The Shores of the Adriatic / The Austrian Side, The Küstenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia

by F. Hamilton Jackson

SEBENICO

Sebenico lies within a fine harbour at the mouth of the Kerka, some six hours from Zara. The entrance to the bay is defended by the strong fort S. Nicolò, which bears the lion of S. Mark upon the landward side, showing that Venice ruled when it was built in 1540 (according to tradition, from Sanmichele's designs), though the actual sculpture is a replacement of 1824 of the original thrown into the sea by the French in 1813. During the Italian struggle for freedom and unity many patriots were shut up in the damp dungeons of this fort by the Austrians. Within the strait, the Canale di S. Antonio, there is shelter for a large fleet; and it is reported that the Austrian Government intends to make it into a naval arsenal (of which the commencement may be seen in some very ugly buildings to the left of the town). Sebenico is commanded by three castles, from the highest of which, that of S. Giovanni, constructed in 1646, a splendid view over town, bay, and islands rewards the labour of the climb. The next is Fort Barone, so named after Baron Degenfeldt, the gallant defender of the city against 20,000 Turks in 1647. It is now abandoned and in ruins. The third is Fort S. Anna, which crowns the hill just above the houses. This is thought to occupy the site of a king's castle mentioned in 1066. Fort S. Giovanni and the walls, of which a great portion of the circuit still remains, were restored in 1837. These walls are for the most part the work of kings of Hungary, though the Venetians added to them. The sea suburb the Borgo di Mare is probably the oldest portion of the place; that on the land side, the Borgo di Terra, grew up with the need for the shelter of the fortress during the Turkish wars.

In 1117 the town was taken and destroyed by Ordelaffo Faliero; but in 1127, when Zara Vecchia was razed to the ground by Domenico Michieli, and the bishop and clergy were removed to Scardona, the bulk of the population took refuge at Sebenico. It was a pirate city, and there was continual strife between it and Traù. Until 1167 it was only a small place, but in that year Stephen III. of Hungary gave it the title of "city." Lago, however, says that it was only a "castello" till 1298, when the bishopric was established by Boniface VIII. in consequence of the representations of the archbishops of Zara and Spalato, and of Queen Maria of Hungary. The first bishop was Martin of Arbe. When he was consecrated, the ceremony took place in the piazza, because the church was not large enough. In 1412 the chapter was allowed to choose its own bishop; and the town and church authorities became responsible for law and order throughout certain defined territories. The city seals bear either an angel with nimbus standing on a dragon, and holding in his right hand an upright sword, and in his left an orb, or a half-length of a similar angel, holding an orb in his left hand and a sloping sceptre in his right, with the sun on one side, and a crescent moon on the other; above a city with a central gate and two side towers, with windows on each side.

Sebenico owes its chief celebrity perhaps to its cathedral, the chef d'œuvre of Giorgio Orsini, known as George of Sebenico, an architect of exceptional genius, whose work may also be seen at Spalato, Ragusa, probably at Ossero, and at Ancona on the other side of the Adriatic. His father was known as Matteo of Zara, and was also a stonemason, as George proudly announced himself to be when he carved upon the door of his house a mallet and chisels hung with garlands which are supported in the centre of the lintel by the bear, the cognizance of the noble house which acknowledged his grandson as a relation.

When it was determined to rebuild the cathedral on a larger scale in 1402, the bishop and council of forty-five nobles made provision in various ways for the work. The territory of Vodizze was assigned for the purpose, the bishop gave half of the tithes, fines inflicted were to go to the fund, notaries were charged to remind testators to leave something to the fabric, &c. If the community of Sebenico went back from their promises they were to be fined 1,000 golden ducats. When the towers protecting the mouth of the port were rebuilt in 1409 the Venetians seized the stone prepared for the cathedral, but subsequently paid 80 ducats of gold as compensation. The city became Venetian in 1412. In 1430, after some wavering, it was decided to add the bishop's palace and the street between it and the church to the cathedral site. The building was commenced in 1431, under Antonio, son of Pietro Paolo Massegna, in the Gothic style as understood by the Venetians; but in 1441 he was superseded by Giorgio Orsini with a six years' engagement, on the strength of a design which he had made showing how he proposed to complete the building. The west door with its scroll-work of exaggerated curvature, its pinnacled canopies supported on twisted columns, and figures of various degrees of excellence, shows Antonio's capacity and his limitations. The side door, which is rather simpler and in better proportion, is in much the same style, but has foolish-looking lions on brackets beneath the columns outside the door, with figures of Adam and Eve interposed between the columns and the canopied tabernacles above, which bear great resemblance to those in a similar position at Traù. The pointed and cusped cornice of interlacing arches, surmounted by a cable moulding, which continues to the end of the transept wall, seems to show that the building had advanced as far as this point when Giorgio appeared upon the scene in 1441. The arms of the Venetian rectors also afford indications of the progress and intermissions of the work.

