work of the end of the fourteenth century, since a consecration
is recorded in 1407, though Bianchi states that the inscription in his
time gave the date 1298. It has a central door with three unmoulded
orders and a sunk tympanum beneath a gable. Above this is a heavy string
course from which two pilaster strips spring, a window flanked by four
arches on slender coupled columns, with semicircular niches, filling the
space between them; above, a space from which it is cut by a second
string forms the next stage; over it is another string and two small
windows beneath a gable cornice of corbelled arches, the same cornice
raking over the aisles. Beasts project at the gable angles, and the
summit it crowned by a finial. All the arches are round, and the little
arcade has red and grey voussoirs. To the left is a large squat
campanile which was built in 1546-1562, and was then higher. A fire
damaged it in 1645. The north aisle wall has an arcade of twelve arches
with twisted columns, and the cast end has three apses, the central one
larger and with a fine open arcade beneath the cornice; above its roof
in the gable is a cross which had _scodelle_ in the arms and centre. The
interior has an arcade of seven arches, arranged three, two, and two,
between piers, with a flat pilaster running up to what was once the wall
plate. The columns are antique, as are some of the caps. The horizontal
moulding above the nave arcade is the same as that above the apse
arcade, and is ornamented with beasts' heads, &c. A twelfth-century
mosaic in the apse was destroyed in 1791. The pavement of the presbytery
is of coloured marbles, and on the aisle wall hangs a great painted
crucifix which was once in S. Domenico, and recalls the work of the
early Tuscans. The church was the burial-place of many distinguished
Zaratines, and the body of Elizabeth of Hungary, who was killed in the
castle of Novigrad by Giovanni Palisna, prior of Vrana, in 1386, was
buried here for some years. When the church was restored, nineteen
historic gravestones were set in the outer wall. At the same time a
relief of S. Crisogono, remains of an early ciborium or chancel, and
traces of a crypt were found, also the Limoges pastoral staff now in the
museum. The cloister has been pulled down, and a school erected on the
site.

[Illustration: APSE OF S. CRISOGNO, ZARA

_To face page 230_]

S. Maria is first mentioned in 906. It was given in 1066 by the
Benedictine monks of S.