Original scientific paper
THE ORTOGONAL STREET NETWORK OF THE NORTHERN PART OF THE CITY OF HVAR
Ambroz Tudor
; Državna uprava za zaštitu kulturne i prirodne baštine, Split
Abstract
The research of the spatial organization of the city of Hvar has until recently been mostly limited to its general outstanding characteristics: e.g. the difference between the ortogonal network of the medieval city inside the walls, Groda, and the absence of this design in its southern suburb, Burka. Especially stressed by everyone is the most outstanding characteristic of the city with respect to other Medieval towns of the Easterm Adriatic: the walled Medieval civitas does not have a central open space to serve as city square, and its cathedral is situated outside its walls. Only when the southern suburb developed in the second half of the fifteenth century did the empty field which divided the city from the suburb (bordered by the cathedral on its east side and the Rector's Palace on its west side) gradually assume the role of central city square. Existing literature stresses the ortogonal street arrangement inside the city walls, contrasting it to the street network of the southern suburb composed of irregular ellipsoidal blocks, characterizing the periods preceding those of planned devlopment. However, no research has been done of the street network of the western city suburb Gojava. Gojava lies to the west of the city walls and is today characterized by a loose (sparse) arrangement of buildings. Along with G roda, Gojava constitutes the northern segment of the town of Hvar. Indications that the housing had greater density in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries can be found in the walled-up apertures of former houses on the stone walls of what today are gardens. It is divided from the western stretch of the city walls by a pommerium, about twenty steps wide, as stipulated in the City Statutes of 1331. In Gojava the central part is ortogonal, but its northern and western fringes are irregular, having developed from former country lanes. The central ortogonal street arrangement is related to that of Groda, with which it contituses one whole. From the west fringe of Gojava to the east city gate (Porta Badoer) across the entire width of the northern part of the city - runs an almost straight street serving as the main communication between the two parts of the dte. it points eest-west, following the isohypsos of the hillside underlying the fort, on which lies the northern part of the city. Lower down on the hillside there is another parallel street also pointing east-west. These two streets are intersected at right angles with six streets: two in Gojava and four in Groda. All these intersecting streetsd are arranged at regular intervals, meeting the two east-west thoroughfares at right angles. This street arrangement creates rectangular housing blocks of approximately equal size (the east-west side of cca 40 meters and the north-south side of cca 32 meters). Inside the Medieval civitas the square blocks of housing are divided by streets approximately across the middle, creating smaller, irregular rectangular blocks or series with sides of cca 16 meters in the east-west direction, and 32 meters in the direction north-south. The streets intersecting the blocks in Groda run parallel with the western stretch of the city walls which divide the square blocks leaving only one third of the block inside the walls. In Gojava there are no traces of splitting the larger square block into two smaller rectangular ones. The history of the development of the ortogonal street network of the northern part of the city of Hvar can be clearly followed from the end of the thirteenth century until the first half of the fifteenth century when it was fully defined. A specially important role in this development was played by the construction of the city walls which lasted for several centuries and in the course of which the perimeter of the walls was reduced considerably with respect to what had been planned at the end of the thirteenth century. The shrinking of the city resulted from its stagnation under Anjouvin rule (1358-1420). According to the project drafted at the end of the thirteenth century the walls were to embrace the entire northern part of the city including the complex of the Cathedral and the Episcopal Palace at its south-east end. This plan was not carried through, so today Hvar has a sparsely inhabited suburb and a dense web of housing inside its walls. The author also considers the problem of the potential influence on the plan of Hvar of a city built in Late Antiquity "near Saint Mary of Lesna" (mentioned in the document surrendering the city to Venice in 1278 and today identified with Procopius' Lisna (sixth century). On the basis of archive documents this town was located on the territory of today's Groda. Although the present state of research cannot confirm with any certainty that the street grid of Groda derives from Late Antiquity, the discovery of a Late Roman house in the Gazaroviša insula, whose perimetral walls follow the direction of the streets, leave room for
such a hypothesis.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
151183
URI
Publication date:
15.12.1995.
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