EASTERN END OF CATHEDRAL, SEBENICO

In the tracery of the windows of the central apse a modification of a graceful Gothic pattern has been employed, resembling patterns used in the campanile at Traù, combined with classic pilasters and colonnette forms, but the greater part of the rest of the building is early Renaissance. The aisles are roofed with a half-wagon vault above the quadripartite pointed vaulting, forming a kind of triforium, which is, however, inaccessible; the chapels at the sides of the choir have the semicircular form of the roof of the nave and choir, perhaps suggested by the temple at Spalato, now known as the baptistery; and the east end is tri-apsidal, the apses being polygonal, but roofed with a semi-dome. All these forms are evident externally, the joints of the roofing slabs being covered by an ornamented band answering to the internal supporting rib. The external sculpture is in the main restrained and delicate, and the general proportions are excellent. The angle pier at the north-east of the north transept has the simplicity of its outline destroyed to provide place for figure sculpture and the dedicatory inscription, and the string dividing the stylobate from the principal stage bears a curious decoration of heads in the round; but these are slight blemishes amid much beauty. The heads have a good deal of character, and some may be portraits of the architect's assistants. The same motif occurs round the square-headed door of S. Francesco alle Scale, Ancona. The construction of the semi-domes and of the roofs shows that Giorgio was a competent constructor; but the inventive and beautiful treatment of the decoration of the choir shows him as something more. The graceful singing-galleries at each side, terminating in the curved ambos attached to the main piers of the dome, are very delicate and beautiful; the lofty proportions of the nave and choir are impressive; and the little baptistery, with its curious mingling of Gothic and Renaissance forms, is quaint and ingenious, if not very pure in style.

In 1444 Giorgio went to Spalato to build the chapel of S. Ranier in the church of S. Benedetto, which was to have been finished in two years, but it was nearly four before the donor was satisfied. The price was 306 ducats of gold. It no longer exists. After his first contract expired at Sebenico, where the work apparently progressed very slowly, he went again to Spalato in 1448 to make the chapel of S. Anastasius in the cathedral. Here he had to compete with the work of Gaspare Bonino of Milan, who had made the corresponding chapel on the other side in 1427. They are both rather late Gothic in style. In 1449 he returned to Sebenico, his contract with the chapter having been renewed in 1446 for ten years at an advance of five ducats. The first contract was for six years, at a salary of 115 ducats. In a notice of 1450 from Zara, he is thus referred to: "Mistro Zorzi, taglia pietra, proto alia fabbrica della chiesa di S. Giacomo di Sebenico." The contract for the sacristy is dated March I, 1452. It cost 600 ducats. He was at Ancona in 1451, when he undertook the façade of the Loggia de' Mercanti, an ornate work, which took eight years to build, and has several details resembling those parts of the cathedral, Sebenico, which are ascribed to Massegna. In 1556 it was burnt, and was restored by Tipaldi. Barnabei, a contemporary writer, states that Giorgio also built the adjoining Palazzo Benincasa. He must have gone backwards and forwards between Italy and Dalmatia, for in 1455, while he was under contract with the Sebenico authorities, he completed the fine façade of S. Francesco alle Scale, Ancona, receiving a bonus of 70 ducats above the price, according to Lando Feretti. The church was built in 1323. The monastery is now half barracks and half hospital. Between 1455 and 1459, the façade of S. Agostino in the same town was built as an addition to a church of 1338, which also is now a barrack. The foliage, twisted columns, and canopies are a good deal like the earlier work at Sebenico. In 1460, Giorgio returned to Sebenico, but in 1464 and 1465 was at Ragusa, where he helped in building the Torre Menze, and in restoring the palace of the Rectors. The next year he was at Pago, improving and enlarging the courtyard of the bishop's palace. It was the Bishop of Ossero, who thought he was going to obtain the removal of the see to Pago, but failed to do so. The façade of the cathedral at Ossero has been ascribed to him, and there is nothing in its design to make his authorship impossible. In the next year he undertook work on the façade of the Cappella Grande of the parish church at Pago. In 1470 he went to Rome, where his compatriot Giovanni Dalmato, the sculptor, of Traù, was at work on the monument of Paul II. He went as representative of the procurators to Paul II., in reference to certain charities left by Bishop Vignacco, who died at Porto, near Rome. In 1472 it is stated that he had let all the houses which he had in the Venetian dominions. In this year he commenced the façade of S. Maria, Cittanova, in the Marche. During his frequent absences from home, his Venetian wife Elizabeth looked after his affairs, apparently having a power of attorney. He had many pupils, some of whom continued to work on the cathedral at Sebenico after his death in 1476.

The cost of the building is stated to have been 80,000 Venetian ducats of gold. It was thoroughly restored between 1843 and 1860; seven out of the fourteen caps of the nave arcade have been replaced, and a good deal of the framing of the panelling of red marble above. At each side of the west door are monuments to bishops, and also at each side of the choir steps. The slabs are sloping, and bear figures in relief. That on the right of the door is Bishop Sisgoreo's, made under Giorgio's direction, with an inscription added in 1874 by a descendant. The tomb of Lucio Stafileo (☦1557). under whom the cathedral was reconsecrated, is to the north. Those at the entrance to the choir are Luca Spignaroli (☦1589) to the left, and Domenico Calegari (☦1722) to the right. The choir is raised six steps above the level of the nave, and the sanctuary seven steps higher still.