THE MEDIEVAL REBUILDING OF THE CHURCH OF ST STEPHEN IN PUČIŠĆA

Na temelju najnovijih istraživanja u Pučišćima i Lovrečini na Braču te Starom Gradu na Hvaru, autor raspravlja o pojavi crkvica koje vanjštinom oponašaju bazilikalni izgled u arhitekturi druge polovine 11. stoljeća, povezujući novoistraženu crkvu sv. Stjepana u Pučišćima s benediktinskim utjecajem na ranu romaniku Dalmacije.During recent investigations of church of St Stephen in Pučišna on Brač, an early medieval chapel has been found. Its exterior imitates the basilical appearance of the early Romanesque buildings. It has the appearance of having a central nave and two aisles, given by the raising of barrel vaulting over interpolated pilasters and arcades leaning against the internal walls. Thus the roof of the church is elevated in the centre and dropped at the sides like the roofs of basilicas. The best-known specimen of this kind of architecture in Dalmatia has hitherto been the church of St Jonh in Bol on Brač. This is a several-layered builing in a late antique fortress that was the seat of the island’s prince, and later the residence of the bishop. The southern carly Christian geminata was renovated in the same way by interpolating pilasters and arcades, a frequent manner of renovation used by the medieval builders in order to shorten the span to be covered by the stone vaulting. A similar church in Stari Grad on Hvar has not been preserved, but from drawings in the Botteri archives it is possible to reconstruct its external appearance according to which, like the churches in Bol and Pučišća, it can be dated to the second half of the 11th century. The early Romanesque architecture links the newly investigated church of St Sephen in Pučišća with the Benedictine influence in Dalmatia. The second half of the eleventh century was marked by turbulence and ferments; the princedom of Neretva was once again within the kingdom of Croatia, and the church was divided into East and West. A new wave of Benedictines from Monte Casino arrived on the Croatian coast, building monasteries and restoring old and dilapidated churches. The documents mention Neretvan rulers such as Berigoj and Slavac. The Benedictines brought with them to Croatia the new architectural style of the Romanesque. The early Romanesque, which includes the Pučišća church of St Stephen, links the tradition of the pre-Romanesque architecture and the new styles they brought with them, imitating the approach of the basilica. The false impresion of basilica style in these cases was created when there was a need to animate the volume of the single nave churches, and was regularly the fruit of subsequent renovations. The monumentality that the new solutions brought the facades of the early Romanesque churches is usually emphasised with portals, lunettes and hanging arches. St Stephen’s in Pučišća, together with St John’s in Bol, and the architecture of the Stari Grad southern geminatae belongs to an architectural model that is specifically linked with the Benedictine renovation of dilapidated churches in the second half of the 11th century