XXIV THE BOCCHE DI CATTARO

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The fine harbour known as the "Bocche di Cattaro" is thirteen miles long from the entrance to Cattaro itself, which lies at the extreme south. The "bocche," the mouths, lie between the Punta d'Ostro and the Punta d'Arza, both fortified, and in the channel is the little rock Rondoni, on which is another fort, Mamola. These defensive works were completed in 1897. The bay was known to the ancients as "Sinus Rhizonicus," Rhizon, from which it was then named, being the modern Risano at the extremity of the northern arm. The "Tavola Peutingeriana" gives the name "Resinum." The first mention of the "Rhizinitie" is about B.C. 229, at the period of the unfortunate wars waged by Teuta, widow of Agron, against the Romans. Their origin is variously ascribed to Colchis, Troy, and to Sicilian colonies sent by Dionysius of Syracuse. The Bocchesi prefer a Sicilian origin; but the Greeks called all this part of the continent Illyris Barbara. Livy mentions the Rizuniti among the peoples of the kingdom between the fall of Teuta and the ruin of Genzius. Risano was Teuta's capital, and there she died in 220 B.C. Her husband Agron had conquered the country as far as Friuli.

Teuta allowed her subjects to be pirates, with the result that Issa (Lissa), the only island which had remained independent, complained to Rome, and the Romans sent an embassy to protest; but the youngest ambassador offended her majesty, and was beheaded in consequence. This decided the Romans to destroy her power, and treachery made the task easy. From 227 B.C. Corfu, Lesina, and Lissa were under Roman protection; the Illyrians were only allowed two ships, and were not permitted to pass the Issus. Subsequent intrigues between Demetrius (who had gained the lordship over the Ardiei by treachery) and Philip III. of Macedon, wars and revolts, brought about the subjection of Illyria to the Romans, and its conversion into a province in 168 B.C. The far-seeing Rizuniti had already put themselves under Roman protection, and were therefore given privileges, exempting them from all public burdens.

At Prevlacca, near Punta d'Ostro, are remains of antique walls, thought to be those of the ancient Epidaurus, by those who maintain that it was at the gates of the "Sinus Rhizonicus." Most authorities, however, agree in placing it at Ragusa Vecchia. Objects of the bronze age have been excavated at Risano, and sepulchral stones and altars of strange and un-Roman form have been found at Lastua Inferiore and Perzagno.

Cattaro appears as a Roman city under the name of Ascrivium or Acrivium, and it and Risano are the only two towns known at the fall of the Illyrian kingdom. The Romans made a road from Aquileia to Durazzo. It passed by Epidaurus and along the Sutorina Valley to Castelnuovo, where it turned along the coast to Risano, Perasto, Orohovac, Dobrota, and Ascrivium. Thence it went to Castel TrinitÀ. This road put the Rizuniti into communication with the Dalmatians, and with the tribes to the south. Rizinum was a Roman colony, and inscriptions show that it belonged to the Sergian tribe and was governed by decurions. It was the seat of the god Medaurus, of whom all that is known is contained in an inscription found at Lambessa in Mauritania, set up by a Dalmatian legate sent to Numidia as consul by Marcus Aurelius (161-180 A.D.). It records the dedication of a lance to him.

Ascrivium was also a Roman colony. The municipal senate was presided over by duumvirs, who held office for a year, and had power over the entire administration of the city and of justice. The greater part of the ancient Rhizon is now under water, and Cattaro has been many times destroyed by invaders, so that there are very few antique remains.

At Risano are the remains of a building vaulted in two compartments, like an ancient tomb, and a few stones. Some thirty sarcophagi found there in 1870 raised hopes of the discovery of a necropolis, but these hopes were disappointed. A colossal foot of an ox in bronze and one of white marble were found in 1868, and a few inscriptions, one of which, at the entrance to the Greek church, shows that the 7th Legion was stationed there. It is to a distinguished soldier, who had twice gained a golden garland of honour, neckchain, and bracelets, which he wore in the triumph after the Dacian war. At Prevlacca, Cattaro, Scagliari, Scoglio S. Giorgio, and Perasto are also inscriptions.

After the death of Theodosius the "Sinus Rhizonicus" became subject to the Western Empire (395 A.D.), and till the days of Diocletian it was the southern limit of Dalmatia. Justinian took it from the Ostrogoths, and, considering it as part of Dardania, fortified the castle of ?atta??? in 532 to defend it from barbarian inroads. Risano, like Salona and Epidaurus, was destroyed by an inroad of the Huns in 639, after which Heraclius handed Dalmatia over to the Croats and Serbs, who divided it between them. He, however, reserved to himself the important coast-towns. In 867 the Saracens destroyed Budua, and went with thirty-six ships to attack Porto Rose and Ascrivium, which they burnt. The inhabitants took refuge in the fort, and after the Saracens had gone, with the help of some nobles from the Bosniak city of Kotor (as is said), rebuilt it. The Slav name is still Kotor.

