greater distance. The sea, of a blue quite different in its quality, runs into the land in many little inlets, while beyond are Veglia and the mainland mountains often capped with clouds.

The road to Lussin Grande runs along the slope of the hills, rounding tree-clad spurs and diving into hollows, with frequent peeps down into little coves where boats are drawn up. In one of these a little fellow was paddling himself about in a tub. On seeing us looking at him, he raised the usual boatman's cry, "Barca, barca, Signori, per Lussin Grande," and burst into a peal of laughter, in which we joined. The port is delightfully picturesque; at the entrance is a church approached by a flight of steps, with a terrace and cypresses, towards which nuns were wending their way for "benediction"; the sun glowed upon white walls, dark trees, and tiled roofs; while the harbour in shadow, full of boats rich with the colour of nets and sails, and the reflections of the blue sky upon its rippled surface, afforded an attractive contrast. One round tower of the walls remains, built of stone, with machicolations and Ghibelline battlements added in brick and plastered; a modern slab over the door gives the date 1455. A kind of public garden called the Piazza del Pozzo, from an old rope-worn well within it, contains many different kinds of flowering and shady trees with seats beneath them, and aloes grow on the rocks above the entrance to the harbour on both sides. The town contains several fine houses, and in the churches are a few interesting pictures, though architecturally they are not very noticeable. One of them has a curious tiled ogee-shaped dome over the sanctuary. The pictures are: in S. Nicol, a Byzantine Madonna and Child with S. Joseph; in S. Maria degli Angeli, a Bartolommeo Vivarini--G.o.d the Father above, surrounded by angels; below, an enthroned Madonna with SS. Augustine, Catherine, and Cicely on one side; on the other, SS.

Agnes, Jerome, and Lucy: the picture is dated 1475. There are also a Pietro della Vacchia called a t.i.tian, and a few others.

The women wear a curious head-dress something like a turban with a long end hanging down the back; they generally have a loose sleeveless jacket over a white full-sleeved blouse and a skirt in many pleats and often of many colours, and an ap.r.o.n; sometimes a handkerchief is thrown over the head instead of the head-dress. They also wear elaborate earrings, a number of rings fastened together with a drop below, all of metal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WEST DOOR OF THE COLLEGGIATA, OSSERO

_To face page 183_]

From Lussin Piccolo we drove in the opposite direction to Ossero, the ancient Apsoros or Auxerrum, following a narrow road through olive-yards, along the sh.o.r.e or some way up the hill among a bewildering variety and luxuriance of vegetation. On the island, which is about eighteen miles long, though nowhere more than two in breadth and seldom more than one, there are three villages besides the two Lussins. They are Neresine, Chiunschi, and S. Giacomo. At Neresine we were told that there was an English-speaking landlady. So we looked her up at the "Gasthaus Amicorum." We found that she and her husband had been in America, and were told several strange stories of curious occurrences which she had known of while there, especially with regard to the drugging of drinks, which made one think she must find her life rather lacking in excitement in this little out-of-the-way place where she was apparently going to end her days. There is a Franciscan convent here with a handsome campanile looking much more ancient than its date (1590-1604), with double lights and a bal.u.s.trade round the top. In the church are pictures attributed to Girolamo da Santa Croce and the younger Palma. The ascent of Monte Ossero may be made from here (1,900 ft.). The top is a bare, stony wilderness like the backbone of Veglia.

The weather was lovely, and we constantly came upon subjects which would tempt the artist to stop and sketch--a monk seated under an olive-tree in the shade; cattle and sheep tethered to the grey trunks, grouping themselves as they cl.u.s.tered for company; a boat under sail seen through the branches of the trees against a headland on the more distant hills of Arbe and the mainland; and so on. The hillside was clothed with bushes and plants in flower, among which we recognised the oleander, white rose, juniper, laurustinus, fig-trees, ilex, cypress, strawberry arbutus, a small-leaved myrtle, grape hyacinths thick on the ground, giant and quite small spurges, a euphorbia with th.o.r.n.y trailing stems and heart-shaped leaves, great ericas as high as a man, in some places cyclamen in clumps by the wayside like daisies, a bush trifolium something like cytisus but scentless, thyme, and a kind of sage, while the bay-trees were so fully in bloom that they looked a pale yellowish green instead of their usual colour. Just before we reached the bridge connecting the islands of Ossero and Cherso, which has to be crossed before the town of Ossero is reached, great banks of spurge made the roadside as yellow as fields full of charlock in England.

