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For now, there is no known information about the Baptistery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s date of construction. However, experts place it in the middle of the 12th century when the entire Cathedral complex in Koper was built.[1] The first precise information related to the Baptistery’s construction is the year of its Gothicisation, 1317, which is indicated on the inscription plaque above the entrance portal.[2] In 1747, the Bishop of Koper Agostino Bruti (1733–1747) had the Baroque Baptistery converted into his private chapel.[3] It was preserved as such until the 1930s, when the conservator Ferdinando Forlati, under the guidance of the expert monument service of Trieste,[4] decided to present the monument in the form of a Romanesque baptistery.[5] Between 1976 and 2005, the Baptistery was closed, as research and restoration and conservation works were carried out the under the auspices of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia. Since 2005, the Baptistery has once again been open to the public.[6]
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[1] Cf. BERNIK 1968, pp. 76–78; SEMI 1975, p. 132; ZADNIKAR 1982, pp. 448–449.
[2] The first transcription of the Latin text from the inscription plaque above the entrance portal was published in 1905 by Giuseppe Caprin (CAPRIN 1905, p. 176) (cf. also SEMI 1934, p. 97; CHERINI 1993, p. 9; ZADNIKAR 1982, p. 449): MCCCXVII DIE SEPT[embris] / EXPLETV[m] FVIT HOC TE[m] / PLU[m] ID[sic] HONORE[m] D[ei] ET BEATI / IOH[an]IS BATISTE T[em]P[o]RE REG / IM[in]IS EGREGI VIRI DOMINI / NICOLAI FALETRO HONOR[abilis] / POT[estat]IS ET CAPIT[anei] IVSTINOPOL[is].
[3] The tombstone of Agostino Bruti, the Bishop of Koper, states that the Baptistery was reconstructed in the Baroque style in 1747 with the funds that the Bishop had left in his will: HOC ORATORIUM / NOVO BATISMALI FONTE CONSTRUCTO / PAVIMENTUM LAPIDIBUS VENUSTIS STRATO / SEDIBUS CIRCUMCIRCA ELEGANTIUS COMPOSITIS AERE / AUGUSTINI CO DE BRUTIS EPISC IUSTINOPOLIT / EX TESTAMENTO LEGATO / IN PULCHRIOREM FUIT FORMAN REDACTUM / ANNO M.D.CC.XLVII. Transcript quoted from CHERINI 1993, pp. 10–11. More about Bishop Agostino Bruti in Palača in družina Bruti v Kopru s knjižnimi deli škofa Agostina grofa Brutija/Il Palazzo e la famiglia Bruti coi libri del vescovo Agostino conte Bruti (ed. Peter Štoka), Koper/Capodistria 2014.
[4] Soprintendenza ai Monumenti della Venezia Giulia.
[5] FORLATI 1956, pp. 117–119.
[6] After the completion of the conservation and restoration works, the book Krstilnica 2007, was published. For more information about the restoration, see especially KOVAČ 2007, pp. 87–99.
The experts place the construction of the Koper Baptistery in the middle of the 12th century when the entire complex of the Koper Cathedral was built.[1] Its exterior has mostly retained its original appearance, though during the most recent archaeological excavations, the remains of a semi-circular apse from the Romanesque period were discovered.[2] The Baptistery was rebuilt around 1317 at the initiative of Captain Nicolo Falier, the Mayor of Koper. Above the portal triangular form was added including the abovementioned inscription panel, under which four shallow reliefs have been preserved: two coats of arms belonging to the Falier family, St John the Baptist, and St Mark’s lion with a crown and a closed book.[3] It is assumed that the Romanesque apse was also removed at that time[4] and that the entire dome was probably painted as well, of which the fresco of Christ Pantocrator on the apex has survived to date.[5]
The Baptistery lost its medieval appearance and function in the middle of the 18th century when Bishop Agostino Bruti (1733–1747) had it converted into his private chapel in 1747.[6] At that point, its interior was given a new Baroque appearance; the walls and dome were decorated with stuccowork and mural painting; while Lorenzo Pedrini’s Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan scene (1749) was placed in the centre of the dome.[7] The baptismal font was converted into a tomb, where Agostino Bruti and his brother Barnaba, the Vicar General, are buried.