The bishopric of Cattaro is said to date from the fifth or sixth century as suffragan to Spalato (that is, to Salona, as Spalato only became metropolitan in 650); but the first certain date occurs in 877, in which year an act of the Concilium Delmitanum, when the ancient rights of Salona were divided with Spalato, enacts that Cattaro and Budua shall be suffragan to Dioclea. Bishops of Risano are mentioned in 141 and 591. In 1033 the metropolitan of Salona called a council, and the bishop of Cattaro went with those of Dulcigno, Antivari, and Suacia. They were caught in a storm and wrecked at Bacile near Torcole, twelve miles from Lesina, and were all drowned. The sailors have never forgotten the catastrophe. The Cattarines in consequence sent to the Pope, pointing out the difficulties of communication, and obtained transference to the arch-diocese of Antivari.

The "bocche" consist of several expanses of water, separated by narrow canals and surrounded by lofty mountains, which often rise so nearly directly from the water's edge as greatly to increase their impressiveness. The scenery is exceedingly fine, and indeed the view from the road to Cettinje is claimed as almost unsurpassed in Europe. The first of the narrows is between the Kobila range (1470 ft.) and the west point of the peninsula Lustica. It leads into the Bay of Topla, and the steamer heads direct for Castelnuovo, leaving on the left the Sutorina, the lower part of the Canali valley, a portion of the territory of the Republic of Ragusa ceded to Turkey in 1699 to form a buffer state between herself and Venice. The Slav name of Castelnuovo is Erzegnovi, and it was founded in 1373 by the Bosniak king Tvarko I., Kotromanovic. In 1483 it was enlarged and raised to the position of principal place in the dukedom of Herzegovina, founded by Duke Stephan Sandalj (1435-1466). It lies on the slopes of Monti Dobrastica and Radostak, piling up most picturesquely above the little harbour, with great bastions split with wide cracks and deformed by the loss of pieces which have fallen into the sea, but clothed with ivy which hides much of the ruin. It has often changed its masters. After the death of Stephen Sandalj it became Turkish; in 1538 the Turks were driven out by the Spaniards and Venetians. At that time the Spaniards built the fort which crowns the hill to the north of the town. It was the only part of Dalmatia ever held by the Spaniards. Next year the Sardinian renegade, Hassan Barbarossa, put the whole garrison to the sword, and also conquered Risano. The Turks retained possession of Castelnuovo till 1687, when, by the assistance of the Knights of Malta, it again became Venetian. Three Turkish inscriptions still remain; one over the door of the Spanish fort, which was restored by the Turks, a second of 1660 over the Porta Terra Ferma, and a third on the well in the piazza.

Towards the east is Kloster Savina, a monastery said to have been founded in 1030, and now the summer residence of the Servian Orthodox bishops of Cattaro. There is, however, nothing to be seen authorising so early a date; the smaller of the two churches may perhaps date from the thirteenth century, since it has a pointed wagon vault and transverse ribs without mouldings. In this church the Knights of Malta who died some two hundred years ago lie buried. The interest of the place lies in the seventeenth-century silver-work, in which the treasure is rich. It includes some twenty carved crosses mounted in silver and enamel from Mount Athos; hanging lamps of pierced silver, in which the design is much older than the workmanship, with medallions of saints; silver-mounted book-covers, one of which is decorated with enamels; a most curious "five-bread platter," with a cup in the centre, and two little cruets and two little platters on projecting arms, all in pierced work of archaic design enriched with blue enamel; and some embroidered vestments of the fifteenth century, all of which are said to have been brought from Studenitza. Farther on is Meljina, with a lazaretto of the seventeenth century.

THE RUINED BASTION, CASTELNUOVO, BOCCHE DI CATTARO THE RUINED BASTION, CASTELNUOVO, BOCCHE DI CATTARO

The view from the road between these two places is enchanting. Above the blue waters of the Bay of Teodo the ground rises to the mountains, which divide it from the Gulf of Cattaro, while farther still and bluer, the greater heights of Montenegro cut the sky with their serrated edges. To reach the Bay of Teodo another of the narrows is passed, the Canal of Kombor, by the foot of Mount Dvesite. Here is a naval station. The land is the most fertile in the whole district, and here is grown the famous Margamino wine. At Bianca, near Teodo, Danilo, Prince of Montenegro, used to pass the summer. Farther on is the Strait of Le Catene, so called because in 1381 Lewis of Hungary actually put chains across it to protect the inner portions. Opposite to the channel is Perasto, to the left the Valle di Risano, to the right the Gulf of Cattaro. In front of Perasto are two little islands, with picturesque buildings upon them—the Scoglio S. Giorgio, and the Madonna del Scarpello, a little church with a green cupola, containing a picture of the Madonna ascribed as usual to S. Luke, a Byzantine work decked with gold and silver, brought hither from Negropont in 1452. For many years the Bocchesi brought shiploads of stone to increase the size of the island, and still, on July 22 of each year, a stone-laden boat goes from Perasto to the rock. There are two festivals celebrated here, of which the more important is that of the Assumption, August 15. The other, the Birth of the Virgin, on September 8, is less so. There is a proverb "Entre le due Madonne cade la pioggia," the greatest rainfall occurring between the two festivals. On festival days the picture is decked with rings, chains, &c., kept locked up at Perasto during the rest of the year. The property of the church is over £30,000. For five hundred years it has been a centre of interest in the Bocche. According to the legend, a luminous figure of the Madonna was seen by a sailor on the rock on July 22, 1452, and on that spot a chapel was erected. The present church was built in 1628. Inside are a good many late seventeenth-century pictures, and in two rooms close by are votive pictures of the usual kind. There is a cafÉ on the island for the benefit of pilgrims. The island of S. Giorgio is gradually wasting away. The monastery is said to have been the most ancient in the district, and a list of the abbots "in commendam" from 1166 exists, with notices of the church and monastery, going back to the tenth century. There was a long contest for its possession between Cattaro and Perasto, ending in the assassination of the abbot by the Perastines, who took the property by force. Venice gave the commune of Cattaro an annual subvention as solatium. The abbey, destroyed in 1571, was rebuilt in 1624, and in 1654 was plundered by the Turks, and then almost ruined by earthquake in 1667. The French erected a battery upon it, which was abandoned some thirty years ago. The church-was restored for service on October 27, 1878.

