Original scientific paper
Rectangular windows sacral buildings in Lika and Krbava
Zorislav Horvat
; Uprava za zaštitu kulturne i prirodne baštine
Abstract
In Medieval Croatia, in the hinterland of mount Velebit — (today's region of Lika and Crbava) —only a small number of sacral estate buildings have been preserved, and only according to a few of them can we try to immafive what they once looked like. Surprisingly, although there is such a small number of country churches, some special features are prevalent: simple rectangular ground plans, they way the buildings are arranged in quadrangles, design and proportions, lunettes above the west portal and almost always rectanular windows. Bigger and more important churches in these areas have their own characteristics, but they are in line with the traditionals of medieval Croatian architecture. The rectangular windows on Gothic sacral estate buildings surprises us with their simple shapes. The ground plans of the churches are all different, but they have the same conception of space. The shrine is Romanesque, only a niche, and some other features connect these churches and chapels to certain other Medieval sacral buildings, but here we cannot confirm the shape of the windows, because they have either been knocked down of partitioned. The position of windows in the naves, of these nad some other im medieval Croatia, are mostly placed so that
the illumination of the inside, together with the shrine, is concentrated towards the altar. Gothic details of the sacral buildings which we are describing show that the rectangular shape of the windows might have been taken over from Gothic. The rectangular shape, which is easier to carry out, was probably chosen because of lack of experience.
The Gothic influence — specially because of the rectangular windows — is the result of the castle and chapel built by Nikola IV of Krk, the first Frankopan, in Brinje. They were probably built by masons from Bohemian workshops at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century. We must stress the rational way of building of the Parler workshops in the 14th century, which Peter Parler introduced as the foundation of design in architecture. There is much use of rectanular shapes in the castle and chapel in Brinje, and they are easier to build. Thic rational aroach to building fits in well for builiding simple country chrurches in medieval Croatia, in undeveloped regions such as Lika and Krbava, because the stone-masonary and complicated details probably caused diiculties to the local masons. Rectanular windows are so archetypal and so simple to build, that it is not srprising that our medieval masons in th hinterland of Velebit constructed them so widely.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
148081
URI
Publication date:
15.12.1997.
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