Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.21857/m3v76tenny
On the problem of the location of Early Medieval Basilicas of St. John the Evangelist and St. Thomas in Biograd na moru
Ana Jordan Knežević
orcid.org/0000-0002-3833-1177
; The Permanent Exhibition of Religious Art in Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
Abstract
The city of Biograd flourished during the reign of Croatian King Petar Krešimir IV. (1058 - 1074). This period was of exceptional importance for the city and the church likewise, because that is when two Benedictine monasteries were founded, within which large three-nave basilicas were built. In the document of Petar Krešimir IV, where the king donated the property to the monastery of St John the Evangelist, we have the first concrete data on the organisation of the Diocese of Biograd with the mention of the Bishop of Biograd Theodosius.
The monuments of Biograd attracted the attention of many historians, archaeologists and art historians, but also that of travel writers. As early as the end of the 19th century, Don Luka Jelić showed interest in researching church architecture in the Biograd area. Namely, in his article "Historical and Topographical Sketches of the Biograd Coast," he made his first observations about Biograd monuments. In 1902, he began the first archaeological excavations at the Glavica site, where he discovered the remains of the former Biograd Cathedral. In 1905, Jelić started researching the "early Christian Basilica of St. Mary", located northwest of the cathedral, in the garden of Artur Jeličić. All manuscripts from these investigations are preserved in Jelić's archive holding in the library of the Archaeological Museum in Split. From this archival material, it follows that Don Luka Jelić, but also a significant number of "older" researchers, bring completely different title-bearers from those that appear in the relevant literature of the last century. Thus, at the position of the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist, Jelić means "the early Christian basilica of St Mary", and St. John and the Benedictine monastery are positioned near the town citadel. These are essential complexes of early medieval sacral architecture, built thanks to the Croatian ruling dynasty in the 11th century. Due to the importance of the sites, the author analysed all available archival material and literature, as well as the material remains to answer the question about where Benedictine basilicas in Biograd were located and to whom they were dedicated in the past.
Keywords
don Luka Jelić; Benedictine monasticism; St. John the Evangelist; St. Thomas; St. Mary; title-bearer of the church; the early Middle Ages; Biograd na moru
Hrčak ID:
248389
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2020.
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