e eighteenth century, the apse twelfth,
and the facade of the fifteenth century, with a wheel window of 1467
above the west door, and a gable of an ogee-trefoil shape. In the
centre of the rose of sixteen rays is a little relief of the Virgin and
Child; the tracery is like that of the cathedral at Trieste. The door is
square-headed, with a cable moulding on the inner and a dentil on the
outer edge, and with a slightly ogee tympanum above, in which are an
enthroned God the Father with Christ in His lap, two kneeling figures
with palms at the sides, and two little angels on the uprights of the
throne. On the architrave is an Agnus Dei. Two windows, slightly
ogee-headed, flank the door. Coats of arms and inscriptions give the
date. The treasury contains a late Gothic ostensory with Renaissance
patterns on the foot, a chalice which has portions of several dates, and
a seventeenth-century processional cross. The contemporary municipal
palace is now made into dwelling-houses, though the lion of S. Mark,
with closed book and the date 1444, still looks down from the wall, and
the shapes of the windows reveal a mediaeval building.

While we were on the hill the few children had become a crowd, and our
proceedings were much hampered, although our friendly guard adopted very
rough measures more than once to keep them in order. The people have
always been turbulent and unruly, and no doubt there is still an
hereditary disposition among them to resist authority, though one must
acknowledge that it was only among the young that we ourselves observed
it.

Muggia Vecchia is first mentioned in a diploma of Ugo and Lothair, king
of Italy, in 971, by which the Castello was given to the church of
Aquileia. In 1202, when the Venetians were on their way to the Holy
Land, they subjected the coast towns under the pretext of enforcing the
patriarch's rights. Doge Enrico Dandolo disembarked at Muggia with part
of his troops, and was received by clergy and people with the ringing of
bells. The citizens being collected swore fealty and subjection to the
Republic, promising not to help pirates, and to pay each S. Martin's Day
twenty-five "orne" of good wine. From this date till 1420 the city was
ruled by a podesta elected every six months by the council and confirmed
by the patriarch. There were three judges and several "anziani," who
formed the lesser council, to attend to daily business. In the
thirteenth century it had its own statute, and at t