Jacques Le Goff:
…the flowering of one of the finest European artistic traditions
of the Early Middle Ages…
From his foreword to “Croatia in the Middle Ages: A Cultural Survey”

The oldest drawing a ship in Europe, from 2700 BC,
discovered in Grapčeva špilja (Grabac Cave) on the island of Hvar, Croatia.
Photo from Bože Mimica: Dalmacija u moru svjetlosti, 1. Dio, Rijeka, 2004.

On the territory of Croatia there exist many remains of the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Let us mention only

• the beautiful palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian (4th century) in Split (the city and the palace have been bombed in 1991 during the Greater Serbian aggression),
• the ancient city of Salona near Split, the most important Early Christian archeological site after Rome (see a photo on the left)
  It is described in a monograph of the famous Danish architect and archeologist Ejnar Dyggve, “History of Salonitian Christianity”, Oslo, 1951 (Croatian edition by Knjizevni krug, Split, 1996).
• the ancient city of Narona near Metkovic,
• and the Arena in Pula (1st century, 6ht largest in the world, 23,000 seats).

Very important remain of Byzantine art in Croatia is the Euphrasius Basilica in Porec, built in the 6th century.

There are numerous traces of much older civilizations throughout Croatia. Especially interesting is the Vucedol Culture (Early Bronze Age, 3000-2200 B.C.), discovered in the region near Vukovar, contemporary to the Ancient Egypt (the Old Kingdom), the Sumerian civilization, the Old Troy. On the photo you can see the famous Vucedol Dove, a bird-shaped cult vessel, lavishly incrusted. From ornaments of some pots we know that the Vucedol culture had the oldest calendar in Europe, older (though less sophisticated) than the one in Stonehenge. See [Durman].
Numerous artifacts of the Vucedol culture (including some of the most valuable) have been robbed during the Greater Serbian aggression on Croatia in 1991. This important Croatian cultural heritage is still in Yugoslavia.

REMARK. The Netscape virtual tutorial offers several examples of some of the most beautiful web-pages, including an excellent presentation of the Diocletian palace in Split by Michael Greenhalgh from the Australian National University, Canberra. Unfortunately, I was not able to convince the author of this exceptional web-page that it would be more convenient to note that the state in which the city of Split lies is Croatia (Croatized already in the 9th century, a part of the Croatian state in the 10th century, during the King Tomislav), rather than ex-Yugoslavia (which was also true, but only for 68 years!).

An important monograph describing Diocletian’s Palace in Split is “Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia” written by Robert Adam in 1764, with his main associate Ch.L. Clerisseau. The author, an outstanding Scottish architect, mentions the beauty of Split and its favorable position and climate, stating that “in the whole of the wide Roman Empire, not a single region could offer Diocletian a more marvelous place to withdraw to for a life of peace”. He designed several buildings in the style of Diocletian’s palace (Syon House in Middlesex, Kedleston in Derbyshire, Adelphy Palace in London). Influences of his book can be seen even in St. Petersburg in Russia and in Virginia in the USA.

The octagonal Mausoleum of the Roman Emperor Diocletian was transformed into the Christian church of St Dominius (Dujam) already in the 7th century, representing very probably the oldest cathedral in the world. According to Danish scientist Ejnar Dyggve, St Dominius (Dujam), the earliest known bishop of Salona (4th century), originated from Syria or Mesopotamia. Local Split tradition also confirms this.

It is little known that the founder of the Republic of San Marino is St. Marinus, stone-carver born on the beautiful island of Rab in the 3rd century. Being a Christian, he had to escape to Rimini with his boat due to Roman persecutions of Christians during Diocletian’s time. San Marino and the Rab are fraternal towns. Every year a joint festival is held alternately in Rab and San Marino.

Another important archeological site is Bribirska glavica near the town of Skradin, where Croatian dignitaries Subic-Bribirski (later known as Subic-Zrinski) had their seat. The place is near the town of Skradin. First archeological excavations were undertaken by fra Lujo Marun, and then Stjepan Gunjaca. Settled already by Illyrians, during early Roman times it was called Varvaria, and had the status of municipium. In 14th century it was important fortress during the reign of Pavao Subic, Croatian Ban (governor) and ruler of Bosnia. In the period of 1991-1995 Greater Serbian aggression, this outstanding place has been used for bombing and shelling of Croatian towns and villages, and left completely devastated. It was liberated during the Storm operation in 1995.

The beginnings of the Croatian art are represented by a rich ornamentation in interlace pattern. You can see an important monument with the interlace pattern which contains the name of Duke Branimir (9th century).

