LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Portrait of Marino Caboga (Photogravure)(From the Galleria di Ragusei Illustri) | [Frontispiece] |
Byzantine Door-knocker, Rector’s Palace | facing [Title-page] |
| PAGE | |
Entrance to the Harbour of Ragusa | facing [1] |
View of Ragusa(From P. G. Coronelli’s “Views of Dalmatia,” 1680) | facing [15] |
Onofrio’s Fountain in the Piazza | facing [41] |
The Quay and Harbour Gate | facing [54] |
Ragusa from the East | facing [58] |
Torre Menze | facing [66] |
General View of Ragusa, from the West | facing [83] |
Bas-relief of St. Blaize, near the Porta Ploce | facing [95] |
Plan of Ragusa | facing [97] |
Fortifications of Stagno Grande | facing [99] |
Cloister of the Franciscan Monastery | facing [108] |
Courtyard of the Sponza (Custom House) | facing [121] |
Façade of the Sponza (Custom House), and ClockTower | facing [131] |
Capital in the Franciscan Cloister | facing [152] |
Capital in the Franciscan Cloister | facing [153] |
Façade of the Rector’s Palace | facing [168] |
Apothecary’s Garden, Franciscan Monastery | facing [189] |
Entrance to the Franciscan Monastery | facing [196] |
Terrace of the Franciscan Monastery, with theTorre Menze in the Background | facing [207] |
| facing [231] | |
Sketch Map of the Territories of the RagusanRepublic | facing [240] |
The Orlando Column | facing [249] |
Bird’s-eye View of Ragusa and the Neighbourhood (From an Old Map, 1670) | facing [263] |
Sketch Map of the Environs of Ragusa | facing [272] |
Forte San Lorenzo | facing [289] |
Garden near Ragusa | facing [299] |
Isola di Mezzo | facing [313] |
Courtyard of the Rector’s Palace | facing [325] |
Mostar, in the Herzegovina | facing [334] |
“Æsculapius” Capital, Rector’s Palace | facing [340] |
Sculptured Impost, Rector’s Palace | facing [345] |
Sculptured Bracket, Rector’s Palace | facing [349] |
Church of the Confraternity of the Rosary | facing [355] |
Triptych by Niccolò Ragusei in the DominicanMonastery | facing [363] |
Giovanni Gondola(From the Galleria di Ragusei Illustri) | facing [375] |
Torre Menze and the Walls | facing [389] |
Terrace of the Ville Bravačić, near Ragusa | facing [405] |
Map of Dalmatia, Bosnia, and the Herzegovina | facing [417] |
Map of the Balkan Peninsula | facing [418] |
ENTRANCE TO THE HARBOUR OF RAGUSA
THE REPUBLIC OF RAGUSA
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
THE eastern shore of the Adriatic from the Quarnero to the Bocche di Cattaro is a series of deep inlets and bays, with rocky mountains rising up behind, while countless islands, forming a veritable archipelago, follow the coastline. The country is for the most part bare and stony. The cypress, the olive, the vine grow on it, but never in great quantities. Patches of juniper and other bushes are often the only relief to the long stretches of sterile coast. Here and there more favoured spots appear. At Spalato and in the Canale dei Sette Castelli, on the island of Curzola, in the environs of Ragusa, the vegetation is luxuriant, almost tropical. But Dalmatia is always a narrow strip, and as one proceeds southwards it becomes ever narrower, the mountain ranges at various points coming right down to the water’s edge. The land is subject to intense heat in summer, and is free from great cold, even in the middle of winter. But it suffers from fierce winds, from the bora, which, whirling down from the treeless wastes of the Karst mountains in the north-east, sweeps along the coastline with terrific force. Another curse from which it suffers is the frequency and severity of the earthquakes, which from time to time have wrought fearful havoc among the Dalmatian towns.