Sebenico

“The port of Sebenico is so excellent that a frigate of considerable tonnage can lie almost close to the quay, the entrance to the gulf being by a narrow slit, the command of which appeared so important to the Venetians, that Sammicheli, their great military architect, constructed at the narrowest part the Fort of San Nicolo, which is considered his masterpiece in fortification (p. 18). A stout boat, with four rowers, conveyed me to Sebenico, the lofty Cathedral, towering above the other houses, being visible long before we landed at the quay, whence my baggage was carried up steep and narrow streets to the Albergo dei Pellegrini, or Inn of the Pilgrims, said to be the best in Sebenico. The street in which the inn is situated is about fifteen feet wide, paved with small causeway stones, somewhat smooth and slippery. The houses, like those of the rest of the town, were tall, so as to be comprised within the old Venetian wall, the present population of the place being 5000. […]. The hour of supper (eight or nine o’clock) brought several townspeople, who used the inn as a restaurant; and the bill fo fare had its own native hue, abounding in fish. Tunny, sturgeon, palameda, and many others considered as delicacies in the north, are here abundant (pp. 13-14). 

Next day was devoted to seeing the town; and following the street to the piazza, I found my self at the gate of the Cathedral. […]. Commenced in 1443, and completed in 1536, the discrepancy of the style of the basement and superstructure afford room for criticism; but altogether it is one of the most extraordinary structures I ever saw in any country. Opposite the Cathedral are loggie, or porticos, which the traveller sees in all the cities of Dalmatia, and in the time of the Venetians served as places for transacting public business; but the openings having been walled up and pierced with windows, a graceful edifice has been spoiled to make a Casino (pp. 17-18).

At six o’clock on a rainy morning I descended the narrow steep street of Sebenico to the quay where the steamer was about to start. A crowd of common people, in their wide trousers and red caps, looked on, mingled with citizens in the European costume; for the fortnightly visits of the steamer are the grand landmarks of existence on these secluded shores. As the bell rang, we quitted the basin of Sebenico; and passing under the embrasures of Fort San Nicolo, saw around us a small cluster of islands, close to which is a coral fishery, which produces fourteen or fifteen hundred pounds a year, the necklaces made of which are annually sold at the fair of Sinigaglia. Our course lay southwards, and I once more found myself in the open Adriatic (p. 30)”.