Review article
FRAGMENT OF A LATE-GOTHIC JUNCTION FROM THE CHURCH OF SAINT ROKO AT THE PERISTYLE IN SPLIT
Vinko Madiraca
Abstract
During the conservational-archaeological research conducted as part of a large project for restoring the Peristyle and church of St. Roko, a great deal of insight into the various phases of the development of said church was gleamed. The church is a complex mixture of late-antique elements from the main street of Diocletian's Palace (decumanus), Romanesque housing, and the western Renaissance facade. Thanks to an archaeological probe, a fragment of a late-gothic junction, unlike any from palaces inside Split's city center at the time, was found inside a layer of mortar covered with glazed ceramic from around the 15th and 16th century, at the northeast corner of the church's basement. The most characteristic examples of urban palaces are connected to workshop of Juraj Dalmatinac, among which the Grand Papalić palace stands out with its monumental quadriphore and junction. Similar junctions adorn notable Venetian palaces (Ca' d'Oro), which Juraj himself worked on, and this same motif is present on the northern facade of the cathedral of St. Jacob in Šibenik. These aren't the only examples from the area of Dalmatia, and they routinely feature technically demanding sculpting on representative structures. Even though we can find specific examples of hollowed-out junctions and perforated parapets across Dalmatia, from Šibenik, Trogir, and Split to Brač, Hvar, Korčula, and Dubrovnik, according to their proportions, scheme, and the angles of the arches, the shape of the columns and capitols, as well as the finish of the moldings, they fall under various influences and workshop cultures. An archaeological finding of a stone fragment from the church of St. Roko on the Peristyle proves that such junctions really did exist on housing buildings within the city's tissue. The finding of the fragment points to the possibility of late-antique construction in the areal of the church of St. Roko, because it is precisely this stylistic and construction layer that is completely missing from a larger section of the cardo.
Keywords
Split; church of St. Roko; a late-gothic junction; archaeological research
Hrčak ID:
159291
URI
Publication date:
30.5.2015.
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