[8] Despite the thorough renovation of the Baptistery’s interior, its exterior did not lose the essential medieval structural elements and articulation – it got bigger window openings and a chancel was added in the axis of the entrance.[9] The building was preserved as a Baroque chapel until 1934 when the restoration works were taken over by the Soprintendenza (Superintendence) of Trieste under the leadership of the conservator Ferdinando Forlati, who decided to present the monument in the form of a Romanesque baptistery.[10] Forlati based the restoration project on the surviving stylistic features of the building itself, as no other information existed about its original appearance. During the alterations, all the surrounding buildings and extensions that leaned on or covered the Rotunda were removed.[11] Thus, at the beginning of the conservation works in the 1930s, the area around the Baptistery became a square, which has retained this function to this day.[12] During the reconstruction, Forlati also removed the additional Baroque chancel, closed the Baroque window openings, and opened the former Romanesque windows, whose traces were visible on the building’s exterior. Inside, he removed all the Baroque wall and dome decorations except for the painting on the dome’s apex. He had the walls plastered in a light ochre colour and used brick-coloured linear decoration to restore the Baptistery’s Romanesque appearance.[13] He also planned to erect a wall with a wrought-iron fence around the building. This was not realised, however, as the restoration was interrupted due to the lack of funds and the war.[14]
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[1] Cf. BERNIK 1968, pp. 76–78; SEMI 1975, p. 132; ZADNIKAR 1982, pp. 448–449. The Rotunda’s exterior is articulated by sixteen lesenes with intermediate triple blind arches and semi-circular windows. According to the descriptions of the visitators in the 16th and 17th centuries, an octagonal baptismal font was located inside (LAVRIČ 1986, p. 61; NALDINI 1700, p. 23), but it was probably removed during the Baroque restoration in the middle of the 18th century, as archaeological research has not revealed any such remains. For further information about this, see GUČEK 1997, p. 83; cf. GUČEK 2001, p. 459.
[2] STOKIN 1997, p. 89.
[3] CAPRIN 1905, p. 176; cf. also SEMI 1934, p. 97; CHERINI 1993, p. 9; ZADNIKAR 1982, p. 449. The relief of the Venetian lion with a crown and a closed book is one of the oldest surviving examples of the Venetian lion depictions; cf. RIZZI 1987, pp. 59–60.
[4] The apse was not placed on the axis of the Gothic entrance but instead oriented towards the northeast. The Baptistery’s exterior still reveals how far it extended in height. The discovery of the Pantocrator fresco on the dome’s apex, oriented towards the new Gothic entrance rather than towards the apse, suggests that the latter was removed as early as at the beginning of the 14th century. This is also supported by the depiction of the Rotunda on Giacomo Fini’s map of 1619, which shows its circular floor plan (without an apse), as well as by the fact that no information exists about any rebuilding between the 14th and 17th centuries; cf. GUČEK 1997, pp. 82, 85; STOKIN 1997, p. 89.
[5] The Gothic mural on the dome’s apex was discovered during the last conservation research under Lorenzo Pedrini’s Baptism of Christ in the Jordan Baroque painting, which had been painted there during the renovation of the Baptistery in the middle of the 18th century; cf. GUČEK 1997, p. 84; GUČEK 2001, p. 463, n. 10. Janez Höfler concludes that in the 14th century, the entire dome was painted and that the Christ Pantocrator fresco was part of a larger iconographic composition. More about this in HÖFLER 1997, p. 75; cf. also QUINZI 1997, pp. 327–332.
[6] Soprintendenza ai Monumenti della Venezia Giulia.
[7] The painting is signed and dated (GUČEK 2001, p. 463, n. 10). More about Lorenzo Pedrini’s painting in BREJC 1983, pp. 130–131; CRAIEVICH 2001, p. 36. The Baptistery’s interior was allegedly repainted during the 19th century, see FORLATI 1956, p. 119.
[8] GUČEK 2001, p. 459.
[9] GUČEK 1997, p. 84; STOKIN 1997, p. 89.
[10] FORLATI 1956, pp. 117–119. The documentation relating to Forlati’s project is kept in the archives of the Soprintendenze B.A.A.A.A.S. in Trieste; cf. GUČEK 1997, p. 84, n. 2.
