Читать книгу The Shores of the Adriatic - F. Hamilton Jackson - Страница 18

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From Aquileia a steam-launch plies back and forth to Grado, a distance of some six or seven miles, at first along a canal with grassy banks plentifully besprinkled with giant snowdrops in the spring, then through wide stretches of lagoon along a channel, marked by piles, sometimes approaching the fishermen's huts, which occupy the summit of slight elevations rising but little above the surface of the water. These huts are mere shelters of reeds, and, one would think, quite unfit for human habitation, but close by them the nets may be seen drying, and perhaps food in course of preparation over an open fire, while the boat, thrust into a creek or tied to a stake, occupies the foreground. These wide-spreading lagoons, the resort of many kinds of water-fowl in their passage from north to south and vice versâ, are very pictorial. The enclosures in which fish brought in by the tide are retained, the beds of reeds and rushes with yellow water-lilies, the figures of women and children wading and seeking fishy treasures, provide excellent material for the artist. Occasionally a boat passes in which a woman is taking fish to Aquileia, leaving behind it a long trail of ripples. The two great campanili, of Grado which we are nearing, and of Aquileia passing into the distance behind us, each with its cluster of low buildings around, are prominent against the horizon showing dark against the fine cumulus clouds, which are heaped in sharply defined masses against the blue of the upper sky and rise in threatening billows like exhalations from some vast cauldron, soon to fade away innocuously in the late afternoon.

Grado is on one of the islands of which a chain stretches from the mouth of the Isonzo to that of the Brenta right across the northern border of the Adriatic. Its port was one of the harbours of Aquileia, at first for purposes of war, but later for those of commerce. The town was square in plan, walled, and full of people. Cassiodorus speaks of its material conditions. The modern town is most picturesque, with narrow streets and numerous courtyards, with outside staircases, quaint shops, and fascinating plays of light and shade, and so much of the life of the people passes in the open air that there is always interesting matter for observation. It is a seaside resort, visited a good deal for bathing during the summer months, and there is also, as at Rovigno, an establishment for scrofulous children. But its chief attraction for us is archæological, for it contains early Christian antiquities of considerable importance.

A CORNER IN GRADO

Its greatest prosperity was between the time of the great wanderings of the peoples and the descent of the barbarians into Italy. Its patriarch took the lead in establishing the government of the islands from which the Venetian Republic sprang. In 460 Nicetas called all the bishops, clergy, and leading officials of the islands together to deliberate on the question of government, and, after discussion, they agreed to establish one under the directorship of Tribunes. The first tribune was to live at Grado, with three others, called "maggiori," but depending upon him, one for Rivoalto, one for Candeana, and one for Dorsea, living at Rialto, Eraclea, and Torcello respectively. They had charge of the administration of justice, presided over the execution of the laws, enforced discipline, and met at times in council to discuss propositions laid before them. Grado lost its supremacy in 696, when the assembly held at Eraclea gave it to that city, though the Patriarch of Grado, Cristoforo, was given equality with the three tribunes which Eraclea then had. The next year the first doge, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was elected. It was by means of Fortunatus of Trieste, Patriarch of Grado (803-825), that the cry of the Istrians, oppressed by the Frankish duke and his supporters, came to the ears of Charlemagne, with the result that after a strict inquiry held at Risano in 804, when the representatives of the cities and castella exposed the odious proceedings of the bishop, the duke, and their adherents, they obtained redress. In 875 the Saracens attacked Grado, but were repulsed. The next year a similar attack was made by the Slavs of Croatia and Dalmatia, but the Doge Orso met them, defeated them, and gave back to several Istrian towns objects of which they had been robbed.

Between Grado and Aquileia there was a constant struggle for supremacy, which was in reality a contest between Venice and the empire, Aquileia standing for the latter and Grado for the former. A formal peace was concluded between them during the Lateran Council of 1180, by which the Patriarch of Grado renounced all claims over the Istrian bishoprics, except as regards the hundred amphoras of wine sent by Capodistria from 1075, given as a personal honour to the Doge Pietro Candiano, and by him handed over to the Patriarch of Grado. In 452 the Patriarch of Aquileia fled to Grado from the Huns, returning after they had passed, and in 578, when Aquileia had become Lombard, Paulinus transferred his seat to Grado, thus putting himself under Byzantine protection. In 579 a synod was held in the church. From 607 there were two patriarchs—one in Grado and one in Aquileia—established for political reasons by the Lombards; they were schismatical, that is to say, adherents of the "three chapters." During the continuance of this schism, in 610, three Istrian bishops were taken from their very churches by the military, and carried off to Grado, where they were compelled to bend to the Imperial will in the matter. Gregory III. sanctioned the division of the two patriarchates in 731, both having become orthodox, Aquileia in 698 and Grado in 715. In 1451 the patriarchate of Grado was transferred to Venice, where the patriarch had been living for a long time.

The foundations of the cathedral were laid under Nicetas (456) by the architect Paulus, who was sent to him by Pope Leo I. The plan is Romanesque, a basilica with nave and aisles and no transept, the nave terminating in an apse eastward. It has two western doors, which open into a portico of almost the whole breadth of the church, part being cut off by the campanile, which is nearly 20 ft. square and over 160 ft. high. The clerestory and low-pitched wooden roof of the nave are supported by two piers and ten columns on each side. The columns are antique, but of varied material—cipollino, white and black and white-veined marble, and granite; and there is one of a rosy and white breccia. The caps vary both in design and size, and have been repaired with stucco. Some of them are decadent Roman and the rest Byzantine: the bases are hidden by a square wooden boxing. The eleven arches of the nave arcade are round. The round-headed windows of both nave and aisles had pierced slabs of stone in them, but in 1740 the openings were made lunette-shaped. One pierced slab of the ninth century has been found, and is now placed high up in the apse above the patriarch's throne. Under Fortunatus and John the Younger, about the beginning of the ninth century, the church appears to have been beautified; and again, in the second half of the tenth, under Vitalis. It is related that the relics were then provided with fresh receptacles and inscriptions. The choir occupies three bays of the nave, with a modern enclosure raised by several steps. Just outside the rail, by the fourth column on the left, stands the interesting pulpit, which has a later canopy, but itself appears to be of the ninth century, judging by the columns, two of which are twisted, and by the carving of the symbols of the Evangelists, which seems to be rather later. On the other hand, there is a square O in the inscription on S. John's book, of which other instances occur at Cattaro in an inscription of the ninth century, and in one of the seventh at Spalato. The pulpit is sexfoil in plan; one side is open, and one has a large cross carved upon it. The canopy has six fourteenth or fifteenth-century octagonal colonnettes, supporting ogee trefoiled arches with a domical termination, coloured in red and white chequers, and with scrolls and rosettes of red on the spandrils of the arches below. The shape and decoration show Arab influence strongly.