Near Risano, at Sopoti (the rushing), is an intermittent waterfall 45 ft. high, which I was told was 100 ft. wide. As soon as it runs dry the cave from which it issued can be entered for several hundred yards. The flow commences after heavy rains, and at the same times a well, or spring, at Cattaro spirts up with such force as to throw out stones of several pounds' weight. Above Risano are two strong fortresses, erected after the insurrection of the Crivoscians in 1881. The revolt of 500 men against conscription necessitated the mobilisation of a whole corps d'armÉe to subjugate them. They lived on the slopes of inaccessible mountains, and the troops had to make the mountain paths into roads practicable for artillery. The rebels were taken between troops from Risano and Orohovac, and others who came from the Herzegovinian mountains. Part laid down their arms, and part fled into Montenegro. To prevent a recurrence of the trouble, and perhaps also with an eye to Montenegro, the forts and a number of blockhouses were built, which one may see high up the mountains, sometimes against the sky-line.

A white line about 3,000 ft. high marks the military road between Perasto and Cattaro; the way of access to the blockhouses, in each of which a detachment of twenty-five men, with two non-commissioned officers and one lieutenant, is on duty for a year at a time, bearing great heat in summer (for it is said that an egg laid on the rock in the sun is hard in eight minutes), while in winter they are often blocked by the snow for two or three weeks together.

Perasto is now a little place of some 500 inhabitants, but shows in its ruined palaces and unfinished church that it was once populous and prosperous. It has had a stormy history, during which the Perastines have shown themselves sturdy fighters and loyal supporters of their overlords, and is the one city of the Bocche which remained faithful and grateful to Venice, even after Campo Formio. When the Austrian troops came to take possession, the gonfalon, which had been confided to the Perastines by the Republic, as a reward for their faithful services almost four centuries before, was buried beneath the altar of S. NicolÒ with a solemn requiem, as if for the burial of a father. It was a red flag with a yellow border, and the winged lion in the centre, prepared to defend the cross planted upon a base rising out of the sea. It was only consigned to the army in maritime and land enterprises in the Levant. The city was distinguished by Venice with the title of "fedelissima gonfaloniera." The guards were selected from the twelve "casate" into which the city was divided, the names being those of the original feudal families. It is asserted that the Perastines had the same honour conferred upon them by the Servian kings, the guard consisting of a company of twelve. Some say that it was their valour in taking the citadel of Cattaro in 1378 which was the origin of the trust. After the contests with Cattaro in 1160 it followed the fortunes of that city till 1365, but in that year Perasto put itself under Venice. The activity shown in assisting Victor Pisani in 1378 had other results, for it was attacked shortly afterwards and sacked by the allies of Lewis of Hungary. Till about 1400 it was subject either to Lewis or Tvartko of Bosnia. It is now quite a little place, with some 500 inhabitants. The palaces, with fine stone balconies now falling into ruins, which were inhabited by the noble families, show how it prospered under Venetian rule, as do the high campanile and the fragment of a large church on the model of La Salute at Venice, commenced some hundred and thirty years ago, but never completed. It is entered from the sacristy of the small church, the arch and vault of the apse towering above it, and showing the whole of the vault and the caps of the pilasters over its roof. In the museum are a banner taken from the Turks in 1654, a sword presented to the commune by Peter Zrinyi, and the gonfalon already mentioned, which was buried beneath the altar. A fine processional cross, a sixteenth-century filigreed chalice, a monstrance, and several reliquaries are also preserved in the place; and here is also the mausoleum of Bishop Zmajevic of Antivari, who took the Albanians to Borgo Erizzo near Zara, and was a Perastine by birth. It lies at the foot of Monte Cassone (about 2,900 ft. high), upon which is Fort S. Croce. From its base the Bay of Ljuta stretches away south-eastwards towards Dobrota, with Orohovac at its foot. The two Stolivos beneath the lofty Vrmac, and Perzagno may be seen on the opposite shore. This last-named place stands finely on a promontory, with a large domed church (an unfinished shell with gaping window-openings) crowning the eminence, whilst many houses, of the same date as those at Perasto, and with fine angle balconies, are scattered about the road along the shore, from which there are delightful views. A late Renaissance church has a rather pretty rose-window with radiating shafts recalling the Romanesque.

