Original scientific paper
The spolia in Gašpina and Aljinovićeva water mills in Solin
Nenad Cambi
Abstract
The Solin's river Rika provided a source of great potentials to the development of thetown that, founded at this favourable location, provided large economic benefit. Besides offering the excellent drinking water, it enabled development of economy (water powered mills and textile mortars). Today at the Rika in Solin there are still these water mills [mlinica is a Croatian local word for water mill]: Velika galija with 13 millstones, Velika Gabrića with eight millstones, Aljinovićeva mlinica with five millstones, and Gašpina mlinica with fifteen millstones. Mala Gabrića was destroyed in a bombing in the Second World War. It had four millstones and a mortar.
In the walls of two mills there are two, actually three spolia. In Gašpina mlinica in Solin above the northern door built in is the monumental grave stele of Prostinia Procula and Faventina Delicata from the Trajan's period. The stele is of the pseudo-architectural type of which only the gable has been architectural concept. In the portrait field a woman is presented. The grown up woman shows a sophisticated hair dress reminding those from the middle imperial period (Plotina, Marciana and Matidia), whereas the girl Delicata has a hair style imitating the man hair style, resembling to the Trajan's portrait of the decennalia type.
The other spolium is the sculpture built in a wall of Aljinovića mlinica. Based on several preserved photographs, the sculpture is of togatus type, somewhat larger than life size. On the man's neck is put a woman's head, with the hair style of the Scheitelzopf type, that was practiced around the mid 3rd century. The mill owners removed the woman's head recently and replaced it with a grotesque gypsum head that they even further «finished». Since both these mills are situated in the area of the Salonitan eastern cemetery, both spolia belong to sepulchral ambient, because they are to be assumed to have been found when the mills were built. Both spolia show the mill builders' awareness of their significance. At that time there were no museums and private collections were few, wherefore building them in walls,
whilst making their study more difficult, actually saved such monuments from destruction and also produced a highly aesthetic and ambient impact.
Keywords
Salona; water mills; Gašpina; Aljinovićeva; spolia
Hrčak ID:
247207
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2020.
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