The museum accommodation is very insufficient, and, though several of the larger monuments are in the open air (like the second-century monument of Pomponia Vera near the Porta Argentea), the four museums are crowded with the objects which excavations have brought to light. There are an enormous number of inscriptions, a few sculptures comparatively, a great many architectural fragments, and an infinity of small objects. Among the sculptures two or three, sarcophagi may be specially noted. One with the subject of Hippolytus and Phædra, found in the narthex of the little basilica at Salona in 1859, in a fifth-century stratum, is a late copy of one in the Louvre. Near it was a colossal sarcophagus of the first half of the fourth century, with the Good Shepherd upon it, which is also in the museum. At one end is a door watched by figures at each side; at the other a genius leaning on a reversed torch stands on a pedestal beneath the arch of a little gabled building with twisted columns. The columns in front are also twisted; those at the back channelled with three flutes. The one with the Hunting of the Caledonian Boar, which stood outside the baptistery, where its inscription was copied by Cyriacus of Ancona in 1436, is of the period of the Antonines, and has been used twice. One of the ends is really fine. A fourth, with the Passage of the Red Sea on the front, and three panels on the back, was brought from the Franciscan cloister. One end has two standing figures with a Latin cross in high relief between them, and a garland with waving ribands surrounding the labarum above; the other an imbrication with the spaces in relief. The back has an Orante or Virgin in the centre, and male figures at the ends, with S-shaped striations between.
There is also a very beautiful torso of Venus accompanied by Cupid, and in one of the more distant museums two fine fragments of a relief of undoubtedly Greek work. There are many striking fragments of architectural carving, among which one of the most interesting is a balustrade bearing close resemblance to the carving upon an ambo at S. Agata, Ravenna, but constructed of many pieces, whereas that is an adaptation of a portion of a fluted column. There are also a good many pieces of ninth and tenth-century work, and a large collection of Christian lamps. The most ancient object in the collection is a Corinthian vase with cover of the sixth century B.C., found at Salona, and ornamented with animals and rosettes in black and violet on a yellow ground. A new museum is to be built near the agricultural college on the way to the monastery of the Paludi, which lies on the shore on the Salona side of Marjan, with cypresses in its grassy forecourt, and a garden beyond the cloister.
This convent is Franciscan, but was founded by Benedictines in the eleventh century, the Franciscans taking their place in the fifteenth century. Near the entrance is the inscribed lid of a sarcophagus upside down, used as a water-trough. The convent was fortified by the Spalatines in 1540, of which fortification the machicolated tower to the left of the church remains. The church is early Renaissance in appearance, and is dedicated to S. Maria delle Grazie. It was a favourite place of burial for distinguished Spalatine families, and the floor was covered with fine gravestones in relief, mainly of the sixteenth century, worked in a hard white Dalmatian limestone. These have now been taken up (in 1900) and arranged along the wall of the cloister. Many of them are beautiful in design, with borders of early Renaissance ornament. Perhaps the most charming is that of Caterina Cvitic, but the historic interest of that of Tommaso de Nigris of Scardona and Traù who died in 1527 in Spalato, is greater. There is a half-length portrait of him in the library by Lorenzo Lotto. Behind the high-altar in the monks' choir is an important picture by Girolamo da Santa Croce (1549). It consists of ten panels. In the upper row the centre is occupied by a Madonna and Child surrounded by child angels, flanked by SS. Helena and Scolastica, beyond whom are SS. Catherine and Mary Magdalene. In the centre of the lower row is S. Francis in ecstasy, with SS. Antonio and Bernardino, flanked by S. Doimo (with the city of Spalato) and S. Louis of Toulouse, beyond whom are SS. John the Baptist and Jerome. In the gable of a much restored frame is a dove. On the right side is a curious lintelled door with dull arabesques emphasised by lines of drilling and pictures on either side. One is a Carpaccio in tempera on canvas, a "Madonna auxilium Christianorum," with the Child in a vesica on her breast, and S. Sebastian and a bishop (S. Doimus), one on each side. She holds her cloak out to shelter a crowd of kneeling men on one side, and women on the other, from the darts which God the Father is showering from above. In the sky are cherub heads; two child angels hold a crown above the Virgin's head; in the background are Venetian towers and hills. The frame is architectural, with painted arabesques. Close by is an inlaid black marble slab, with music, the words of a psalm, and flowers in colour. On the other side of the door is a Virgin and Child, with SS. John, Peter, and Scolastica in front, and two little angels on the steps of the throne, a tempera picture on panel, rather grey in colour. A ghastly painted crucifix, with a great deal of blood, stands near the door. On one of the wells in the cloister is the date 1453; they are decorated with roundels bearing various devices. The remarkable thing which brings tourists to the Paludi is, however, the antiphonary of Padre Bonaventura Radmilović, painted with vegetable colours, and finished after ten years' labour in 1675.
