the ruined palaces are of
the period of the Ducal Palace, Venice, and some of them have been
architecturally remarkable. The walls and towers are in the main of
1420, but were strengthened by the Venetians. The towers which remain
are the Merlata Barbarigo of 1485, Merlata Tiepolo of about the same
date, Merlata dell' Aspello, erected as a defence against the Turks in
1570, the gate-tower on the Piazzetta of 1649, and the Gothic Torre
Lombardo of 1448, near the land gate. The walls can be walked round in a
quarter of an hour, and are dominated by the Fort S. Biagio, erected by
the English.

[Illustration: WEST DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL, CURZOLA]

The cathedral has a fine west doorway with twisted and knotted
colonnettes and a pointed arch with tracery in the tympanum, and a
modern figure of a bishop in front of it. Enormous brackets supporting
couchant lions rest upon the knotted columns, with curious figures of
Adam and Eve on their lower faces. A circular hood mould, with ogee
finial, springs from them. In the gable is a traceried rose, above which
is an elaborate cornice with beasts' heads projecting at the angles,
shell niches, and floral finial, and at the meeting-point of the ramps a
bust of an elderly woman in the costume of the fourteenth century, with
hair in curls at each side of the face, a jewelled circlet, pleated gown
with tightly fitting sleeves slashed and embroidered, and a border round
the neck above a laced under-garment. There are two other doors at the
ends of the aisles. The tower appears to have been added above the north
aisle about 1463; it finishes with a shafted parapet and two open
octagons with domical roofs, one above the other. Along the aisle roof a
carved cornice runs, and above the trefoiled pointed clerestory windows
is an arched corbelled cornice. The nave and aisles terminate in
semicircular apses. The nave and choir together are of five bays, with a
pointed arcade on monolithic pillars. The aisles are cross-vaulted
without ribs, but with pointed arches between the bays. The roof of the
nave is of wood. The triforium is of two round arches to each bay, with
short coupled columns, now built up, and with wooden figures of the
Apostles set in each arch. The tower occupies one bay of the north
aisle, and encroaches on the next arch. Four of the caps have the
symbols of the Evangelists; those of the columns of the south aisle bear
flowing late Gothic foliage resembling two at Sebenico, and t