hrvatski

Nastanak i razvoj katedralnog sklopa u Dubrovniku

Dubrovnik developed on a penisula, closing a deep protected cove suitable for the formation of port in immediate vicinty of the ancient Epidaurus. As the town was being built and spread, the cove was gradually filled and set up. The area of the penisula that civitas took up was also favourable for defence. By its position it controled navigation in that part of the coast and guarded the natural port, shelterd from bora and west winds, against southern waves. At the higest part of the peninsula there was the oldest part of Dubrovnik, the smallest town sexterrium, the Castle. It occupied the space of former Byzantine castrum. It was probably built in the VI century when Byzantium ruled over the Adriatic and the Castle served as control point of navigation and commerce. The town spread over the free part of the peninsula, to the east toward Pustijerna. The second, by order of origin, town sexterium, St Peter, took up the area below the Castle, between today's Ulica od Domina, Strossmayerova and Gradićeva. It developed as the first construction downwards. By the Castle, in western part, it is unsymmerical, but in eastern part the system of building had been regulated as far back as in late ancient times. The third widening of the town was Pustijerna. It was populated in the early middle ages and, as we learn from the X century writer Constantine Porfirogenet, the residential centre had already moved to the part of town. The town that occupied the first three sexterria was as early as then called civitas by Porfirogenet. In 972, in front of the Pustijerna Gate, the original church of St Blasius, the town patron, was built. It was a rectangularconstruction with square apse and four columns carrying the vaults with clearly marked cross layout and centrally positioned dome. Outside the town gate there was a detached building in which the Rector was to live. Next to it there was a multipurpose quadrifoliate building: the saint's memorial, baptistery and chapel. The citizens of Dubrovnik chose St Blasius, an eastern saint, for their patron; and the first church built in the Castle, was also dedicated to eastern saints, to Sergius and Bacchus. The choise itself is very indicative. A town, which had emerged as a Byzantine fortification, gradually growing, became a civitas. A little community in an exposed position between the East and the West, under the constant threat of numerous conquerors and Venice, restors to the patron from the east - Byzantium. But, though politically depending on the East, in terms of church and ideologically it undoubtedly acceps and respects Rome with all its bishops subordinated top it. The choise of patron is the factor of political situation. The choise of St Blasius is more a political than a religious solution , so that the holy relics, brought from Byzantium later on (especially the relic of the head), should be related to seeking for protection of Byzantium, in opposition to permanent threat of Venice. A legend, telling about the beginning of St Blasius' cult, refers exactly to rescuing the town from Venetian occupation in 971. By the end of the X century Dubrovnik became an archiodecese. A question a basilica which was to serve as a catthedral was raised. I think that the first cathedral was built in such a way the existing church of St Blasius wasextended and elongated up to the fortification which, together with thequadrifoliate building, became an integral part of the cathedral. It was still dedicated to the town patron. It retained the vaults and the dome the original church; the lateral naves with wooden roof truss were added onto it. Out of a little central building emerged a three-nave three-apse basilica. One-level subcella with a simple cathedra were also constructed. The quadrifoliate memorial became the baptistery. Very soon, in the same century, probably immediately after the schism in 1054, the cathedral met with its first reconstruction. In order to vault it integrally, two-level semipillars of T- section were added inside the cathedral, next to the perimetral walls, and outside the cathedral, next to the walls of the original church of St Blasius. Over the main nave there was the barrel vault, while over the lateral naves there were probably the ribbed vaults. With this reconstruction the outer look of the church was not significantly changed. The sanctuary was reneved so that the subcella was extended and it became two-level, the cathedra was remodelled, and the apse was decorated with new frescoes. The lower part of those frescoes has been preserved, since they were not destroyed whilw the Romanesque cathedral was being built the floor of which was on the level of today's baroque cathedral. Because of that, during the archaeological investigations, on the three meters high walls, frescoes were found on a part of the apse, on the outer walls and on the construction of arches. The frescoues were made after the shism in 1054, as the figures on them were shown in western robe, demonstrating affiliatin to western church. The mensa was made of stone, positioned were the nave and the apse met. The tomb, found in the southernwall of the basilica with monumental inscription of the buried bishop Gerard (1120-1130), has proved to be of great importance for fixing the date of pulling down the cathedral and building a new Romanesque construction. Its furniture and the manner of building reveals the same, Preromanesque order. However, it also brings a new idea of a reformed XI century church, the result of which is a three-nave basilica with the strict implementation of triapsidality. In the second part of the XII century that cathedral was pulled down and a new one, dedicated to St Mary the Great, was built. The reason why the titular was changed lies probably in the donator's wish to do so, as his explicit will can change the titular. The Romanesque cathedral is somewhat bigger than the earlier basilica; from the outside it is 41 m long and 17 m wide. As the earlier one, it is also a three-nave basilica with the apse only in the main nave. The columns of the main nave were of the indented ribbed layout. From the outside of those walls there were deep pillars which responded, by their width, to the inner construction. The cathedral had a small gallery with a colonnade along which one could go around the whole cathedral. The cathedral, described by all travel writers as tall and slender, had the vaults over the central and lateral naves. Itr must have had the ribbed system of vaults and strong outer pillars which could take over the huge horizontal force of the vaults. The layout and the first builders of the cathedral indicate the architectural concept implemented in the whole range of the cathedrals of nearby puglia a century before. That cathedral was destroyed in the great earthquae in 1667. After that the today?s baroque cathedral was built. Dubrovnik had to set apart the cult St Blasius from the cathedral, which did happen as far back as during the rule of Venice. Several important events had had to coincide before a new church, dedicated to the town patron, was built. First of all, that was the coming of Ilija Saraka for the archbishop of Dubrovnik in 1342, than 1348 Toma de Vitanis brought St Blasius' left hand in Dubovnik, and a year before the saint had saved the town from the plaque. On the 28th February 1348 the Great Council reached the unanimous decision to build a new church of St Blasius. The Rector and the Goverment had to determine its form and the way of building. The building started in the mid-XVI century and finished at its end. The church was demaged and repaired after the great earthquake, but in 1706 it burned down. It was knocked down and the foundation-stone for a new church was laid down in 1706. Its building lasted until 1715 when the church was finished.

Dubrovnik; katedrala

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