One of the earliest Croatian cultural monuments is a baptismal font of Prince Viseslav from Nin (around 800 AD), with a nice interlace cross. It contains the following Latin text, full of interesting ligatures: HEC FONS NEMPE SUMIT INFIRMOS, UT REDDAT ILLUMINATOS. HIC EXPIANT SCELERA SUA, QUOD DE PRIMO SUMPSERUNT PARENTE, UT EFFICIANTUR CHRISTICOLE SALUBRITER CONFITENDO TRINUM PERHENNE. HOC IOHANNES PRESBITER SUB TEMPORE VUISSISCLAVO DUCI OPUS BENE COMPOSUIT DEVOTE, IN HONORE VIDELICET SANCTI IOHANNIS BAPTISTE, UT INTERCEDAT PRO EO CLIENTULOQUE SUO.

Croatian translation: Ovaj izvor naime prima slabe, da ih učini prosvijetljenima. Ovdje se peru od svojih zločina sto su ih primili od svog prvog roditelja, da postanu kršćani spasonosno ispovijedajući vječno Trojstvo. Ovo djelo pobožno učini svećenik Ivan u vrijeme kneza Višeslava, i to u čast sv. Ivana Krstitelja, da zagovara njega i njegova štićenika.

A special importance have about 150 Pre-Romanesque Croatian churches (9th to 11th century), mostly along the coast. About 15 of them are well preserved (some of them completely destroyed during the Greater Serbian aggression in 1991-1995). Probably the best example of old Croatian church architecture is the Pre-Romanesque Chapel of Holy Cross in Nin built around 800 AD (Sveti Kriz; see on the right; on the left is the small church of Sveti Nikola). The British architect Thomas Graham Jackson called it in 1887 the smallest cathedral in the Christianity, because of its monumental architectural conception.

An unofficial estimate claims there are about 10,000 fragments of interlace sculpture scattered all over Croatia, see [Goss], p. 32.

One of the most important monuments of the Pre-Romanesque architecture in Europe is the Church of St. Donat in Zadar (on the left) built in the 9th century. According to [Goss, p 92], a discovery of wooden beams in this monumental church, adorned with interlace, datable by carbon method to around 710, indicates that this building, often referred to as “Carolingian”, was well-under construction in the course of eighth century.

The church of St. Krševan (i.e., St. Chrysogonus, see below) in Zadar was started to be built in the beginning of the 10th century, and completed at least in 975 AD (see [Iveković, p. 43]). On the same spot there used to be an older small church, dedicated (according to tradition) to St. Anthony the Abbot (or of Egypt, or the Great), founded by Egyptian hermits in the 5th century(see [ Iveković, p. 41]).

Ćiril M. Iveković: Crkva i samostan sv. Krševana u Zadru, hrvatska zadužbina iz X. stoljeća, Zagreb 1931.

Reconstruction of the church and benedictine abbey of St. Krševan (Chrysogonus) in Zadar from the second half of the 10th century, here shown as it looked near the end of 12th century, in the time of the first Zadar archbishop Lampridius, when it acquired the present form. Source [Iveković, p. V]. The church of St. Krševan seems to be a predecessor of all grand Roman and Gothic cathedrals, built throughout Europe. See [Iveković, p. 47].

One of four arches of the cyborium above the odl main altar of the church of St. Krševan in Zadar.

Church of St. Krševan (Chrysogonus) in the city of Zadar from the 10th ct. Photo from 1909 (Wikipedia).

Truly fantastic stone monuments with interlace patterns were found in Dubrovnik and its environs, see [Menalo]. See also another Croatian interlace in the cathedral of St. Tripun of Kotor in Boka kotorska.

Monolithic stone grave monuments, called stechak (literally – standing tombstones), are very impressive, some of them weighing 30 tons, the earliest of them dating from the 13th century. Their overall number is more than 66,000, mostly on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina. There is no doubt that such monuments were put up by Catholics and Krstyans (members of a local Christian religious sect in Bosnia) during the Middle Ages. The origin of Krstyans is still not clear. Some of the stecaks have interesting decorations, some even swastika and other symbols and ornaments of eastern provenance, with epitaphs like:

Please, do not disturb me,
I was like you, and you will be like me…

written in the Croatian Cyrillic alphabet. The most widespread ornaments are Christian symbols.

Examples:

richly ornamented Zgosca stechak (15th century?), held in the Sarajevo Archeological Museum.

A stechak near Dubrovnik:

A few more examples are here.

The first documents of the Croatian Cyrillic alphabet are inscriptions carved in stone in present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina dating from the 10th or 11th century (Humacka ploca) and on the Croatian island of Brac from the 12th century. They also contain some glagolitic letters. Many written documents concerning medieval Croatia contain simultaneously three Scripts, thus proving their unexclusiveness and coexistence, which is unique in the history of European culture. For example some of the religious texts end with `Amen’ written three times: in the Glagolitic, Cyrillic and Latin script. Apart from the parallel use of the three Scripts, unique is also the simultaneous use of three languages – Croatian, Latin and Church Slavonic.