Nearer to Cattaro is Mula, and on the other side Dobrota; along both roads are red and white oleanders, orange and lemon trees, ancient figs and chestnuts, locust beans (carob), olives, pomegranates, and main' flowers, among which may be specially named beautiful pale mauve irises. The torrent Skurda, or Fiumara, separates the mountains Pestingrad and Mrajanik from the lofty Lovcen, which towers above Cattaro to the height of 5,770 ft. It is the holy mountain of Montenegro; on it the great Wladika Pietro, the singer of the Servian redemption, chose to be buried, as if from that height his spirit might watch and protect the land to which he devoted his life. Every year a pilgrimage climbs to the white-walled little chapel which sparkles on the dark mountain side. The Servian dream is for the waters of Cattaro to be covered with ships under the eagle of the Nemagna, for the country folk know well the story of Uros, the great Stephan Nemagna, and the epic of the wars against the Turks.

In the city of Cattaro, the ancient Ascrivium or Acrivium, some small remains of the Roman period are to be seen encrusted in the walls of the clock-tower, an altar and a memorial to a girl and her teacher. At the beginning of the ninth century it boasted several fine buildings, to which a rich man named Andreaccio Saracenis, mentioned as "Certo zitadino nobile zintilhomo si de generazion come di richeza," contributed. Towards the end of the eighth century S. Maria Infunara was built by him in the rope-makers' district, and here he also founded a convent to enable his second daughter Theodora to lead the life of contemplation. He also paid for the first cathedral of S. Trifone, which Porphyrogenitus says was circular. The body of this martyr of the third century was being brought to Venice from Asia Minor by certain merchants, when a storm obliged them to shelter in the Bocche. The magnates of the city and Andreaccio treated with the pilot for its purchase, and paid 200 Roman solidi for the shrine, and 100 for a gemmed crown above it. On January 13, 809, clergy and people went by ship to Porto Rose to fetch the body. On their return the bishop invited them to stop on the spot where the church was to be built, and hymns were sung. February 3, the reputed day of his martyrdom, was accepted as the festival, and a figure of S. Trifone was put on the standard of the city. Certain coins which bore his effigy were named after him. The sarcophagus of Andreaccio, in which his wife was also buried, was found beneath the street in 1840, between the cathedral and the bishop's palace. A portion of the ciborium of his church is encrusted in the wall of the sacristy inscribed: "Andree sci ad honorem sociorvmq majorem," and other fragments of the same period have been found during the restoration, which is still going on. That these fragments were part of an ambo on three columns, to which reference has been found, is proved by the inscription from the Ash Wednesday service which runs along it, "Memento te homine," &c. The front had two crosses beneath semicircular heads, with conventional trees or candlesticks beside them, and a great piece of circular interfacings, small and large, like the slabs at S. Maria in Trastevere, Rome. The sides had bands of ornament dividing the surface into unornamented sunken panels. A capital or two of the same period were also found, a relief of peacocks drinking from a vase, and some antique fragments, a piece of a frieze, a column of cipollino and several of granite, and a few antique caps.

The rock above the town, called Stirovnik, has a chapel upon it, the Madonna della Salute, now used as an ossuary, which has a piece of Lombard carving inserted in the tympanum above the door. The present cathedral was built about the middle of the twelfth century. A great effort was made, contributions were invited, and a tax of three per cent, on legacies was imposed. Success crowned the effort, and on June 19, 1166, Bishop Malone consecrated the altars, amid the rejoicings of the Bocchesi. The head of S. Trifone, stolen in 968, was brought from Constantinople in 1227 by Matteo Bonascio. At first deposited in S. Pietro, it was brought to the cathedral on December 20, with great pomp. In return, he was given the field of S. Theodore, and his family was exempted from communal taxes in perpetuity.

PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL, CATTARO PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL, CATTARO

