Two Croatian Royal Mausoleums 35 Years Later

Osvrćući se prvenstveno na vlastiti rad autor prikazuje sudbinu istraživanja i razmišljanja o dva vrhunska spomenika hrvatske povijesno-kulturne baštine, kraljevske mauzoleje SS. Marije i Stjepana na Crkvinu u Biskupiji i SS. Marije i Stjepana na Otoku u Solinu, kao uvod u referate ostalih sudionika sekcije „Crkvina u Biskupiji – između poganstva i kršćanstva“. Naglasak je na posljednjih četiri destljeća znanstvenog rada u povijesti umjetnosti, arheologiji i kulturnoj antropologiji navedenih položaja.Reviweing primarily his own ideas expressed over more than three decades, the author presents the fate of exploration and publication on two kez monuments of croatian art and history, the royal mausolea of SS. Mary and Stephen at Crkvina in Biskupija, and SS Mary and Stephen at Otok in Solin, as an introduction to the papers delivered in the section “Crkvina in Biskupija – Between Oaganism and Christianity” at the conference entitled “The Cult of the Great Mother and of the Mother of God,” held in Zagreb on 6th and 7th of October, 2011. The emphasis is on the last four decades of the scholarly work concerning the two monuments. The section was organized by the Art History Department of the School of Arts and sciences of the University of Rijeka, the general partner for Croatia in the project of the European Commission (Culture 2007-13), entitled “Cradles of European Culture” (CEC). It is clear that both Otok and Crkvina are also important pre-Christian holy places, further sanctified by interment of Croatian both Pagan and Christian leaders, that they clearly fit with the cultural landscape of Croatian in the course of late paganism and early Christianity, that their art language is compatible with that of the Pre-Romanesque architecture of the West and that of the local variants, in particular in terms of the formation and interrelationship of architectural masses, spaces and surfaces displaying the typical Pre-Romanesque esthetics characterized by a lack of correspondence between the interior and exterior, and, in the case of Otok of using a dome within a rectilinear turret, a decorative system of pilaster strips originating from Late Antique architecture. The choice of Crkvina as Croatia\u27s representative in the above mentioned project will opens a challenge of a new in-depth research leading, hopefully, to new insights and solutions involving this key monument of Croatian past