The church of S. Maria de Salona, or de Otok, lies on an island in the Jader joined by a bridge to the Clissa road. It was founded by Queen Helena, whose sarcophagus was discovered among the foundations in 1898, and bears the date 976 and the name of Helena, wife of King Mihael and mother of King Stefanus. The church was a small basilica with nave and aisles, and an apse in the thickness of the eastern wall, with three piers and corresponding pilasters in the side walls. It was about 36 ft. long, with a width of ii ft. 6 in. the nave, and 7 ft. 4 in. the aisles. There was one west door, a narthex of two bays, and an atrium. Amongst fragments of ninth and tenth-century carving a pattern closely resembling Syrian ornament was found. At Knin, when the railway was being made, stones with ninth-century patterns were also found. This city was a royal residence and seat of the courts of justice, and in the middle of the eleventh century the bishop of Knin was made primate of Croatia and a councillor of the king. All these carvings were probably executed by Comacines, documentary evidence of whose presence in the country, brought from Cividale by the Croatian ban, has been found by Mgr. Bulić. Two sculptors only are known by inscriptions earlier than the Benedictines, who took a leading part in the development of mediæval Dalmatian sculpture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These are Mag. Andrea, builder of the little church of S. Lucia, near Besca, in Veglia, which is earlier than the twelfth century, and Mag. Otto of the eleventh century. After them the names of Guvina and Raduanus occur, at Spalato and Traù. There are, however, indications that Mag. Otto may have himself been a Benedictine; the Order appears to have been established in Dalmatia before the tenth century, and to them S. Crisogono, Zara, was due. If so, according to the rule of his Order, he would have inherited the manual of art which every Benedictine leaving the mother monastery to found a new one carried with him, together with the liturgical books.
After the death of Diocletian in 313 Salona inherited the palace. The imperial apartments were reserved for illustrious guests, and the rest appears to have been used as a cloth-factory. It is thought that it was here that the dethroned Emperor Nepos was slain in Odoacer's time. Towards the end of the fifth century Marcellinus, first king of Dalmatia, lived here for a short time after his proclamation, when the province had been taken from the Emperor Leo. The destruction of Salona in 639 drove the inhabitants to take refuge in the islands where the Avars could not follow them. When the Croats drove these away Severus recalled some of them, and they inhabited the palace. The bishopric was founded in 649 by John of Ravenna, legate of Pope Martin I. He it was who converted the mausoleum into a cathedral, opening the door on the south side which has the curious ornament round it, and dedicating it to the Assumption, and also bringing the relics of S. Anastasitis and S. Doimus from Salona, and placing them beneath the side altars. The beginning of the Venetian dominion was brought about by the appeal for help against Cresimir which the Spalatines made to Venice by advice of Basil and Constantine, emperors of Byzantium. Pietro Orseolo received the homage of the citizens in the cathedral, defeated Cresimir, and made peace at Traù on the understanding that Zara and Spalato were to be Venetian thenceforth; but the Croat kings assumed the title of King of Dalmatia and obtained the assent of the Pope to their holding the dignity till the Hungarian dynasty succeeded them. In 1401 all Dalmatia, except the Bocche and Ragusa, became Neapolitan; and Ladislas was crowned by a papal emissary king of Hungary and Dalmatia at Zara. His viceroy built a palace at Spalato, of which remains exist between the Marina and the Piazza dell' Erbe; to which the Venetians added the octagonal tower for the defence of the port, so conspicuous from the sea. Turkish raids were frequent. In 1570 the garrison of Clissa nearly took the city; but twenty-six years later the Spalatines retaliated by surprising and massacring the garrison of Clissa in a night attack, led by the archdeacon, who, with three canons, was left on the field. Their leader dead, they were not able to retain possession of the fortress. Under Venice, Spalato was the principal place for trade with Persia and the Indies, and many noble Venetian families established themselves there.
ITALIAN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE BOATS, SPALATO
The costume of the country people shows the influence of Turkish and Oriental relations, and suggests the possibility of many figures in Old Italian pictures being painted from Dalmatian models. The men are generally blonde, and wear great moustaches. They are fond of bright colours, and wear light-blue tight cloth hose, red-and-green stockings, the usual shoes, a broad red-leather girdle, which used to have weapons in it, a red waistcoat, a short brown jacket embroidered with red and ornamented at the corners with red and white stripes, and on the head a turban of a red-brown colour. These costumes may be seen in numbers in the morning in the market, on the way to the station. The women have a shawl or folded piece of stuff on their heads, and frequently wear printed calicoes of a startling pattern in the town, but outside have a modification of the usual Morlacca costume.
Along the quays many Italian boats are moored, bringing cargoes of fruit, onions, and other kindred produce, which they appear to sell retail as well as wholesale; and many picturesque subjects may be noted, to which the masts and rigging, awnings and sails, weather-beaten paint, baskets of gleaming fruit and other articles, cordage, gangway planks, &c., in careless arrangement, lend attractiveness and beauty, whether in the full glare of the midday sun, with its strong contrasts of light and shade, or in the early morning or late evening, when its level rays tend to greater simplicity of effect and greater glow of colour. On Sunday evening the long parapet of the Marina is lined with townsfolk taking the air, while those who desire to show off their toilettes march up and down the Piazza dei Signori (which appears to answer to the "Park") for an hour or so, after which it resumes its usual quiet condition. On the morning of May 1, the municipio was decorated with flags, and saluted by a band which played in front of it for a short time and then marched off, still playing.
At the end of the Marina is the Franciscan convent dedicated to S. Felice, bishop of Epetium, whose relics are said to be preserved in the church. It was built by Archbishop Giovanni IV. of Spalato in 1059, but has been modernised, and little of an early date can be seen. In the wall towards the cloister are several walled-up windows, with semicircular heads cut out of a lintel, and in the cloister itself are a few caps which appear to be eleventh-century, but the bulk of it is fourteenth-century in style, and that is the date of the three inscriptions inserted in the walls. It is a pleasant little cloister, with a school attached to it, and the church is crowded with the poor at service time.
CLOISTER OF S. FRANCESCO, SPALATO
The situation of the city is very fine, and the harbour accommodation there and in the immediate neighbourhood led the Austrian admiralty at one time to think of it as the principal military port. Preference was given to Pola on account of its connection with the main railway lines, for which the archæologist and artist may be thankful. The two ranges of Kozjak and Mosor (Mons Aureus) dip down to the pass which is guarded by the rock of Clissa. On the slopes of one lie the ruins of Salona; on the other, those of Epetium; in front is the sea, always peaceful, being sheltered by the islands of Solta and Brazza; and beyond Marjan the land-locked Salonitan port.