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SALONA CHRISTIANA (III) EXAMPLES OF »ROOFLESS CHURCHES« (BASILICA DISCOPERTA) IN SALONA
Duje Rendić-Miočević
Sažetak
When E. Dyggve in the late thirties, at the fourt international congress of Christian archeology, 1938 (Forschungen in Salona, III, 1939), gave a new version of the monumental complex in the Salonitan cemterial complex Marusinac, the attention of the experts in the world was centered upon his original interpretation of the architectural remains situated to the north of the large cemeterial basilica. That structure, earlier mostly interpreted as villa rustica, has been considered by Dyggve as an early Christian cult monument, having recognized in it – for the first time in a preserved monument – a so-called »roofless church« (ecclesia sine tecto) or a »not covered basilica« (basilica discoperta), mentioned by some ancient Christian writers of travels. This thesis has been accepted by many eminent archaeologists and historians – the famous A. Grabar among them – but there were also certain reservations, viz. opinions expressing some other, less radical solutions relative to the traditional architecture of the early Christianity. Another scholar – also an old hand at the Salonitan monumental heritage – R. Egger, whose results concerning the questions of chronology and typology of the above-mentioned monumental complex were published in the same copy of the »Forschungen in Salona«, did not accept Dyggve’s thesis: the monument, defined by Dyggve as basilica discoperta he considered to be an open cemtery, framed by porticoes, with a memorial where the remains of a Salonitan martyr were buried. A similar opinion was also held by Ljubo Karaman, who published it in the periodical »Peristil« 1, 1954. In that complex structure Karaman sees, first of all, »an open-air cemetery.... with arcades around... and with a cemeterial exedra.«
Dyggve’s thesis, which was really based on the statical insufficence of columns between the naves, was challenged later by R. M. Milenović (»Jahres – hefte des Osterr. Archäol. Inst.« in Vienna, XLI, 1954) who tried to prove that also those scanty columns – measuring about 40 centimetres in diameter – could have supported the roof of the central nave of the basilica, and not only the light roof of the arcade. That new thesis, which in the above structure likewise considered a normal, traditional basilica – accordingly another cemeterial basilica at Marusinac – was emphatically rejected by Dyggve as completely unfounded.
Following his revisional investigations in the Episcopal basilica complex at Salona – in fact in the complex of the duble basilica (basilicae geminae) – Dyggve has arrived to the conclusion that in that area, west of the nartex of the above-mentioned basilicae, he has discovered another hypethral cult serving structure, most probably anew Oratorium (marked with an »E« in Dyggve’s plan). That wew discovered, or newly valorized object was interpreted by him as a »roofless basilica« which was dealt with in his report entitled »A New Basilica Discoperta at Solin« (Publication »Peristil«, 2, 1957, and elsewhere).
This has induced the author of the these lines to disagree on the one hand, although with a certain delay, with this newest interpretation of a monument in the Episcopal complex, and, on the other hand, to renew the discussion about the entire problem of the so-called Salonitan exemples of »roofles basilicae«. The author accepts the earlier viewpoints of Egger and Karaman and exposes his own opinion with respect to that problem, both as regards the Marusinac cemeterial complex and as regards this, much better known in the Episcopal centre »intra moenia«.
In the Marusinac »roofless basilica« the author recognizes, first of all, an apsidal construction with the function of a memorial (which as a starting point of development, is suggested also by Dyggve) with the later added monumental atrium with porticoes. There is no justification for callling »basilica« such a type of twin structures, even though roofless, known also by the profane architecture in the Antiquity (a number of villas in Pannonia, the famous Sertius’ market-hall at Thamugadi, etc.)
Two basilicas in one cemeterial complex at Salona – which was the only case among the many cemeteries of that city – were not needed, and there was no justification for them. In addition to the Mausoleum of Anastasius the Martyr and to the large cemeterial basilica from the 5th century, we have here, according to the author, also the monumentally built Martyrium, to which was – probably later – added a spacious atrium with porticoes, like those in the Mausoleum complex itself. The author directs attention to somewhat modestly executed complex at Muline (on Pašman Island) with the same elements – Mausoleum, Martyrium, Basilica – in a rural setting, spacious farm buildings (villa rustica).
With the same argumentation rejects the author the thesis of the »new« basilica of the mentioned type in the Episcopal complex inside the city, pointing out that there is no place for a third basilica (differently oriented: S-N) in addition to the two existend ones. The so-called third basilica, according to the author, is nothing else than one of the numerous Oratorii, or chapel from the same part of the city area where the early Christian centre originated and developed. The author particularly dwells on the question of typology of that new Oratorium (Dyggve, too, called it thus, marking it with an »E« in the arrangement of determined Oratorii), quoting some examples from the early Christian architecture in the Illyrian region – particularly those from the areas of today’s Bosnia and Hercegovina – as well as from the pre-Christian, i e. antique Roman region (Pannonia). This offered the author the opportunity to deal once again with his thesis about the genesis of those pseudo-single-nave-churches, in fact hall churches with added lateral spaces – reminding so much the type of the konwn, the oldest Salonitan Oratorium (Dyggve’s Oratorium »A«). The similiarity in ground-plan solutions of a number of rural and urban Christian cult structures – Oratorii, Basilicae, and the like – with some types of profane arhitecture of the Antiquity, shows, so it seems, where the solution of the genesis of those types of early Christian sacred architecture should be sought, particularlyin this country, since it is neither possible nor permissible to look for or to construct hypotheses about some universal, absolute origin of Christian basilicae, the typology of which being extraordinarily rich.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
159319
URI
Datum izdavanja:
23.12.1980.
Posjeta: 1.600 *