The pulpit is of stone; beneath shell-headed niches on the front stand figures of SS. Catherine of Siena, Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, and Peter Martyr. They and their emblems are painted; the nimbi and the ribs of the shells are gilded. Across the west end of the nave is a fine early Renaissance triple arch which was once the architectural setting to three altars on the north side of the church. Among the ornament, traces of Gothic feeling still linger. In the sacristy are an Early Martyrdom of S. Laurence and two other pictures in compartments on a gold ground, which bear a certain resemblance to others produced in the March of Ancona. The frame of one of them is especially fine, with projecting hoods to the niches in which the figures stand. In the centre is the Baptism of Christ, with a landscape background; on the right are SS. Augustine and Stephen; on the left, SS. Nicholas and Michael. Above are half-lengths of the Madonna and Child in a vesica starred with cherubs; on the right, SS. Peter Martyr and Francis; on the left, SS. Peter and Dominic. Another has the Madonna, SS. Julian, James, Dominic, and Matthew on a gold ground. These have also been restored. There are also two good Flemish pictures on panel, a Christ and a veiled woman. Within a pointed arch is an interesting funerary inscription stating that the port was the work of "Pasqualis Michaelis Ragusinus," with the date 1485. He was also master of the foundry, and apparently supervised the fortifications. He was the architect of the bridge of Porta Pile in 1471, and to him the design of the Sponza is ascribed by some. The note recording the commencing of the construction of the port (February 19, 1481) embodies the fact of the sailors' approval of the design.
The cross of Uros I. (1275-1320) is over an altar in a room within the sacristy, the door of which is kept double-locked. It is not very interesting from the point of view of craft. It is a patriarchal cross with piercings at the crossings, and rosettes at the ends of the arms, which are probably later additions. The material is silver, parcel-gilt.
PLAN AND ELEVATION OF ONE BAY OF CLOISTER, DOMINICAN CONVENT, RAGUSA
The treasury contains reliquaries and chalices, and a Gothic monstrance, but nothing of great interest. The south door has round arches beneath an ogee hood, the jambs are ornamented with damaged scrolled leafage, and in the tympanum is a figure of S. Dominic. The apse of the chapel close by is Romanesque, and, with the flight of steps to the door and the foliage of a tree which overhangs them, makes a picturesque background to the groups of Herzegovinians who pass on their way from the Porta Ploće to the Stradone. The cloister is, however, the most picturesque part of the convent. Beneath round arches smaller cusped round arches with shafts and caps are grouped in threes, the head having two circles within it, sometimes pierced as quatrefoils, sometimes with an interlacing pattern with Oriental suggestion, and reminding one of the patterns in a similar situation in the cloister at Tarragona. The same mixture of ornamental motifs may be noticed in the richly carved moulding which terminates the wall beneath the parapet. The well in the centre is of 1623, but takes its place among the trees, flowers, and warm-toned stone quite pleasantly. Above towers the campanile containing two old bells, one cast by Battista of Arbe in 1516, and one by Bartolommeo of Cremona, in 1363. It was built by a Ragusan, Fra Stefano, in 1424, and has three stories of two-light windows, with mid-wall shafts under round arches, and a crowning octagonal stage. The enlargement of the church and convent was executed by the architect Pasqualis Michaelis, just referred to.
LAVABO IN SACRISTY OF FRANCISCAN CONVENT, RAGUSA
The Franciscan convent is at the other end of the Stradone, just inside the Porta Pile. The Order was at first established outside; but the convent founded in 1235 was destroyed by the Republic to prevent the Servians from using it as shelter, and in 1315 the monks came within the walls. It is said that S. Francis himself came to Ragusa in 1220, and several of the Franciscan convents in Dalmatia claim to have been founded by him. The church has a late Gothic doorway on the south, with an ogee tympanum bearing a Pietà, and flanked by pinnacled niches which have statues of SS. John the Baptist and Jerome; above is a figure of a bearded saint holding a book. The foliage is well carved, and the pilasters are panelled in two stages. Behind the church is the first cloister, surrounded by an arcade resting on coupled octagonal colonnettes with unmoulded round arches, divided into groups of six by piers. The wall above is pierced by oculi of different sizes, some of which have quatrefoil tracery within, and the caps of the columns show an almost Romanesque variety and vivacity. The wall terminates with a carved quarter-roll moulding and a balustrade with cusped round arches above coupled colonnettes. This balustrade, notwithstanding its style, was only completed in 1629, unless this date refers merely to repairs done at that time. On the south side is a fifteenth-century fountain, with a later statue of S. Francis; in front of it is a paved walk flanked by seats, the backs of which form the enclosure of the raised garden on each side. It is as pleasant a place as the Dominican cloister, though quite unlike it. The architect was Mag. Mycha of Antivari, whose signature may be found on a corner pilaster, with the date 1363. Higher up the hill is another cloister, long and narrow, with round arches resting on square piers, and a well under a picturesque penthouse roof. Here it was that the herbs and simples were grown. By the side of the steep stair (which goes up still higher) a little rill of water flows, I suppose, to the lower cloister. The convent cost 28,000 ducats to the public treasury, besides much given by generous donors, the Ghent merchants especially contributing largely. The top of the campanile was replaced after the earthquake of 1667. In the sacristy are some stall-fronts and cupboards ornamented with intarsia of arabesques and figures of saints of the Order, the latter rather rough in workmanship. Also a pretty, early Renaissance lavabo in Istrian stone. The church plate, including a fine monstrance, is kept in a Gothic cupboard painted with the arms of the Bona family. In the church is a great crucifix which came from Stagno, painted in tempera, with the symbols of the Evangelists. The library is rich in literary documents, and in the convent, upstairs, is a picture which shows Ragusa as it was before the earthquake.
LOGGIA OF THE RECTOR'S PALACE, RAGUSA