In a wall at the entrance of the town the S. Mark's lion still watches, though the two fortresses which report says were here are no longer traceable. The cathedral is Lombardesque in style, built by Bishop Antonio Palcic (1465-1474), and has a rather pretty doorway ascribed to George of Sebenico, who was certainly employed by him upon other works, and a ma.s.sive campanile of 1675, which dominates the place. The nave is five bays long, the arcade is round-arched with pretty caps and ornamented archivolts, and the floor is paved with red and white marble in chequers. The holy-water basins are simple, and the columns of the ciborium rest on two red marble caps of the fourteenth century upside down, one base of the same and one of the Lombardi period, showing the use of older material. The church still retains a line monstrance, one or two other pieces of silver-work, and some embroidered vestments, though no longer the seat of a bishop, and over the high-altar is a picture of the school of t.i.tian. The monstrance is late Gothic, with a foot added in the seventeenth century. It is decorated with many niches and figures, and a fine cresting round the domical top. The curved surfaces above and below the gla.s.s tube have scroll-work upon a blue enamel ground, part of which has come away. In these places there is no sign of pattern upon the silver, but only a general cross-patching showing that the arabesques and other patterns were not soldered to the ground beneath, but only arranged with the enamel flux before firing.

The architectural details are gilded, the rest is silver.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MONSTRANCE IN COLLEGGIATA, OSSERO

_To face page 184_]

There are some remains of Roman walls still traceable, between which and the mediaeval walls is the site of a large seven-aisled church, perhaps a pair of twin basilicas. Upon the ruins of the seventh aisle the present church of S. Maria was erected, and within it the ancient bishop's throne, constructed of fragments of ninth-century carved slabs, was still preserved till a few years ago. It was only after persistent inquiries that we found it in a store-shed with other fragments of ninth-century carving and some Roman antiquities thought of little importance, though the inscriptions and other marble fragments and the stone funerary urns are in their company. In the show museum are Roman fragments, lamps, Pansiana pottery stamps, bronze vessels and utensils, iron fragments, gla.s.s phials, &c. On the hill, not far off, prehistoric tombs with interesting objects have been found; but the greater part of the finds have been sent to more important museums.

The sea-pa.s.sage, which is crossed by a swing bridge, is called the "Cavanella di Ossero"; through it a strong current runs. The island of Cherso, the ancient Apsirtide, is a miniature of Monte Maggiore, with some fine mountain scenery in it, and a curious fresh-water lake, the surface of which is only 50 ft. above sea-level, though it is 225 ft.

deep in some parts. The finest mountain scenery is near Smergo, where the rock rises sheer from the water to the height of 1,000 ft. Here is the "Dirupo di Smergo," a cave with a domed top. At one time the sea broke into it, laying bare the interior, which is like a giant amphitheatre with ribbed roof and sides. The fragments then detached lie at the foot of the rock, making a wall between the sea and the cave. The city of Cherso is best reached from Pola or Fiume. It lies at the head of a winding inlet, protected by a round tower at the point, a relic of the fortifications of an earlier period. It belonged to Venice from 1126 or 1130 till 1358, becoming finally Venetian in 1409, and was granted in feud to various patrician families, so that all the objects of art in the city show distinct traces of Venetian influence. The piazza by the harbour is triangular in shape, the narrow streets, with many picturesque houses in them, climb the hillside from the water, and the ancient walls remain on the land side. The loggia is a simple seventeenth-century building supported on six stone piers; in the back wall are encrusted two inscriptions--one Roman, one mediaeval. The cathedral was burnt in 1827, but the west door still remains, very closely resembling that of Ossero. A picture by Alvise Vivarini is preserved in the priest's house--a Madonna with SS. Sebastian and Catherine, and SS. Christopher and Cosmas.

