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Pre-Romanesque Ciborium from the St. Martha's Church at Bijaći
Vedrana Delonga
; Muzej hrvatskih arheoloških spomenika HR -Split 21 000
Sažetak
Tbe author deals with the ciborium from the church complex at Bijaći, presently displayed in the Croatian Archaeological Museum (Muzej hrvatskih arheoloških spomenika u Splitu) at Split. Particular attention is paid to the inscription cut in this squareshaped ciborium. She dates the ciborium to a period that does not exceed the rule of the Croatian prince Mislav, that is, according to the preserved historic documents, about 835-845, wherefore, she proposes the years 830-840 as the terminus post quem non of making of the ciborium. She determines the reasons for which the ciborium was probably erected on top of an earlier cross-shaped piscina in the paleo-Christian baptistery, that was rearranged in the pre-Romanesque epoque, in the first three decades of the ~b century, whereas the St. Martha's Church, of the same complex, was rebuilt within the limits of the older, paleo-Christian, church.
Tbe ciborium was reconstructed from the preserved fragments found during the first excavations (1902-1905) at the locality of Stombrate in Bijaći. The archaeological material confirms existence of a large Roman villa-mansion in Stombrate, where, in the late classical period, a Christian complex developed, in the territory of the coastal agger centuriation, in the vicinity of the diocese centre of Salona. In the church complex, there is discovered a paleo-Christian basi/ica and, linked with it, an octagonal baptistery with a cross-shaped piscine. In the early Middle Ages, when in a part of the agger ofSalona there was also established the seat of the Croatian principality headed by the princ Trpimir~ dynasty, the large Roman villa at Stombrate in Bijaći became part of the property (predium) of the Croatian princes, gradually to become one of the larger feuds in the royal territory (territorium regale). Induced by the missionary church interests at the time of the Carolings, who were present in the Croatian principality~ territory, the very first Trpimirovićs rebuilt the late-classical villa and, within the limits oft he initial, paleo-Christian church, dedicated to St. John, built the new one, to have dedicated it to St. Martha. Simultaneously with building of the church, there was also rebuilt the paleo-Christian baptistery that is now, in the Pre-Romanesque epoque, linked with the church with adequate annexes. Tbe square ciborium is deemed not to have been intended for the St. Martha's Church altar initially, but for the new baptistery in its southern annex, where it was placed above the previously existing crossshaped, sunk, piscine, its four pilasters standing on corners of the cross hands of the piscine. Such deductions firstly result from the composition of the inscription that was, besides the outer surfaces, also cut along the inner side of the ciborium. Moreover, the very content of the inSCription is adequate to baptisteries and their fixtures, such as baptising fonts and the ciboria above them, both in the early Middle Ages and the earlier late, Christian, Roman period. The central religious idea of the inscription, also making the linking element of the entire text, is the concept ofthe Trinitum (the Holy Trinity). Particular attention is paid to St. John the Baptist's allusions, the river-water as the baptising matter, and, finally, the merciful inclusion of the man in the life of the very Trinity, as a guarantee ofthe eternallife. We, therefore, remain assured that the ciborium in scription sublimed the act of the baptism as the act of acceptance of the Triune God, which essentially determines also the sacral area of the baptistery in which the act takes place.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
92993
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.10.1999.
Posjeta: 1.779 *