The plan of the cathedral is that of a Roman basilica with nave and aisles. The three apses are semicircular, with pilasters externally. The nave has three quadripartite bays, and a half-bay to the west. The aisles have seven quadripartite bays, two to each one of the nave, with columns between the three pairs of piers upon which the vaults rest. The bay before the apse has been a step higher than the rest. What the arrangement will eventually be it is difficult to say, judging from the state of the interior on the two occasions when I was in Cattaro. The columns of the nave are some of them Byzantine-Roman, and some of them Corinthian. The aisle windows and the fine east window are Gothic. The vaults are most of them of the sixteenth century, the towers of the faÇade seventeenth or eighteenth, and the great rose-window and the doorway below, late Gothic with Renaissance details, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1667. The nave is about 88 ft. long, the aisles within the towers 81 ft., breadth of nave, 19 ft. 6 in., of the aisles 9 ft. 9 in. The ciborium is exceedingly interesting. It rests upon four octagonal columns of the red marble of Lustizza, a place not far away. The altar was rebuilt and beautified in 1362, and it is probable that the baldacchino is of that date. On the base on which the pillars rest are sinkings showing that the altar had a central octagonal pillar, with four smaller circular ones surrounding it. The caps of the ciborium are rather richly carved, and the lintel bears on three sides subjects in relief from the legend of S. Trifone, the back being carved with ornament. The illustration shows the three stages of trefoiled arches, the two lower with coupled colonnettes. The lowest has caryatid figures of a warrior and a civilian in front of the angles to the west. The next stage has twisted colonnettes at the angles, the third squat single shafts, and on a little crowning member pierced with four arches stands a gilded angel, the rest of the canopy being octagonal. The proportions of the figures are squat, and the carving rather rough. The first time I saw it I was able to examine it closely, as it was surrounded by scaffolding, and there were some remains of colour on the figures; but I should not like to assert that it was original, since I understand that the reliefs were painted to imitate marble, and the figures gilded about the middle of the last century. The silver pala is said to be fixed on the wall of the apse during the completion of the restoration; it certainly was not there when I visited the cathedral, and I have not seen it.

CIBORIUM OF S. TRIFONE, CATTARO CIBORIUM OF S. TRIFONE, CATTARO

RELIQUARY OF THE HEAD OF S. TRIFONE, CATTARO RELIQUARY OF THE HEAD OF S. TRIFONE, CATTARO

The treasury contains a good many rather uninteresting objects, such as arm and leg reliquaries of the fourteenth century, or later rather, decorated with nielli and bosses in relief, and a few others shaped like vases borne on stems; on some of them the date 1483 can be traced. The reliquary of the body of S. Trifone is of silver, and rather rough sixteenth-century work, but encloses a wooden coffer, upon which remains of ninth-century paintings have been discovered. The head reliquary is of gold and enamel, the stem and an arcade round the upper part of fourteenth-century work (the upper portion re-made in the seventeenth), and the foot apparently of an intermediate period, with early Renaissance details upon a Gothic plan, medallions in relief, and rough scroll-work. The knop has eight roundels with niello crosses crossleted; on the stem are saints in niello in vesicas. The arches of the canopied arcade are filled with figures in relief in couples and enamels in basse-taille, red and blue alternately. The nielli have had a ground of blue enamel. These two reliquaries and a crystal cross in a very graceful setting, early Renaissance in style, are kept in a receptacle lined with cut velvet, upon which are embroideries of half-figures of saints beneath niches raised in gold; above the niches are domes, and between them twisted columns, probably originally part of a vestment. A globe-shaped ciborium, with cresting and knop of the fourteenth century, is interesting. Upon the globe a pattern with beasts and leaves is chased; the foot is conical and sexfoil in plan, with little niello medallions and piercings on the perpendicular parts of two steps. The knop has pinnacles and pierced gables. A half-length figure of Christ in silver, upon a seventeenth-century pierced hemispherical base, is well modelled and designed, and a reliquary cross of wood used by the Capuchin monk Marcus Avianus, on September 12, 1683, to bless the allied hosts on the Leopoldsberg before the relief of Vienna from the Turks, deserves mention. In the treasury is also a great Romanesque crucifix of painted wood, over life-size, with the feet crossed. According to tradition it belonged to the church of the Franciscans outside the walls, built in 1288 by Elena, wife of Orosius I. The church was pulled down when there was war between Venice and the Turks, and moved within the Porta Gordicchio, which was therefore called the Porta S. Francesco. Most of the convents are now used by the military authorities.

La Colleggiata is the ancient church of S. Maria Infunara, which Andreacci Saracenis founded, but was rebuilt in 1221, during the Servian period. It has a nave two bays in length, the first cross-vaulted, and the second with a dome enclosed within an octagonal drum, and with a barrel-vaulted presbytery before the apse. An aisle to the north, continued to the tower as a sacristy, is later. The apse has shallow pilasters dividing the exterior surface into three, in the centre of which is a walled-up east window of two lights, with a cross within a circle in the tympanum beneath the enclosing arch. The arch of the south door is perhaps a fragment of the original building, and the west door also looks early. In the aisle is a Virgin and Child, with painted faces, and the hands and feet added in relief and painted. The draperies are silver and silver-gilt, patterned, and each figure has a nimbus formed of a gilded patterned roll. The background is of silver, with little angels supporting the Virgin's nimbus, and there is a curious frame of filigree arabesques of tinsel set in wire and standing free.