In the chapel of the Mother of G.o.d is a Byzantine Madonna and Child on a gold ground. The carnations are brownish; there is a cross on the breast and on both sides of the head, with the Greek monogram ?? T?. There are also some fine stalls in the church of the Franciscan monastery; but there is not very much of interest in the town except the numerous Venetian houses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SMERGO FISHERMEN

_To face page 186_]

XVI

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DALMATIA

The history of Dalmatia is obscure and confused for a great part of its course. That there were Greek and Phnician colonies along the coast and on the islands is certain; the earliest of the former was that founded by the Syracusans in Issa (Lissa) in 390 B.C. A Cyclopean building, the so-called Gradina Gate at Gelsa, is attributable either to this colony or to that of 385 B.C. in the ancient Pharia (Lesina). Tragurium (Trau) and Epetium (Stobrec) were daughter colonies of Issa. The largest number of inscriptions and coins have been found on Lesina and Lissa. Celts were in the country from about the same period. The Roman conquest was brought about by the appeal of the people of Issa for help against the powerful native queen Teuta. Illyria, south of the Narenta, became a Roman province in 168 B.C., though war with the inland tribes continued till 34 B.C., when Augustus took the s.h.i.+ps of the pirates of Curzola and Meleda and the Liburnians, and conquered the inland tribes at Promona--eight long and disastrous campaigns in all. There was, however, another revolt in 6 A.D., when the danger to Rome was so great (800,000 men being in rebellion) that Augustus sent seven legions under such generals as Tiberius, Germanicus, and Postumius, who took several years to overcome their resistance, so that it was not till 12 A.D. that Tiberius enjoyed his triumph. Some of the cities were made _municipia_, and some colonies, and from this time Dalmatia was loyal to Rome. The Antonines erected important buildings in Jadera and Burnum, and they also fortified Salona.

Roman Dalmatia included the whole coast from Istria to the Drina, part of Albania, all Montenegro, Herzegovina, Croatia, Servia, almost all Bosnia, and some of the islands of the Quarnero. The legions for the most part remained near the coast, which gradually increased in commercial prosperity and civilisation; broad and safe roads were made to the interior uniting the Save and the Danube on one side, and the Drina on the other. From Burnum a road by way of Petrovac reached the basin of the Save; from Salona a fan of carriage-roads spread out--one across the Dinaric Alps by aequum and the hill of Prolog to the Danube, another by the same hill to Livno and Kupres, a third between Delminum and Serajevo. From Narona (Vid) the great Roman Road of the Narenta started, and in Albania was the Via Ignatia from Durazzo and Vallona to Salonica. The great coast-road from Zara went past Scardona and Salona to Narona and Scodra; the inner land route commenced at Tarsatico (Fiume) and went by Zengg over the Velebits to Clambeta (near Obrovazzo) and Zara, then by Nadinum, a.s.seria (Podgradje), Burnum, Promona, Municipium Magnum, and Andetrium to Salona.

Illyric.u.m was divided into Liburnia, from Istria to the river Kerka, the people belonging to the juridical Convent of Scardona, which settled the business of eighty-nine cities; from the Kerka to the Narenta they sent their representatives to Salona; and Illyris Graeca, from the Narenta to Drilone in Epirus, which belonged to the juridical Convent of Narona.

With the successive Eastern invasions and the consequent race differentiations, maritime and inland Dalmatia were separated, and the Turkish conquest made the Dinaric Alps into a bulwark not to be crossed.