[11] GUČEK 1997, pp. 81, 84. From the 19th century onwards, the area around the Rotunda served as the gardens and courtyards of the neighbouring buildings, separated by smaller walls or ramparts. Before that, a cemetery had been located at this site, as depicted on the preserved cadastral maps from 1819, kept in the Trieste State Archives. A copy is also kept at the Inter-Municipal Institute for the Protection of the Natural and Cultural Heritage of Piran; GUČEK 1997, p. 84, n. 1. The stone tombs in the southern part of the square were discovered during archaeological probing; STOKIN 1997, p. 89.
[12] STOKIN 1997, p. 89.
[13] FORLATI 1956; GUČEK 1997, p. 84. The Baptistery’s interior had been partly painted already during the Romanesque period, as the probing of the peripheral wall revealed traces of fragments of the oldest plaster with linear painting in the eastern niche next to the Romanesque triumphal arch opening. These fragments were supposedly discovered already by Ferdinando Forlati in the 1930s; cf. GUČEK 1997, p. 82; KOVAČ 2007, p. 91.
[14] GUČEK 1997, p. 84, n. 2.
The earliest published written source that mentions the Baptistery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the 1580 visitation by Bishop Agostino Valier of Verona, in which the Bishop describes the Rotunda as a building with an octagonal baptismal font and a wooden roof next to the Koper Cathedral.[1] A little more than a century later, Paolo Naldini described the Rotunda similarly in his Corografia Ecclesiastica.[2]
In the relevant literature, the first references to the Baptistery, mainly focusing on the time of the building’s creation, can be traced back to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. At the time, quite a few authors assumed it had been built in 1317, because of the year preserved on the inscription plaque above the entrance portal. Thus, in 1905, Niccolò del Bello believed that the Baptistery had been commissioned in 1317 by Tomaso Contarini.[3] In the same year, in the book Istria Nobilissima, Giuseppe Caprin published the first transcription of the Latin text from the inscription plaque, which led him to conclude that the building had been erected in 1317 at the initiative of Nicolo Falier.[4] Baccio Ziliotto also placed its construction in the 14th century,[5] while already in the middle of the 19th century, Gedeone Pusterla wrote that in 1317, the Baptistery had merely been “perfezionata” (remodeled).[6] Pusterla’s opinion about the building being renovated in the early 14th century was also shared by Domenico Venturini,[7] who briefly mentioned it, while more attention was paid to the Baptistery only by Antonio Alisi in his first independent contribution dedicated to the two Rotundas of Koper in 1912.[8] Alisi linked the time of the Baptistery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s construction to the development of the entire sacral complex and the consolidation of the episcopal see in Koper, dating it to the 10th century. He compared the building to the early architecture of Ravenna and the subsequent architecture of Lombardy and attributed its Gothic portal to the reconstruction under Mayor and Captain Nicolo Falier.[9] Pietro Toesca also noticed the Baptistery’s Lombard Romanesque character in its articulation with lesenes and triple blind arches.[10] His opinion was shared by Francesco Semi, who first wrote about the Baptistery in his 1934 monograph dedicated to the Koper Cathedral, as well as three years later in the monograph L’arte in Istria, after the renovation of the Baptistery had already been completed under the auspices of the expert monument service of Trieste (Soprintendenza ai Monumenti della Venezia Giulia).[11] In both publications, he dated the Rotunda to the beginning of the millennium. However, four decades later, in Capris, Iustantinopolis, Capodistria, he changed his mind and placed the time of its construction in the 12th century.[12] In 1956, Ferdinando Forlati also published an article about the restoration of the Rotunda during the 1930s, briefly describing the works carried out and including some documentary photographic materials from before the restoration.[13]