S. LUKA, CATTARO S. LUKA, CATTARO

S. Luka, the Greek church, of nearly the same period and plan as the cathedral, was built in 1195 by Marco di Andrea Casa Franci, and Bona, daughter of Basilio, prior of Cattaro, The dome is pointed, and rests on four pointed Romanesque arches with rough pendentives. The apse is divided by pilaster strips into three portions externally, and in the central one is a two-light round-headed window with central colonnette. The roof is continued over the chapel of S. Spiridion to the north (which has an apse, but no window, except the little rose over the external door), and this makes the church look square from the south-east. The west side has one clerestory window beneath a great unmoulded arch, and a circular-headed door below, the jambs of which are made of earlier fragments; the late belfry is of three arches, two and one; beneath is an unusual curved ornamentation, a curious presage of the "New Art" of a few years ago. The church appears to have been restored in the fourteenth century, since a consecration by Bishop Doimo II. is recorded in 1368; but it has been a Greek church since 1689, was enlarged in 1747, and the structure shows signs of considerable rebuilding. The iconostasis is of the seventeenth century; the paintings are covered with silver plates. There is a huge cross with wings at the base and paintings. Through the central arch the arca and a little cross are seen. The chapel of S. Spiridion also has its iconostasis. At Easter time two processional crosses of silver and a Resurrection banner decorate the church outside the iconostasis. The Cattarine silversmiths have also executed work away from their own shores. It will be remembered that Stephen IV. of Servia gave a silver altar to the church of S. Nicola, Bari, in 1322, the work of Abrado of Cattaro.

THE SCUOLA NAUTICA, CATTARO THE SCUOLA NAUTICA, CATTARO

There are a few interesting doors and windows in the town, of various periods. The Palazzo Drago, near the cathedral, has a pretty window of something the same style as the east window of the cathedral; the great doorway of the provincial tribunal has some fine heraldry in the tympanum (a helmeted lion, with another lion for the crest) and angels in the spandrils, while upon the caps beneath the lintel are other lions, with shields flying from their necks. These are of the late Venetian period. The faÇade of the Nautical School, illustrated, displays a bold and unusual treatment, and there is a well near the hotel with elaborate and massive iron-work about the pump connected with it. The streets and alleys are all of the same width, and badly lighted, and it is a difficult place to find one's way about after dark. The only amusement available is usually the large cafÉ on the Riva, which appears to be open at all hours of the day and night—at least, we had coffee there before leaving by boat at 4.15 a.m. The gates are shut at 9 p.m., except the Porta Marina. Over this gate the Venetian lion still appears, a rather late example, but in refreshing contrast with the griffins supporting the Austrian arms above, a work of 1814. Outside are gigantic oleander-trees, and, to the right, the market, where many Montenegrins may be seen in their striking costumes. Beyond the Porta Gordicchio is the wood market, and one for horses and forage is outside the Porta Fiumara, where the barrack for belated Montenegrins stands, for they are not admitted within the walls.

Just outside the Porta Marina we found a shooting-saloon established on our second visit, with a number of moving figures, which performed on the marksman hitting a certain point, the most diverting of which were an old woman with a kicking donkey, and two fighting goats. Several soldiers tried their hands, but with very indifferent success. Great excitement was evoked by an accident while the mails were being unloaded one afternoon; a post-van fell into the water, many large postal parcels being damaged, and part of the top of the van ripped off by the measures adopted for its recovery. This "Riva" was the scene of the murder of Danilo II. in 1860.

A CORNER OF THE WALLS, CATTARO A CORNER OF THE WALLS, CATTARO

The walls, which are 28 ft. high, were built in 1667, after the older ones had been thrown down by an earthquake. These must have been strong, since the city was blockaded in vain by a Venetian fleet in 1378, and attacked by the Turks equally vainly in 1539, 1569, 1572, and 1657. The present walls zigzag up the mountain to the Fort S. Giovanni, which dominates the roads leading into Montenegro. From the fort one looks down upon the first house beyond the frontier. A little below the fort is a threatening mass of rock, which has been bound with iron to prevent it from falling upon the city below. The Montenegrin road climbs the mountain with no less than sixty-six zigzags.

At a little chapel with an early Renaissance faÇade some way outside the town, the Angelus bell hung outside just below the gable termination, without any visible means of being rung, and we wondered how this was done, until we happened one day to be within sight at the Angelus hour, when we saw a man bring out a ladder and ascend to within reach of a short cord hanging from the clapper, which he seized and agitated!

The military are on the look-out for spies, and our camera occasioned two or three very searching inquiries. I congratulated myself upon having obtained authority to photograph from headquarters, without which we should certainly have been stopped. After taking the group of the Albanian horsedealers (who crossed with us to Bari with their merchandise) we wished to have a separate figure of the villain to the left; but the next man, who was master of the gang, thought time enough had been lost, and, taking the halter from a horse, twisted it round his neck by way of explaining that he was his servant, and that he objected to any further interruption to business. As we were walking between Perzagino and Mula an old man addressed us, asking if we were English, and, on our replying that we were, said he had been twenty times in London, and called our attention to his house, which he said had been inhabited by Prince Nikita during the troubles at Cattaro.

