Original scientific paper
THE RECTOR’S PALACE ON THE ISLAND OF LOPUD
Nada Grujić
Abstract
Research carried out in 2005 in the Rector’s Palace on the island of Lopud resulted in two kinds of finds. One clarified the function and appearance of the rooms of this monument in the second half of the 15th century and proved to be important for the renovation. The second set of finds, however, can be considered completely unexpected, relating to the manner of construction, the preparation of
the ground and the way the rooms are equipped technologically. Here it is not the stone furniture or installations that are meant. Almost nothing of these finds can be renovated and restored to its function, but is of great importance for knowledge of the conditions of housing at that time. By referring to the notes in little known fragments from the writings of the greatest treatise writers of the time it has been shown that the camino and necessario together with all the outlet ducts (chimneys and channels) are topics that they found engrossing.
The typological particularity of the Lopud Rector’s Palace derives from the combination of the two essentially different functions – residential and public. However, of all the seats of government in the extra-urban area of Dubrovnik, this is the best example of the creation of a grand building for public use by the adoption of the typological and architectural features of country villa architecture. The characteristic L-shaped ground plan created by a two storey house and wing with terrace, the disposition of the developed parts within the fenced plot and the division of the fenced garden into two parts (including the courtyard), the link of the hall with the terrace in front of the façade and with the garden behind are all marks of many of the Dubrovnik villas. But while the villas, almost without exception, have a standard floor plan on both ground floor and first floor – a central hall and two rooms on each side, in the Lopud Rector’s Palace there was a deviation
from this kind of plan. In the ground floor the deployment of the rooms and their apertures in shape and size is subordinated to function. But on the first floor it is very different: in that part of the façade that is visible in the full height, the fenestration is symmetrical, irrespective of the asymmetrical arrangement of the rooms. Here prevailed, clearly, the aspiration to mark the piano nobile by the regular distribution of windows. On the façade, then, the apertures of the ground floor and the upstairs do not correspond along the vertical axes. This prompts the conclusion that some of the elements in the organisation of the space and the fenestration – in spite of the stylistic forms of architectural decoration – reveal a stronger connection with Gothic than with Renaissance architecture. The interweaving of Gothic and
Renaissance elements can be followed in the Lopud palace in the spatial division, in the distribution of apertures on the facades, and also in the parallel appearance of windows in both one and the other style. What is more, here it is shown that in spite of the increasingly marked penetration of Renaissance forms, the traditional Gothic shapes were still preferred, and considered a mark of refinement, particularly
where the exterior is concerned. For this reason on the front elevation, which can be seen from a distance and from all around, there are only Gothic apertures, while the Renaissance windows are placed on the subsidiary lateral elevations visible only from the garden. The time of the creation of the Rector’s Palace on Lopud was determined by
some characteristics of the architecture and some stylistically formed elements of its stone furnishing. And while on the fireplace and all the wall wardrobes in the rooms, in the private areas, that is, Renaissance forms prevail, in the grandest public room in the hall on the top floor the most important decorative element, the large wall wash basin, the Gothic type of framework remains, decorated with Renaissance motifs. Irrespective of such combinations of two styles corresponding to a fairly broad time span, it is certain that a decision to build the Rector’s
Palace on Lopud could have occurred only after 1447; the upper limit for the building can be placed in the 1470s. Proof of this kind of dating can be found in Lopud itself.
In its own Lopud surrounds, the Rector’s Palace remained a supreme achievement. The example would be followed in various ways, but it would have been hard for the forms of the two styles to be so logically and properly combined at all levels anywhere else. In the quality of its architecture the Rector’s Palace on Lopud should call to mind numerous still unexplored and undiscovered houses, palaces and mansions that with the loss of their original function are gradually disappearing, while at the same time, outside this country, increasing attention is being devoted to the history of residential architecture.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
109700
URI
Publication date:
15.8.2008.
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