VIEW ACROSS THE NAVE, CATHEDRAL, PARENZO
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 buttoned 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, passing 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 bass sang several solos. The church was thronged by a devout crowd of both sexes and all classes.
The city was called "Julia Parentium" under the Romans, from the colony of legionaries sent by Augustus. The tribute to Rome was as much as that paid by Pola, the capital of the province. There were temples to Mars and Neptune, of which there are some remains, drums of a few of the columns and a portion of the podium and steps, now used as the lower courses of poor houses. The buildings were destroyed in the fifteenth century, the materials being used to construct the quay. The main street leading from this part of the town to the Porta a Terra may be the Via Decumana of a Roman camp. The site of the amphitheatre is indicated by the curved line of the houses built on its foundations, but there are no remains of Roman work visible. Reliefs of the tenth century are encrusted in the wall of a house on the site of the ancient church of S. Peter; and the Casa dei Santi in the Via Predol, which probably occupies part of the area of the convent and church of S. Cassiano, has two figures on brackets between the windows of the first floor, apparently late eleventh-century work. The Canonica, built in 1251, a fine piece of Romanesque domestic architecture, has six two-light windows on the first floor, and shell-headed niches round the door, with a cross and inscriptions. It was burnt in 1488, and in the eighteenth century was converted by the chapter into a store for the tithes of wine, corn, oil, and fruit, but has been restored, together with the adjoining entrance to the atrium. There are several Venetian palaces in the main street. One, of the fourteenth century, is especially fine. It has big cable string-courses and brackets of lions' heads and necks, and a large and imposing window on the first floor.
There have been three enceintes: (a) Roman; (b) that completed about 1250 under Patriarch Warner of Gillach; (c) a third commenced in the fifteenth century on the same lines, but a little larger. In the eighteenth century the circuit of the walls was about a mile. There were two principal gates—the Porta a Mare and the Porta a Terra—and two posterns made for the convenience of the inhabitants. The city was divided into four Rioni—Pusterla, Porta Nuova, Marafor, and Predol. The existing square tower flanking the Porta a Terra was erected in 1447 under Nicolò Lion; he signs it with initials, and there is a coat of arms beneath the panel of the lion of S. Mark. At the bottom of the frame are the date and an inscription giving the name of the architect, "Mag. Johannes de Pari Tergestinus," and of his son Lazarus, the sculptor. His name occurs on the architrave of the rebuilt church of S. John the Baptist of Volciana on the Carso, with the date 1429. The round tower dates from after the incursion of the Turks into the Carso in 1470, built under Pietro da Mula, 1474. On the Porta della Campana the length of the dagger which was allowed is marked, and the town still preserves one of the "Bocche de' leoni" which were used for secret denunciations. The communal palace was built in 1270, one year before Parenzo gave herself to Venice. Games of cards and dice were allowed under its portico and in the loggia, where the players were under the eyes of the guards.
During the latter half of the thirteenth century Parenzo was in constant contest with her bishop, resisting the financial demands of the ecclesiastical authority with threats and violence. A podestà, at the head of the people, broke into the cathedral, burst open the treasury, and seized the precious objects. In 1270 Marco Michiel, in the name of the commune, forbad the citizens to pay tithe, proclaimed liberty of fishing and pasturage, and took possession of several of the church properties, saying that they had returned to those to whom they properly belonged. In 1278 Bishop Otho excommunicated them for refusing to pay tithe, and because of a rising, in which the palace was invaded and all the authentic privileges and documents thrown into the sea; but the citizens were the stronger, and bishop and canons were driven away from the city. In 1280 there was a delimitation of the land belonging to church and commune. The next bishop, Boniface, renewed the episcopal pretensions denying freehold to both commune and individual citizens. The podestà, Jacopo Soranzo, the commune, and citizens were so enraged that the bishop, in fear of his life, fled to Rovigno, and from thence to Venice. The podestà lodged soldiers in his palace during the war; and in 1284 Boniface fulminated a comprehensive excommunication from Venice against podestà and city. Matters were arranged and he returned to Parenzo, but only to renew his claims. In 1293 the podestà, Jacopo Querini, was disputing with him over a feud at Cervera which he claimed, though it had been in the possession of others for eighty years, and both lost their tempers. The podestà turned to the bishop and said: "I promise you that when my term of office is over I will do you all the harm I can, both publicly and privately; and I pray God and His saints to let me live long enough to see with my own eyes the prophecies fulfilled of the destruction of the Church of Rome, for one may well see that the time is near." On September 14, 1296, the podestà, Giovanni Soranzo, attacked the bishop's palace at the head of the armed populace, intending, as the bishop asserted, to kill him. The prelate took refuge in the Franciscan convent, and escaped by ship to Pirano. Thence he went again to Venice, and excommunicated the whole of his opponents. The podestà threatened to cut off hand and foot from whoever published or executed the ban; and Boniface ordered the prepositum of Pisino to send it to the clergy, which was done next year, but without the desired effect. He acted in the same way with other podestàs, and was often absent from his seat in consequence, thus incurring reproofs from the patriarchs Raimondo and Pietro Gerra. The latter went so far as to attack and destroy the castle of Orsera, where the bishop took refuge.
The people of Parenzo now are more concerned with developing their commerce than with insisting upon their rights, and the quay presents a busy scene when the wine-boats are lading. The casks are so large that two are a load for a yoke of oxen. The cart has sloping sides, and a bed of fresh-cut boughs and hay acts as springs. One of the sides of the cart (of wicker or staves) is removed at the quay, and the casks are rolled down an inclined plane. There were much excitement and some danger as the lumbering weight was turned at right angles to its former course, which was towards the water. The fishermen were busy too; they catch spider-crabs with long spears ending in five prongs, at right angles to the shaft, and forming a kind of cage, which the crabs find it difficult to negotiate when they are raked out of the crannies of the rocks. There was a semi-lunar implement in the boats also, with four internal prongs, at the end of a long shaft, used for catching cuttle-fish.
At the hotel in which we stayed on our first visit there was a green-and-yellow parrot which was very tame. His accomplishments included the saying "Marietta, padrona, and hello" quite clearly, singing and laughing. Its mistress made it flirt with a highly coloured young lady on a poster in a very diverting fashion. At Fiume we saw two parrots of the same kind on perches outside a shop; and my friend, recollecting the friendly bird at Parenzo, made overtures to them, which were not received in the proper spirit, and I am sorry to say that his finger was sore for days after.
There is record of a joust held at Parenzo as late as February 14, 1745. There must have been diverting incidents on that occasion, since the combatants contended with unfamiliar weapons which had been long out of use!
Parenzo is poor in records of craftsmen, and its only artist of repute is Bernardo of Parenzo, who was much employed in his day; pictures by him are preserved in the Accademia at Venice, the Doria Gallery, Rome, in the Louvre, and at Modena. He studied at Padua with Mantegna, under Squarcione, and executed frescoes and chiaroscuro arabesques in the cloister of S. Giustina in that city. When the Austrians converted the convent to military uses the paintings were plastered over, and, although again uncovered in 1895, they were found to be in a much damaged condition. Bernardo died in 1531.