and
aisles. The three apses are semicircular, with pilasters externally. The
nave has three quadripartite bays, and a half-bay to the west. The
aisles have seven quadripartite bays, two to each one of the nave,
with columns between the three pairs of piers upon which the vaults
rest. The bay before the apse has been a step higher than the rest. What
the arrangement will eventually be it is difficult to say, judging from
the state of the interior on the two occasions when I was in Cattaro.
The columns of the nave are some of them Byzantine-Roman, and some of
them Corinthian. The aisle windows and the fine east window are Gothic.
The vaults are most of them of the sixteenth century, the towers of the
facade seventeenth or eighteenth, and the great rose-window and the
doorway below, late Gothic with Renaissance details, rebuilt after the
earthquake of 1667. The nave is about 88 ft. long, the aisles within the
towers 81 ft., breadth of nave, 19 ft. 6 in., of the aisles 9 ft. 9 in.
The ciborium is exceedingly interesting. It rests upon four octagonal
columns of the red marble of Lustizza, a place not far away. The altar
was rebuilt and beautified in 1362, and it is probable that the
baldacchino is of that date. On the base on which the pillars rest are
sinkings showing that the altar had a central octagonal pillar, with
four smaller circular ones surrounding it. The caps of the ciborium are
rather richly carved, and the lintel bears on three sides subjects in
relief from the legend of S. Trifone, the back being carved with
ornament. The illustration shows the three stages of trefoiled arches,
the two lower with coupled colonnettes. The lowest has caryatid figures
of a warrior and a civilian in front of the angles to the west. The next
stage has twisted colonnettes at the angles, the third squat single
shafts, and on a little crowning member pierced with four arches stands
a gilded angel, the rest of the canopy being octagonal. The proportions
of the figures are squat, and the carving rather rough. The first time I
saw it I was able to examine it closely, as it was surrounded by
scaffolding, and there were some remains of colour on the figures; but I
should not like to assert that it was original, since I understand that
the reliefs were painted to imitate marble, and the figures gilded about
the middle of the last century. The silver pala is said to be fixed on
the wall of the apse during the completion of the restoration; it