Original scientific paper
THE MEDIEVAL FRANCISCAN MONASTERY AND CHURCH OF ST MARY IN BRIBIR
Kosjenka Laszlo Klemar
; Hrvatski restauratorski zavod – Zagreb
Abstract
This paper endeavours to determine in greater detail the time and the context of the foundation of the Franciscan monastery with the church of St Mary in Bribir and also to establish their characteristics on the basis of the extant material remains, reports from archaeological exuviations and information existing in written sources. At the very beginning of the work the importance of the Bribir monastery is brought out, deriving principally from the fact that this was the first Franciscan monastery founded on the mainland of Dalmatia and, at the same time, the only Franciscan monastery in this area that was built before the middle of the 14th century and the remains of which are extant
On the basis of data provided by the death notices of the Bribir monastery, kept in the monastery of St Francis in Šibenik, and from the selection of the dedicatee of the church, the upper time limit of the founding of the monastery can be put at the end of the 13th century. The same conclusion is produced from an analysis of the remains of St Mary’s and the extant fragments of stone furnishing and architectural decoration the nearest analogies to which are in the capitals of the pulpits of the cathedrals in Split and Trogir.
The reasons for the founding of the monastery are seen in the links between the Šubić family of Bribir and the well-known promoters of the Franciscan orders the Angevins and Pope Nicholas IV, who was himself a Franciscan and who in 1256 issued a document in which the recommends the Franciscans to spiritual and secular landowners. The founding of the Franciscan monastery in Bribir, then, was set off not only by religious motivations but also by the political ambitions of Paul I, his desire to achieve some of his political aims more easily, as well as the need for the demonstration of his social and economic prestige.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
193068
URI
Publication date:
20.2.2017.
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