engleski

The Church of St. Mary and Episcopus Cessensis on the Brioni Islands, Croatia

According to all archaeological investigations so far, and the insights obtained through these investigations the church of St. Mary on Brioni Islands near Histria was ecclesia Cessensis mentioned in the acts of sinodus in the 6th century as a residence of the bishop Vindemius and in 7th century of the bishop Ursin( episcopus Cessensis). The Brioni Islands have been mentioned by Plinius in the description of Jonic and Adriatic sea as Cissa Pularia(III, 151, 152) and on Peuntigerianamap as Pullarie. The 5th and 6th centuries in Histria should be seen in the light of major geopolitical and cultural changes in the Mediterranean. That was the time of intensive militarization of the Adriatic sea, and consequently, of restructuring and fortification of the coastal and island settlements. Power, practical and spiritual, shifted to Christian authorities, and the surge in church building was a consequence. On Brioni the civic and ecclestiastic innovations centered on Madona Bay, a large and proteced bay with a fortified settlement. The late antiquity settlement grew around a villa rustica and is one of the most important examples of a continously inhabited from the early imperial period through the late antique and early medieval period in Histria. The church of St. Mary was built in 5th/6th century as a three nave church with nartex measuring 10.8 by 5.4 m. The overall dimensions of the church with nartex was 28.74 by 10.8 m. It is important to shed more light on the period in which Brioni became an Episcopal estate, a fact clearly documented by the deed of gift of the bishop Euphrasius from the year 543 by which he donated a third of the Brioni saltworks to his clergy.

early Christian church; Brioni Islands; episcopus cesenssis; Byzantine period

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