ALBANIAN HORSE-DEALERS, CATTARO To face page 388 ALBANIAN HORSE-DEALERS, CATTARO To face page 388

We saw very few English on our second trip. From the time we passed Cologne to the time we arrived at Cattaro we did not hear a word of our own language, though the boat in which we travelled from Spalato to Cattaro was entirely of English make, with Liberty chintzes in the cabins, and panels of coloured plaster in the saloon. It had cost £70,000, the captain said, and was certainly extremely rapid and comfortable. In the early morning we saw the sardine boats coming in. They carry on the bow an apparatus with a number of jets connected with an acetylene plant, producing at night a most vivid light. The Bocchese is a born seaman, beginning at the age of twelve, and often going on till he is seventy. In the Bocche scarcely a third of the land is fruitful, yet 40,000 people lived in the district, mainly, of course, by the sea. From their childhood the boys have always longed for the day when they might accompany their fathers into the world beyond the sea. They were always ready to fight, and expected to have to do so, for, until the second half of the eighteenth century, it was unusual good fortune to make a sea or land trip to Albania without being attacked. The ancient houses, with loopholes and little windows, still look more like citadels than convenient dwellings. The women had to protect their children and their own honour when the men were away, and this had its effect upon their character. In many villages it was the custom for a bride to go out some morning before she was married into a lonely place and sing the death-wail, so that she might know it if she became a widow!

The introduction of the steamboat has reduced the employment of sailing craft, and the Bocchesi have become poor, but they provided the best sailors for the Venetian fleet, and their seamanship has not decayed.

There were certain variations among the Bocchesi from the religious customs of the Morlacchi, which are perhaps worth noting. The great fast before Easter lasted for fifty days, and during that time even fish was allowed but twice to the sick, on the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday. During fasts the people do not sing, a custom observed strictly on the islands. Three days before Ascension Day the crosses are taken out of the churches and fastened to poles ten or twelve feet high, with fluttering banners; these days are therefore called "Cross" days. The village girls make garlands to hang from the ends of the crosses. They are then carried in procession round the village and over the fields; when a spring is reached it is surrounded, the priest reads the gospel, and blesses the water and the people with the cross. On Ascension Day, or the day before, a procession with the cross goes through the village, and every house is blessed. In the coast-strip, on the eve of "Cross Day," there is a frugal supper; on the day itself, a dinner. Before both, the master of the house cuts a piece of bread from the "Kreuzlaib" (a large round loaf with a cross marked in the centre), and sticks in it a taper which he has lighted with a brand from the hearth. All pray before it for their dead, cross themselves, and sit down to table. Later in the meal the master rises with a glass of wine, soaks a bit of bread in it, and, with the traditional formula, "I to thee, bread and wine; thou to me, health and joy," extinguishes the taper with the morsel. Then he drinks to all, and they to him. The great piece of bread, into which the taper was stuck, is given to the first beggar who comes by. They provide much more than enough for the guests, as the custom is on those days to feed the poor in villages and towns. Unless the family is in mourning, drinking songs are sung suitable to the guests, of whatever position.

Fires are lighted on the eve of S. Stephen's Day, and also on New Year's Day and Epiphany, as well as on the morning of S. John the Baptist's Day, when the people jump over the midsummer fires and cry: "From one S. Giovanni to another, may aching feet be far from me!" On New Year's Day the children get an apple or an orange from the mother, and go to the father, asking him to silver it; he sticks a ten-kreuzer piece or two into it, and they go on to friends and relations with the same request.

Every village has its church (some have three or even more), every hilltop has its sanctuary, and each island its holy place. In Cattaro, till the beginning of the nineteenth century, churches and convents occupied a third of the area within the walls, and each nobleman had his private chapel in his villa. The Bocchesi were noted for their honourable fidelity to their word once given, and this probity is still recognised in their commercial dealings. The married sons usually live in the house till the father's death; then the property is divided, and each takes his own house. If the mother is alive she lives with the eldest son. The house master divides the food, giving sufficient to each one, so that he would sometimes go short himself if the girls and daughters-in-law were not always ready to offer him the best part of their portions. The country women of Montenegro always kiss the hand of a male acquaintance in greeting. On the road the man is met on mule-back smoking, the woman on foot with a load, and they neither of them would consent to change their position, and put the load on the mule and make the man walk. The men wear full breeches, a waistcoat and sash round the waist, and a thick whitish wool coat over it, which is sometimes girded with the sash, leggings, and the usual raw-hide shoes. On the head is a black silk cap with a magenta centre embroidered with gold thread. The women wear a coat of the same shape, but of lighter material, and sleeveless, over a kind of jacket, and on the head the same shaped cap with a handkerchief draped over it and hanging down at the back.

