. Dalmatia : the Quarnero and Istria with Cettigne in Montenegro and the Island of Grado. e of the mediaeval waUs whichwere contracted to the shrunken proportions of thedecaying city. It was thought desirable to removethe cathedral within the new defences, and for thisreason the older church was abandoned. The oldbuilding also was found very inconvenient for bothcanons and people, and was moreover male materiataet ridnosa But though deserted its ancient dignitywas not forgotten, and yearly on the day of St. Marythe canons and clergy used to resort thither andcelebrate the festivals The church
. Dalmatia : the Quarnero and Istria with Cettigne in Montenegro and the Island of Grado. e of the mediaeval waUs whichwere contracted to the shrunken proportions of thedecaying city. It was thought desirable to removethe cathedral within the new defences, and for thisreason the older church was abandoned. The oldbuilding also was found very inconvenient for bothcanons and people, and was moreover male materiataet ridnosa But though deserted its ancient dignitywas not forgotten, and yearly on the day of St. Marythe canons and clergy used to resort thither andcelebrate the festivals The church itself is very plain, and its interest isconfined to the fragments it contains of the oldercathedral. A piece of sculpture with grotesqueanimals which is built into the west front, andother pieces of the same kind which are laid in thepavements, seem to belong to the ninth or tenthcentury, and are no doubt relics of the vanished1 Farlati, v. pp. 183, 205, 207. Ch. XXV.] Ossero. 105 basilica. In the interior still stands the ancientepiscopal throne (Fig. ^t^), used till the erection of. Tig. 83. the new duomo in the fifteenth century as the cathedra of the bishops of Ossero. It is made upof old fragments, covered with interlacing patterns io6 Ossero. [Ch. XXV. and figures of fabulous beasts and peacocks, in thesame style and of the same date as the other piecesof carving in the floor. The pieces have been butclumsily put together, and the patterns have beenruthlessly cut into in shaping the elbows. Thevanished church must evidently have been rich inromanesque sculpture, and most likely had colon-nades of antique shafts with classic capitals, spoils ofancient Roman buildings. One Corinthian capitalis in fact preserved by being built upside down intothe wall of the present church. The foundations of five othernaves, making six out of theseven, may still be traced ob-scurely to the north of thepresent church, and the entireplan when complete may pos-sibly have been something liketh
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