After the end of the 1950s, Stane Bernik and Marijan Zadnikar focused on the architecture of the Rotunda of St John the Baptist in Koper in the context of their overviews of Slovenian Romanesque architecture and the architecture of Slovenian coastal towns.[14] Given the building’s stylistic features, Stane Bernik placed its construction in the 12th century (perhaps even the 11th century), while he dated the entrance portal according to the year preserved on it.[15] Marijan Zadnikar agreed that the pure architecture of the Rotunda pointed to the 12th century – the time when the establishment of the Diocese of Koper had been completed. He described the Baptistery as “a textbook example of Romanesque architecture in a Mediterranean setting”.[16] In 1993, Aldo Cherini wrote a more extensive article about the Baptistery, in which he also mentioned Forlati’s restoration during the 1930s and the consequent loss of Bruti’s chapel. Cherini also transcribed the inscriptions from the Gothic inscription plaque of 1317,[17] the tombstone of Bishop Agostino Bruti (1733–1747),[18] and the inscription plaque of 1862, which had once been located on the lunette over the entrance door.[19]
The subsequent research into the Baptistery took place as part of the conservation works carried out on the location between 1976 and 2005 under the direction of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia in Piran. The research results were presented in 1997 in the tenth issue of the Annales scientific journal. Marko Stokin wrote about archaeological discoveries;[20] Janez Höfler discussed the Christ Pantocrator fresco on the dome’s apex;[21] Mojca Guček presented the protective conservation research methodology and new findings;[22] metric documentation and a digital orthophoto quadrangle of the Baptistery were produced;[23] and a more detailed study and dating of the timber from the roof were carried out.[24] During the conservation works, the corpus Istria città maggiori was created and published in 2001 in Trieste. In it, three catalogue units are dedicated to the Baptistery, discussing its architecture,[25] the newly discovered Christ Pantocrator fresco,[26] and the freshly restored Baroque painting by Lorenzo Pedrini.[27] In 2007, after the research had been completed and the Baptistery reopened, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia issued a publication presenting the new findings and the building’s historical placement.[28]
In addition to the aforementioned catalogue unit in Istria Città Maggiori (2001), in 1997, Alessandro Quinzi dedicated an entire article in the journal Arte in Friuli, Arte a Trieste to the newly discovered Christ Pantocrator fresco.[29] After publishing a scientific article in the Annales scientific journal in 1997, Janez Höfler again wrote about the mural in the collective volume Dioecesis Iustinopolitana (2000) and a publication issued in 2007, after the renovation of the Baptistery.[30] In 2016, Enrica Cozzi included the Pantocrator of Koper in her overview of Istrian mural painting.[31]
ALISI 1912
Antonio ALISI (LEISS), La rotonda di S. Elio e la Chiesa dei Carmini a Capodistria, Pagine Istriane, 10/11–12, 1912, pp. 243–251.
ALISI 1932
Antonio ALISI, Il duomo di Capodistria, Roma 1932.
BERGAMINI, TAVANO 1991
Giuseppe BERGAMINI, Sergio TAVANO, Storia dell’Arte nel Friuli Venezia Giulia, Udine 1991.
BERNIK 1968
Stane BERNIK, Organizem slovenskih obalnih mest. Koper, Izola, Piran, Ljubljana 1968.
BREJC 1983
Tomaž BREJC, Slikarstvo od 15. do 19. stoletja na slovenski obali. Topografsko gradivo, Koper-Piran 1983.
CAPRIN 1905
Giuseppe CAPRIN, L’Istria nobilissima, 1, Trieste 1905.
CHERINI 1993
Aldo CHERINI, La rotonda dei Carmini, Trieste 1993.
COZZI 2016
Enrica COZZI, Affreschi medievali in Istria, Trieste 2016.
CRAIEVICH 2001
Alberto CRAIEVICH, Lorenzo Pedrini, documentato dal 1740 al 1768, Istria Città maggiori. Capodistria, Parenzo, Pirano, Pola. Opere d’arte dal Medioevo all’Ottocento (edd. Giuseppe Pavanello, Maria Walcher), Trieste 2001, p. 36.
DEL BELLO 1905
Niccolò DEL BELLO, Capodistria, la piazza del Comune nel secolo XV., Pagine istriane, 3/11–12, 1905, pp. 246–264.
ERIĆ, UMEK, ŽUPANČIČ 1992
Miran ERIĆ, Alojz UMEK, Matej ŽUPANČIČ, Poizkus uvodnih dendrokronoloških analiz lesa iz ostrešja baptisterija sv. Janeza Krstnika v Kopru, Arheo, 9, 1992, pp. 70–75.
ERIĆ, UMEK, ŽUPANČIČ 1997
Miran ERIĆ, Alojz UMEK, Matej ŽUPANČIČ, Datacija lesa iz ostrešja kapele Karmelske Matere Božje v Kopru in poizkus zgodovinske umestitve, Annales, 10, 1997, pp. 97–104.
FORLATI 1956
Ferdinando FORLATI, Il battistero romanico di Capodistria, Atti e memorie della società Istriana di Archeologia e Storia Patria, Venezia, n. s. 4, 56, 1956, pp. 117–119.