The Illyrians furnished the Romans with many distinguished soldiers, of whom Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Septimius, Probus, and Carus of Narona were soldier emperors. Diocletian was the most celebrated. More than sixty Roman settlements are known. For about seventy years the country was ruled by the Goths. After the recovery of Italy by Belisarius and Na.r.s.es it belonged to Byzantium from 537, and was ruled from Ravenna by a _catapan_ at Salona. The war with Chosroes in 600-614 strained the Byzantine resources and thus denuded the coast of soldiers, so that the Avar and Slav inroads met with little resistance under Heraclius (610-640), who had called in the latter to drive out the Avars; Narona, Salona, Epidaurus, Burnum, and Rhizinium were destroyed. In 641 Pope John IV., a Dalmatian by birth, sent Abbot John to Istria and Dalmatia to ransom prisoners and collect relics.

The Croats and Serbs exterminated the Avars in the middle of the seventh century and delivered the province, the Croats occupying the west to the river Cetina, the Serbs the east from the Cetina to Albania. Under the Serbs the southern portion was divided into four _zupanje_, of which the only name which has survived is Trebinia, which reached from Cattaro to Ragusa and included the mountain regions. The Croat dukes recognised the sovereignty of the Carlovingians, as is proved by the oldest inscription extant, that of Tripimir (852), being dated by the rule of the Emperor Lothair. The t.i.tle of king was a.s.sumed by Muncimir in 914. Two or three of the kings resided at Nona in the eleventh century--Stepan ([symbol: dagger] 1052), Peter Cresimir and Svinimir ([symbol: dagger] 1089). The widow of the last invited her brother Ladislas of Hungary to take the kingdom. In 1097 Coloman I. of Hungary married the daughter of Roger of Sicily. Under Coloman II. (1102-1113) the coast towns from Zara to Spalato were Hungarian, while Ragusa and Cattaro remained under the protection of Byzantium.

The government of the Dalmatian cities was democratic to a considerable extent, the oligarchy embracing a large proportion of the inhabitants, and the monasteries were expected to contribute to the common needs and share in the defence of the town. The supreme official was called prior; judges and tribunes also are mentioned in contemporary doc.u.ments. A certain dependence upon the Greek Empire was recognised, for in Zara the _strategos_, the _catapan_, and the proconsul of Dalmatia appear even after the time of the Croatian kings. The Venetian doge had the t.i.tle of King of Dalmatia given him by the Emperor of Constantinople about the end of the eleventh century in return for the help given by the fleet against the Normans.

During the whole of the twelfth century Venice and Hungary contested the possession of Dalmatia, victory inclining to Venice, who, by policing the Adriatic, made her protection valuable to the coast cities. The pirate raids from which the coasts suffered were of varied nationality--Saracen and Turk, Uscoc and bands of native pirates. Of these latter the Narentans were the most powerful. They remained pagan till near the end of the ninth century, and beat off an attack by Doge Pietro Candiano in 887, killing him. He was buried in the atrium at Grado. For one hundred and sixty-eight years they carried on the contest with Venice, being most powerful during the tenth century, when Otho I.

sought their alliance. They had then become Christian, and a.s.sisted in driving the Saracens from Monte Gargano. In 992 the confederate Dalmatian cities asked for the protection of Venice, in response to which the expedition under Orseolo II. was fitted out, and broke their power. The population of the Narenta valley is now but 12,000, in spite of the facts that Metkovic, near the mouth, is the terminus of the railway from Serajevo and Mostar, and that the government has spent much money in dredging and embankment works at the mouth of the river. The boundary of Herzegovina is but a mile from Metkovic, for which it serves as port. Vid, a few miles away, is the ancient Narona. A good many inscriptions and antique fragments have been found there, and are now encrusted in the wall of a house. For many years Vid was a bulwark of Christianity against the Turks, and the minarets of a little Turkish village, Liubuski, in which half the population, male and female, wear Turkish costume may be seen not far away.

