Stručni rad
The Recycling of Architectonic and Sculptural Elements in Salona
Stanko Piplović
Sažetak
Antique Salona developed into the administrative, cultural and economic center of a large area of the province of Dalmatia. Its unique geographical location had an impact on its dynamic history, significant urban growth and architectonic construction. The rise of Christianity and the invasions by different people onto its territory played a decisive role in these processes. The city was destroyed and rebuilt a number of times. After stable conditions under Roman rule during the first period, there came times of insecurity and wars, interior crises and impoverishment. This complex situation brought about a unique development in construction. Older buildings were deserted while their materials were used to build new ones, their decorated elements used as ordinary spoils. This massive demolishment of older Salona buildings in antiquity and the narrow practical concerns, after all the destruction and the dispersal of its remains during the last centuries, since the coming of the barbarians up to our own days, is still clearly visible on the remaining remnants. The most characteristic case is to be seen on the city walls. During their construction and fortification during times of danger of war, the neighboring pagan necropolises were laid bare and tomb monuments dumped into the walls as simple building material. This occurred especially on those graveyards which during the growth of the city to the East and the West found themselves enclosed within an inhabited area so that bodies were no longer laid in them. However this is only one of the causes while others have to be sought in drastic social changes and the weakening of the economy during the last period of the Roman state. On almost all the preserved buildings one can make out the incorporation of spoils in their walls and ground floors. This is clearly visible for example on a number of places in the Great thermal baths, within the subterranean spaces of the amphitheatre or on ordinary commercial buildings and especially on early Christian sacred edifices. Spoils from monumental public buildings were used for the restoration of the dilapidated and damaged infrastructure. They were secondarily used on a number of places when the aqueduct which brought water into the city from the source of the river Jadro was repaired, when the streets were paved and in regulating the flow of water on the location of the Five Bridges. The coming of Christianity was a decisive event. Even after its recognition by the Milan edict in 313, the pagan temples were still functioning. But as the new religion became more dominant, these were abandoned and fell into ruins. Other cult places were designated so that huge basilicas were built which demanded a large supply of rock. Again, use was made of blocks from the older buildings as well as of their columns, capitals, epistyles and other decorated parts. This is especially visible already on the first oratory and on a number of places nearby the spacious complex of the urban basilica in the eastern newer part of Salona and within the cemetery complexes on Manastirine and Marusinac from 4th to the 6th century, located north of the city. Within the very complex urban network with its abundance of improvisation conditioned by the needs of the moment, the spoils today help us to determine the temporal layers and the techniques of building and to follow the dynamic and the characteristics of the spatial development. They facilitate the appraisal of the stage of the civilization, the culture and the conditions of living. When we approach them thusly it is important to know from what period they derive, when they were transported and how they were reused.
Ključne riječi
Salona, architecture; scuplture; Late Antiquity
Hrčak ID:
8706
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.11.2005.
Posjeta: 3.027 *