GUČEK 1997
Mojca GUČEK, Metodologija zavarovalnih konservatorskih raziskav v Marijini rotundi v Kopru in nova odkritja, Annales, 10, 1997, pp. 81–86.
GUČEK 2001
Mojca GUČEK, Krstilnica sv. Janeza Krstnika v Kopru. Dokumentacija arhitekture in konservatorske raziskave, Acta Histriae, 9, 2001, pp. 453–476.
HÖFLER 1997
Janez HÖFLER, Ob odkritju Kristusove podobe na oboku Marijine rotunde v Kopru, Annales, 10, 1997, pp. 75–80.
HÖFLER 2000
Janez HÖFLER, Kristus Pantokrator, Dioecesis Iustinopolitana (ed. Samo Štefanac), Koper 2000, pp. 223–225.
HÖFLER 2007
Janez HÖFLER, Kristusova podoba na oboku, Krstilnica sv. Janeza Krstnika v Kopru/Il battistero di San Giovanni di Capodistria/The Baptistery of St. John the Baptist in Koper (ed. Biserka Ribnikar), Ljubljana 2007, pp. 113–121.
KOSMATIN FRAS 1997
Mojca KOSMATIN FRAS, Tridimenzionalna metrična dokumentacija in digitalni ortofoto Marijine rotunde v Kopru, Annales, 10, 1997, pp. 91–95.
KOVAČ 2003
Mojca Marijana KOVAČ, Koper – Krstilnica sv. Janeza Krstnika /EŠD 238/. Prezentacija krstilnice, Piran 2003 (restoration programme).
KOVAČ 2007
Mojca MarjAna KOVAČ, Obnova v letih 1976–2004, Krstilnica Janeza Krstnika v Kopru/Il battistero di San Giovanni di Capodistria/The Baptistery of St. John the Baptist in Koper (ed. Biserka Ribnikar), Ljubljana 2007, pp. 87–99.
KOVAČ, STOKIN 2003
Mojca Marijana KOVAČ, Marko STOKIN, Trg ob krstilnici sv. Janeza Krstnika, Koper. Konservatorske smernice in pogoji za obnovo in prezentacijo, Piran 2003 (conservation programme, amendment).
Krstilnica 2007
Krstilnica Janeza Krstnika v Kopru/Il battistero di San Giovanni di Capodistria/The Baptistery of St. John the Baptist in Koper (ed. Biserka Ribnikar), Ljubljana 2007.
LAVRIČ 1986
Ana LAVRIČ, Vizitacijsko poročilo Agostina Valiera o koprski škofiji iz leta 1579, Ljubljana 1986.
MADONIZZA 1851
Antonio MADONIZZA, Il duomo di Capodistria, Popolano dell’Istria, 4, 18. 2. 1851, pp. 161–163.
NALDINI 1700
Paolo NALDINI, Corografia ecclesiastica o sia Descrittione della città e della diocesi di Giustinopoli Detto volgarmente Capo d’Istria, Venezia 1700.
PUSTERLA 1846
Gedeone PUSTERLA, Chiese di Capodistria nel secolo XVIII, L’Istria, 1/66-67, 1846, pp. 269–270.
PUSTERLA 1891
Gedeone PUSTERLA, I rettori di Egida Giustinopoli Capo d’Istria. Cronologie, elenchi genealogie, note, appendice, Capodistria 1891.
QUINZI 1997
Alessandro QUINZI, Nota per la Majestas Domini dell’antico Battistero di Capodistria, Arte in Friuli, Arte a Trieste, 16–17, 1997, pp. 327–332.
QUINZI 2001
Alessandro QUINZI, Pittore attivo a Capodistria, inizi XIV secolo, Istria Città maggiori. Capodistria, Parenzo, Pirano, Pola. Opere d’arte dal Medioevo all’Ottocento (edd. Giuseppe Pavanello, Maria Walcher), Trieste 2001, pp. 35–36.
RIZZI 1987
Alberto RIZZI, Scultura esterna a Venezia. Corpus delle sculture erratiche all’aperto di Venezia della sua laguna, Venezia 1987.
SEMI 1934
Francesco SEMI, Il duomo di Capodistria, Parenzo 1934.
SEMI 1937
Francesco SEMI, L’arte in Istria, Pola 1937.
SEMI 1975
Francesco SEMI, Capris, Iustantinopolis, Capodistria, Trieste 1975.
