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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRAR' 3 1924 088 009 646 .y/j} ''ijV;-' Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924088009646 DALMATIA THE QUAEl!TEEO AI^D ISTEIA JAOKSON I a VIVE. ^; it; 1 VOL. I. D6 HENRY FROWDE Oxford University Press Warehouse Amen Corner, E.C. ' DALMATIA THE QUARNERO AND ISTRIA CETTIGNE IN MONTENEGRO AND THE ISLAND OF GEADO J- , ^ T.G. JACKSON, M.A., F.S.A. HONORABT FELLOW OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFOED AKOHITEOT AUTHOR OF 'MODERN UOTHIC AEOHITECTU EE 72V THMEE VOLUMES VOLUME I AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1887 \^AJl rights re'ieried'\ ;Ui^fVER£.TYi ^^ LIB RARY TO MY WIFE THRICE MY COMPANION ON THE FARTHER SHORES OF ADRIA I DEDICATE THIS RESULT OF OUR TRAVELS ; PREFACE. It is not only now when Europe waits to know whether the war-cloud that threatens her will first burst in thunder on the Ehine or on the Danube, nor only in modern times since the Eastern question has arisen to vex politicians, that the attention of Englishmen has been engaged by the Balkan penin- sula and the eastern sea-board of the Adriatic. English travellers were the first to make these countries and the monuments of art which they con- tain known to western Europeans. George Wheler visited Spalato in 1675, and has left us the earliest description of the ruins of Diocletian's palace Robert Adam's account of that building, published in 1 764, is still the best ; the antiquities of Pola were explored by Stuart in 1750, and splendidly illustrated in the fourth volume of the great work that goes by his name ; Sir Gardner Wilkinson in 1 848 published an excellent general account of Dal- matia Montenegro and part of Herzegovina ; Mr. Paton's book followed ; more recently Professor viii Preface. Freeman has published some brief sketches of the earher architecture of some of the maritime towns ; while the well-known researches of Mr. Arthur Evans in the interior of Bosnia and Herzegovina have introduced us to a part of Europe till then un- known. Even foreigners who have written on these lands have found more readers in our country than their own, and Professor Eitelberger of Vienna tells us that the first edition of his book on the mediaeval art of Dalmatia was almost entu-ely -bought up in England ^ Of all these South Slavonic countries none in the estimation of the artist and the historian can compare with Dalmatia, the narrow strip of rock and moorland between the mountains and the sea which fenced out the Turk from the Adriatic, and stayed the tide of Moslem conquest in the south. In Dalmatia arts and letters flourished and commerce sprang up with all her civilizing influences, while the Slavonic kingdoms of the interior remained in semi-barbarism, wasting their strength in inter- necine struggles, and paving the way for the west- ward progress of the Turkish hordes. This superiority of Dalmatia is due partly to her maritime position ^ He says, ' Dalmatien war den Englandern seit jeher ein inter- essantes Land, den meisten Oesterreiehern blieb es eine " Terra incog- nita." ' Kunstdenkmale Dalmatians, Preface to 2nd. edition, 1884. ' Preface. ix which brought her into contact with Italy and the West, but still more to the survival along her coast of certain ancient Roman municipalities, which in the midst of a flood of barbarian colonization kept alive the traditions of civU order, settled law, and an ancient culture. Throughout the middle ages they jealously maintained the civic liberties they in- herited from the Roman empire ; and while outside their boundaries all the world spoke Illyric, the citizens still used the language of their Roman fore- fathers till it passed into its modern form of Italian. To this day they cling to their ' coltura Latina with passionate afiection ; and though the Croats, backed by the Austrian government, are fighting hard to Slavonize the cities and reduce them to the same rule as the rural districts, the issue of the struggle is stUl doubtful. The survival of these waifs and strays of the Roman empire is unique ; it if. an historical phenomenon of almost unparalleled interest ; and one cannot contemplate without regret the possibility of its disappearance. The Roman antiquities of Dalmatia and Istria have been well described and illustrated, but the rich stores of mediaeval art in which those countries abound have hitherto been but little noticed and have remained generally unknown. The only work of importance on this subject is that of Professor X Preface. Eitelberger, who describes with considerable minute- ness the Komanesque and Gothic architecture at Arbe Zara Trail Spalato and Eagusa, and in his second edition has added some brief notes on Sebenico and the valley of the Kerka. In another work he has described the churches of Parenzo and Grado. His premature death in 1885 prevented the visit he had proposed making to Cattaro in the company of Professor Gelcich of Eagusa. His work stops short of the renaissance, and leaves untouched not only Cattaro but all the islands, which are scarcely in- ferior in interest to the mainland. In the following pages I have endeavoured to give a tolerably complete description of all the archi- tectural monuments of importance on the mainland of Dalmatia, the islands, the Croatian shore of the Quarnero, and the Litorale of Istria from Pola to Aquileja. To this I have added an account of the island of Grado, which though never like Aquileja part of Istria, is so intimately connected with Dalmatia as the metropolitan see of the Vene- tian dominion that it naturally belongs to my sub- ject. Grado is I believe unknown to English art students except by report, and many of the places I shall describe will be I am sure unknown to them even by report. Few persons have any idea of the beauty and extent of the art-treasures of Preface. xi these countries, which indeed so far as I know have never before been explored from end to end by a professional student of architecture. The book is fully illustrated with plates and cuts. The illustrations are not confined to architectural subjects, but include several examples of church plate and silversmiths' work, in which Dalmatia is unusually rich, and also several general views of the towns which will give an idea of Dalmatian scenery. A few illustrations, chiefly plans of build- ings, are taken from other works, and these are in all cases acknowledged ; the rest are from original drawings of my own. The brief sketches of the history of Dalmatia and that of Istria which will be found in the first and last volumes are gathered from a variety of sources, some of which are not easily accessible, and they will therefore it is hoped have a certain value. I have also prefixed to each place a short sketch of the local history, derived in many cases from unpub- lished records. The materials for Dalmatian history can be collected only in the country ; the works of the local historians, of whom there are many, often exist only in MS., and even when printed are seldom found beyond the province. Many of them have been prepared with great care, and most of them contain valuable extracts from original docu- xii Preface. his guard how- ments ; but the reader has to be on he accepts the conclusions of a Latin or a Croat writer in a country where politics of creed and race run so high. Travelling in Dalmatia is simple enough for those who are satisfied with the glimpse at the four or five principal towms which may be had by travelling down the coast in the Austrian Lloyd's steamers. To do more than this is not so easy, as may be gathered from several incidents of our travels recorded in the following pages, and ordinary tourists would do well to keep to the beaten track. But there are no difficulties to deter those who are strong and well, and enjoy exposure and exercise, and can put up with rustic fare and homely quarters, and speak the Italian language. In all my three visits to Dalmatia, in 1882, 1884, and 1885, my wife was with me, and we agreed that we had often fared worse nearer home. The trifling discomforts we encountered were more than compensated by the pleasure of explora- tion ; the keen delight of sailing away perhaps in early morning from some little mainland port to the unknown wonders of some island, ignorant what there might be to see there, no guide-book having robbed us of our discovery, but never except once failing to find beauties of art and nature exceeding our expectations.