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The Užižić Palace and the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian
Ivo Štambuk
Abstract
In this text the author analyses the proportions of the Užižić Palace, the houses inside the palace and the nearby Church of Ss. Cosmas and Damian. The Užižić Palace stands above the main town gates of Porta Maestra. The palace was never finished, and it was never covered by a roof. People lived within the interior of the building up to 1950. Previously, the building was called the Leporini Palace, then the Hektorović Palace, because of the family crests carved on its windows, but Joško Kovačić proved that it was Nikola Užižić who started building the palace in 1463, so that the proper name for it was the Užižić Palace. This author recommends that it should be called 'Golden Palace' because of its proportions. In spring 2010, the palace was extended upwards by three lines of stones and a cornice (stone gutter). The facade of the palace no longer has the proportions as envisaged by the architect who designed it in the 14th century. Inside the building is another house which is older. The Church of Ss. Cosmas and Damian in Hvar is situated inside a Romanesque house built around the end of the 13th century. So a family house was reconstructed as a church, and this happened around the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century. The house in which the church was built was the benefice of the patrician Ozor Kačić. The church is being restored at present time, and previously unknown details have been discovered about how the house had looked when it was a residence. The facades of the Romanesque residential house were square. Probing under the floor in the northeastern aisle of the church and in the apse at a depth of 10-12 cm revealed a stone slab from the Romanesque house, while at a depth of 1.4 m there was a floor of uneven paving stones, most probably from late antiquity, and part of a wall with traces of plastering in an east-west orientation, at the foot of the step of the apse. Many antique relics were also found.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
129871
URI
Publication date:
26.11.2014.
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