STOKIN 1997
Marko STOKIN, Arheološka interpelacija rotunde Karmelske Matere Božje v Kopru v kontekstu umetnostnozgodovinske stroke, Annales, 10, 1997, pp. 87–90.
TOESCA 1927
Pietro TOESCA, Storia dell’arte italiana. Il Medioevo, Torino 1927.
VENTURINI 1906
Domenico VENTURINI, Guida storica di Capodistria, Capodistria 1906.
WALCHER 2001
Maria WALCHER, Maestranze romanico-lombarde XII–XIII secolo, Istria Città maggiori. Capodistria, Parenzo, Pirano, Pola. Opere d’arte dal Medioevo all’Ottocento (edd. Giuseppe Pavanello, Maria Walcher), Trieste 2001, p. 35.
ZADNIKAR 1982
Marijan ZADNIKAR, Romanika v Sloveniji, Ljubljana 1982.
ZADNIKAR 2001
Marijan ZADNIKAR, Romanske cerkve v Sloveniji. 11.–13. stoletje, Ljubljana 2001.
ZILIOTTO 1910
Baccio ZILIOTTO, Capodistria, Trieste 1910.
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[1] In 1986, the visitation was published by Ana Lavrič (LAVRIČ 1986, p. 61).
[2] NALDINI 1700, p. 23.
[3] DEL BELLO 1905, p. 251, n. 1.
[4] CAPRIN 1905, p. 176.
[5] ZILIOTTO 1910, p. 7.
[6] PUSTERLA 1846, p. 269; cf. PUSTERLA 1891, p. 53.
[7] VENTURINI 1906, p. 62.
[8] ALISI 1912, pp. 243–251.
[9] In his text – ALISI 1912, p. 248 – there is an error in the transcription of the year 1314 (instead of 1317) from the inscription on the Gothic portal.
[10] TOESCA 1927, p. 541. In the Storia dell’arte nel Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Udine 1991, p. 184, Giuseppe Bergamini and Sergio Tavano also identify Lombard Romanesque characteristics in the case of both Rotundas of Koper.
[11] Cf. SEMI 1934, pp. 97–98; SEMI 1937, pp. 106–109.
[12] SEMI 1975, p. 132.
[13] FORLATI 1956, pp. 117–119.
[14] Marijan ZADNIKAR, Romanska arhitektura na Slovenskem, Ljubljana 1959, p. 264; Marijan ZADNIKAR, Umetnostno-geografski položaj romanske arhitekture na Slovenskem, Kronika, 7/1, 1959, p. 28; BERNIK 1968, p. 76; Marijan ZADNIKAR, Romanska umetnost, Ljubljana 1970, pp. XXXVIII, LXXXIV; ZADNIKAR 1982, pp. 449–450; ZADNIKAR 2001, pp. 67–68.
[15] BERNIK 1968, pp. 76–78.
[16] Zadnikar believes that the Baptistery must have been based on an architectural model located far away, as all the nearby examples have a different floor plan: the baptisteries in Aquileia and Grado are square with additional niches, while the one in Poreč or the former baptistery in Piran are octagonal; cf. ZADNIKAR 1982, pp. 449–450; ZADNIKAR 2001, pp. 67–68.
[17] Cf. CAPRIN 1905, p. 176.
[18] Cf. CHERINI 1993, pp. 10–11.
[19] The inscription plaque from 1862 was removed from the portal during Forlati’s renovation and is now kept at the Koper City Museum. It states: D.O.M. / IN HONOREM / B.MARIAE S.V. DE MONTE CARMELO / V.T. / CUIUS MATERNO CORDI REGENERATI COMMITTITUR / EIUS PATROCINIO AD MONTEM DOMINI ASCENDIMUS / MDCCCLXII; see CHERINI 1993, p. 13.
[20] STOKIN 1997, pp. 87–90.
[21] HÖFLER 1997, pp. 75–80.
[22] GUČEK 1997, pp. 81–86.
[23] KOSMATIN FRAS 1997, pp. 91–95.
[24] ERIĆ, UMEK, ŽUPANČIČ 1997, pp. 97–104.
[25] WALCHER 2001, p. 35.
[26] QUINZI 2001, pp. 35–36.
[27] CRAIEVICH 2001, p. 36.
[28] Krstilnica 2007.
[29] QUINZI 1997, pp. 327–332.