By the middle of the fourteenth century Lewis of Hungary had acquired the whole of Dalmatia from Zara to Cattaro. In 1409-1420 Venice bought the territory from Hungary, with the exception of Ragusa, which for some fifty years remained under Hungarian protection, but after 1467 was protected by Turkey. In the sixteenth century the Cross and the Crescent were bitterly opposed; Austria became the Christian champion in place of Venice towards the end of the seventeenth century, and at the fall of the Republic Istria and Dalmatia were given to her in 1797 by the treaty of Pa.s.serino. From 1806 till 1814 they were French; but the peace of Vienna settled their destiny as forming part of the Austrian dominions, in which they have remained till the present day.

XVII

ARBE

It was very early in the morning when we arrived at Arbe the first time; so early, in fact, that the innkeeper was still in bed and had to be interviewed from his chamber-window, and we had to deposit our belongings at the door before commencing our explorations breakfastless.

On this occasion we were unfortunate. The skull of S. Christopher was exposed on the altar, but the shrine was locked up, and the _parroco_ had gone into the country to visit a sick man, with the key in his pocket, while the ciborium was swathed in festival draperies. We therefore determined to satisfy ourselves with a cursory inspection, and arranged to return the next year; for the steamboats are not like suburban trains, missing one of which merely means a slight delay. Many of the islands have but one or two services in the week; and staying for the next boat may derange the plan of a whole tour.

The city looks most attractive from the sea as one approaches. It occupies a long tongue of land midway along the western coast, and the walls drop into the water both towards the harbour and the open sea.

They are nearly complete in their circuit, but have lost their battlements and some portions of their substance. There is a good deal of ruin within them, which makes the foregrounds uninteresting and squalid. To the west is a public garden planted with fir-trees, and with seats here and there. Aloes grow plentifully on the rocks to the south-west.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LANDING-PLACE, ARBE

_To face page 193_]

In the early Middle Ages Arbe was prosperous owing to its trade and its position on the high-road between Venice and the East. The plague of 1456 depopulated it, and all the richer people fled except the bishop, Johannes Scaffa, and five canons. In 1463 Bosniaks flying from the Turks came to increase the population and were well received, but the town never recovered its prosperity. The empty streets and ruined houses and churches near the cathedral testify to the desolation. The style of the houses is Venetian for the most part, as might be expected, since it was the port of call for those going to Greece or the Holy Land. Some of them are very interesting and beautiful. The quay has several fronting on to it, specially a lofty tower-like building of the fourteenth century with later windows and balconies inserted. Many marble coats of arms may be seen here and there, and the windows and door-jambs often have charming carved ornaments. The Palazzo Nemira shows a pleasing combination of late Gothic and Renaissance detail in pierced panels and bal.u.s.trading; and the _parroco_ lives in a house which has a good doorway of the usual Venetian-Gothic type. The house in which Archbishop De Dominis was born (for some time Dean of Windsor, and celebrated for his scientific attainments), a palace of somewhat later date, is now a kind of club and reading-room, in which the innkeeper apparently has the right of serving his patrons with meals. The families of De Dominis and De Hermolais gave many bishops to the see between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. The loggia is well preserved or has been well restored. Overlooking it is a window from which a parrot screams insulting remarks to pa.s.sers-by.

Arbe was known to the ancients as part of Liburnia. Pliny mentions it, and so does Porphyrogenitus. There was a second city in the island in antiquity called Colento, of which every trace has disappeared. The island belonged sometimes to the Croats, sometimes to Byzantium, and sometimes to Hungary, but from 1115 was mainly under the influence of Venice. The history of the Church goes back to the tenth century, but the first bishops' names are uncertain. A Zaraitan record of 986 mentions a Bishop Petrus. In 1062 a Bishop Dragus is named as being at the consecration of S. Pietro in Valle, the oldest Benedictine convent in Arbe. In the communal archives are preserved the oldest MSS. of the kings of Dalmatia and Croatia of the tenth century.