Not far away, among the vineyards, is the ninth-century church of SS. Trinita, of which the earliest known mention is in the eleventh century. It consists of six niches surrounding a circle of the same diameter as the similar buildings already described at Zara. At the springing of the arches a cornice runs right round the building. The niches terminate in semi-domes, and two of them are pierced with doors, one of which is of a later date than the rest of the building. The exterior of each niche has a rough arcading of three arches. The springing of the dome and ornamented rosettes in the semi-domes still remain. The courses are horizontal, and the niches terminate outside in a slightly sloped roof. The door has been made into a window, and the lintel bears a bit of antique egg-and-tongue moulding. Three Latin inscriptions of the ninth century have been found, and various pieces of ornament, which are in the museum, also quantities of bones, testifying to its long use as a cemetery chapel. On the way back to Spalato the Casa Katić may be noted, in the walls of which many antique fragments are encrusted.
There was another early church, that of S. Eufemia, within the military hospital, which was destroyed in 1877. It had a central elliptical dome without windows resting on four pillars; two more on each side made the nave four bays long. The apse and aisle ends were square, and the nave was vaulted with a wagon vault.
The great excursion from Spalato is to Salona, a city large enough to quarter the entire army of the Consul L. Cecilius Metellus in 119 B.C., and then known as Colonia Martia Julia. The walls extend for a long distance upon the roads to Traù and to Clissa after crossing the Jader, and the city also stretched some distance up the mountain slopes, the débris from which have done so much to hide its remains. Several burial-places have been discovered, of greater or less extent, an amphitheatre, basilicas, a baptistery with the buildings appertaining, city gates, and more than one circuit of walls. Salona may be reached by rail or road; in the latter case the aqueduct may be observed, originally constructed by Diocletian for his palace, and restored in 1879 by Dr. Bajamonti for the use of the Spalatines. It is six miles long, and taps the source of the Jader. The road descends by long curves to the valley, and enters the village, where the Clissa road diverges, under the pleasant shade of trees, beyond which is a marshy field, white in spring with the giant snowdrop. Half-way down the hill is a fountain which muleteers and pedestrians find most refreshing, especially if they are pressed for time as we were on one occasion when we had an appointment in Spalato, and, missing the train, had to return on foot in the middle of the day. The railway customs are rather curious. On one visit I asked for return tickets, and, as they were not taken on leaving the station at Salona, supposed I had them. In the train the guard told us as we were returning that they were not available, and that we must therefore pay a fine of a florin! I, of course, protested, detailed the circumstances, and pleaded the ignorance of a foreigner; and on arrival at Spalato the matter was referred to a higher official, who was graciously pleased to refund the fine, and accept the fare for a single journey. The traveller in Austria must not calculate on paying his fare on the train, as he would do on the Italian light railways.
OSTERIA AT SALONA
Near the station at Salona is a little osteria, in and about which a number of antique fragments are disposed. It was stopping to have some wine here that caused us to miss our train. There were some eight or ten children playing beneath the pergola, and I found by experience how small a sum may suffice to make a human being happy, since the distribution of three halfpence in heller, the small copper coin which is the basis of calculation, delighted them all! As we left the station on arriving we saw a crowd of peasants kneeling at the cross roads, with three banners, a big crucifix, a chandelier with three candles, and other objects rising above their bent heads. The priest in the centre was blessing the fields, sprinkling holy water in all directions, whilst prayers and responses went up from the kneeling people, the smoke from the censers which the acolytes were slowly swinging hanging round the group like a cloud. Afterwards they came down the road in procession. The priest held a little silver crucifix on a base; near him were the acolytes bearing their various, utensils, and a choir of male singers. The men and boys went first, in two rows down the sides of the road, just as we had often seen in Italy. The women and girls followed.