MONTENEGRINS IN THE MARKET, CATTARO MONTENEGRINS IN THE MARKET, CATTARO

Cattaro has about 2,000 inhabitants, of whom scarcely ten families are old-established; all the old families are dead, or have emigrated. Part of the present population are Italian immigrants; part are Albanian and Montenegrin families (to which nationality many of the country people also belong), who, either for purposes of trade or craft, have settled in the town. From many towns in Austria come the sub-alterns, who have married and now live here. The usual language is Croat, but Italian is generally understood, and songs with the Venetian accent may be heard. But all are much interested in the "Marinerezza," the finest festival of the Bocche, held on February 3. On January 27 the preliminaries commence. The marine officers arrange themselves on the seat before the cathedral at midday. As soon as the clock has struck the second stroke of 12 the "little sea director," a boy of nine or ten, comes out on the gallery above the door, armed and in national costume, and, in Croat, delivers a short speech announcing the beginning of the festival, and calling the citizens to take part in it. At the end he takes off his cap, waves it, and greets the standard of S. Trifone with three "Slava!" At this moment the flag is unfurled, the music strikes up, the bells ring, and the people shout "Slava!" (which means "Glory!"). On the eve of the day the outside members are met and greeted with music by those of the town, parading before the cathedral. At 4 p.m. the sea director meets the bishop, who blesses the "Kolo" before Vespers. The whole piazza is thronged with people, and in the middle is the body of the "Marinerezza," with the "Kolo" leader and his company ready. The ancient costumes, golden knives, silver gypsires, gold pierced purses, &c., show the ancient riches of the Bocche. The music strikes up, and the "Marinerezza" begins the ancient "Kolo" dance, after which the bishop enters the church, where a solemn service begins, lasting late into the night. The next day the same dance is repeated before Mass, after which the relics of S. Trifone are carried in procession through the narrow streets. Then the Society feasts the poor of the town and neighbourhood in the court of the bishop's palace. In the evening there are fireworks, and other celebrations take place on the Sunday following.

The standard of S. Trifone bears his figure on a white ground, with the words "Fides et Honor" on a gold embroidered band.

Cattaro appears to have been a republic till the thirteenth century, when it came under the protection of Servia, and so continued till the extinction of the dynasty of the Nemagna. A document of 1351 of Stephen "per la Dio gratia Imperator de Servia et de Grezia" confirms all its privileges. It was one of the most important ports of the eastern coast of the Adriatic in the Middle Ages, and competed with Ragusa for the inland trade. In 1301 it was attacked by that city, and again in 1361. After the death of Uros the Strong, in 1368, it sought the protection of Lewis of Hungary, at that time the most powerful prince in Europe, and thereby lost the friendship of Venice. In 1378 Victor Pisani ravaged the Bocche, sacked the city, and took away a foot of S. Trifone in a silver reliquary, which he placed in S. Fantino, Venice. Twenty years later Cattaro offered itself to Venice, but was not accepted till twenty more years had passed. On July 25, 1420, Pietro Loredano, Captain of the Gulf, came to take formal possession. The ensigns of the commune and the keys of the city were brought in procession to the representative of the Republic, and the standard of S. Mark was hoisted on the cathedral. The oath of loyalty and devotion to the "Serenissima" was taken by Paolo Bucchia, count, Marius Bisanti and Luca Drago, judges, and the forty members of the greater council. The territory was then called Albania Veneta. The Bocchesi enrolled themselves voluntarily as sailors, and formed the finest portion of the personnel of the Venetian navy.

Under the Byzantines the prior was first in the state, though there is mention of a Catapan in 1163. The title of the supreme officer was changed to "Rector," and (in 1159) to "Count." Till 1398 he was elected annually; after that time he bore office for a month. He was required to be a native of a friendly Dalmatian city, and was elected by the "arengo" of the nobles. His payment was partly in coin and partly in kind. No one could ask him to be godfather, nor could others of his family contract spiritual affinity with any citizen. Neither he nor his relations could receive gifts, nor go to banquets in or out of the city, except for marriages, and with permission of the greater council; nor could he sleep outside the city. He was always followed by a knight and six squires, clothed at his own expense; and, notwithstanding his grandeur and power, one would think must have been glad when his term of office was completed. The council of the "Pregati" consisted of fifteen members of the Senate, elected annually on S. George's Day. There were three judges selected by them from the lesser council, which was composed of six nobles, also elected annually. Till the tenth century the bishop was elected by the chapter, from that time till the thirteenth by the clergy and people, after which period the appointment was made by the Pope. Thefts were punished by fine up to three times the value of the object stolen, and by prison, beating, branding, and maiming, following inability to pay. Similar punishments were enacted for offences against the person; but homicide of a citizen brought the criminal to the halter.

From Cattaro it is but a short distance to the southern boundary of the Austrian Empire on the Adriatic. A stone column between Spizza and Antivari marks the line. Two telegraphic wires are attached to this stone, one belonging to Austria, and one to Montenegro. The Bay of Antivari is said to be the most picturesque place on the Albanian coast, surrounded as it is by lofty mountains, with trees almost hiding the minarets of the town, while, to the north, Spizza is perched on red rocks rising steeply from the water. There is a great waterfall, which appears to fall sheer into the sea, with a mill just at its foot. Budua, which is fifteen miles from Cattaro, is something like Arbe in situation, crowning a projecting peninsula, and with grey mountains towering above it. It was a Roman fortress, known as Buta, and one of the keys to the interior. It was sacked by Saracen pirates in the ninth century, and in 1571 the Turks fell on it and burnt it. In 1687 it was defended against them by a Cornaro, but contains nothing of sufficient importance to repay the trouble of a visit.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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