The cathedral is a basilica with nave and aisles. The main apse is octagonal outside and semicircular within; the apse to the north aisle also exists; that of the south aisle has been replaced by a square chapel. The nave arcade consists of six bays of round arches, resting on five pairs of columns which, though they are made up with plaster and painted, are probably antique, since the caps differ enormously in height and column and cap frequently do not fit. Some of the capitals might be late Roman, but most of them are very rude imitations.

Super-abaci are used. The ciborium is hexagonal and rests on six columns of Greek cipollino, with the top and bottom mouldings worked on them; the caps are Byzantine of the sixth or seventh century, but without super-abaci. The front arches have huge Renaissance swags in the spandrils and a moulded cornice with cla.s.sic enrichments; at the back are three ninth-century panels with arch and spandril in one piece, carved with ornament similar to that on the baptistery of Calixtus at Cividale; the pyramidal roof terminates in a carved finial. The greater part of the building is of the thirteenth century. The church, having become ruinous in 1237, was restored in 1287, and again in 1438 and 1490. It is now the chief parish church of the diocese of Veglia. The west door belongs to the last restoration; in the tympanum is a poorly carved Pieta. It is flanked by some remains of a flat arcading. The wheel-window above, though Romanesque in design, bears the date 1439. A pink marble is used in this facade with very good effect. In the north wall is a square marble panel with an enthroned Christ, of Byzantine type, like the ciborium and the nave columns a relic of an earlier building. The stalls are fine of their kind, and we were told that an offer of 50,000 florins and a new set had been made for them and refused. They are dated 1445, and are elaborately carved with figures and the usual nerveless foliage of the period, of which other good examples occur at Zara and Parenzo. In a chapel in the north aisle is a polygonal Renaissance font of rather pleasing design, with S. John the Baptist in the central panel and fruit, &c., hanging in the others. In the apse of the north aisle is an early Madonna with the Child, robed in red and blue with golden diaper patterns; and over an altar in the south aisle is an interesting tempera picture in a frame of the fourteenth century, painted on a gold ground, with Greek inscriptions and technique. In the central panel is a Crucifixion, on the left is S.

Matthew, and on the right S. Christopher.

S. Christopher was patron of the town and diocese, and the greatest relic is his head, now that those of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego have disappeared. The first mention of it occurs in the eleventh century, when Bishop Dabrana or Domana (1080-1086) brought it forth with prayers and hymns to deliver Arbe from an attacking horde which had besieged the city for a month. A great stone fell from heaven into the camp of the besiegers on that occasion, and the missiles which they shot recoiled upon them. In Arbe, S. Christopher's Day is kept on May 9, the day of this discomfiture, instead of July 25 as elsewhere. Other deliverances took place in 1097 from Coloman of Hungary, and in 1105 from a Hungarian Count Sergius, according to tradition. The shrine appears to be work of the twelfth century, and is based on the antique, but betrays Byzantine influence also. It is decorated with gilded reliefs upon a ground of silver. It is a rectangular wooden box with a pyramidal lid, to which the silver plates are nailed. The subjects upon the four sides are: 1. A seated king and an archer shooting at S.

Christopher, who is bound to a stake; the arrows fall deflected and broken by the hand of G.o.d, which appears by the saint's head. Above is a canopy supported on twisted columns. 2. The saint is beheaded beneath a canopy; the hand of G.o.d again appears by the headless trunk. Two soldiers in Roman costume stand by, one with lance, and the other with raised sword. 3. Three holy men holding scrolls, barefoot and robed in tunic and toga. 4. Three holy women, two holding a cross; the heads have been restored. All these figures have large heads, especially those standing under the round-arched arcade, with alternate twisted and ringed colonnettes. The lid has _repousse_ subjects upon all four surfaces: 1. Christ enthroned, blessing and holding a book, with the monograms IC and XC; in the corners the lion and eagle with books. 2. S.

John with the eagle and monogram IONS. 3. S. Christopher, beardless, as a standard-bearer, and with a royal

S.XPO

mantle, with inscription FOR; at his feet a male

VS