[30] HÖFLER 2000, pp. 223–225; HÖFLER 2007, pp. 113–121.
[31] COZZI 2016, pp. 255–256.
The episcopal visitations, regularly carried out by the Bishops of Koper from 1580 onwards, represent the richest source of information related to the sacral architecture of Koper. The first bishops to visit the Koper Diocese were Agostino Valier, the Bishop of Verona,[1] and Giovanni Ingenerio, the Bishop of Koper (1578–1599). After them, bishops would visit every few years until the arrival of the French in 1809. Giovanni Ingenerio was followed by Geronimo Contareno (1600–1611), Geronimo Rusca (1620–1630), Pietro Morari (1633–1648), Baldassare Bonifacio Corniani (1652–1660), Francesco Zeno (1660–1680), Pietro Antonio Delfino (1680–1686), Paolo Naldini (1686–1714),[2] Antonio Maria Borromeo (1714–1733), Agostino Brutti (1733–1747), Giovanni Battista Sandi (1748–1756), Carlo Camucio (1756–1776), and Francesco Bonifacio da Ponte (1776–1809).[3] All the visitations are kept in the Diocesan Archives of Trieste.
The 1580 visitations by Bishop of Verona Agostino Valier, published in 1986 by Ana Lavrič,[4] represent the oldest published source about the churches of Koper. The second published and also exceedingly important source of information on the history of the Diocese, the Church institutions, and the Chapter’s personalities is Bishop Paolo Naldini’s Corografia Ecclesiastica from 1700, translated into Slovenian and commented on by Darko Darovec in 2001.[5]
The oldest visual source for the Baptistery’s floor plan is a 1619 map drawn by Giacomo Fini.[6]
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[1] His visitation was published in 1986 by Ana Lavrič (LAVRIČ 1986).
[2] Some of the information from the visitations was published by Paolo Naldini in 1700 in the work Corografia ecclesiastica o sia Descrittione della città e della diocesi di Giustinopoli Detto volgarmente Capo d’Istria.
[3] Listed according to the inventory of the archives of the Diocese of Koper, kept in the Diocesan Archives of Trieste (Archivio della Diocesci di Capodistria, Trieste 1992).
[4] LAVRIČ 1986.
[5] Cf. NALDINI 1700; Paolo NALDINI, Cerkveni krajepis ali opis mesta in škofije Justinopolis ljudsko Koper (ed. Darko Darovec), Koper 2001.
[6] The map shows the circular-shaped floor plan of the Baptistery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel without an apse. The drawing is preserved in the Senato Mare fond, f. 223 (format 56.5 x 42, ink drawing) in the Venice National Archives.
The first restoration and conservation works on the Baptistery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel were carried out between 1933 and 1935 by the expert monuments service of Trieste (Soprintendenza ai Monumenti della Venezia Giulia) under the direction of the conservator Ferdinando Forlati.[1] Forlati chose to present the monument as a Romanesque baptistery and based his project on the preserved elements and stylistic features of the building itself, as no other information about its original appearance existed. He documented the Baroque condition of the Rotunda and drew up renovation plans. At that time, all the surrounding buildings and extensions that leaned on or covered the Rotunda were removed.[2] Forlati also removed the additional Baroque chancel, closed the Baroque window openings, and opened the former Romanesque windows, whose traces were visible on the building’s exterior. Inside, he removed all the Baroque wall and dome decorations except for the Baroque painting on the dome’s apex. He had the walls plastered in a light ochre colour and used brick-coloured linear decoration to restore the Baptistery’s Romanesque appearance.[3] He also planned to erect a wall with a wrought-iron fence around the building. This was not realised, however, as the restoration was interrupted due to the lack of funds and the war.[4]
In 1976, due to the monument’s deteriorating state of preservation and much-needed renovation, repairs and restoration works began, overseen by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia in Piran. The thorough overhaul was completed in 2004.[5] After the beginning of the renovation works in 1976, when the Baptistery’s peripheral wall had been probed, the building was closed to the public. Based on the research, further restoration works were planned. However, it was not until 1992 when the project also received adequate financial support that they were able to proceed.[6] During the first years, the roof and façade of the Baptistery were restored, while georadar surveys of the interior floor and archaeological investigations of the building’s exterior were carried out. In 1995, the remains of the Romanesque apse and brick paving were discovered,[7] followed two years later by the restoration of the interior wall, dome, wooden portico, and Lorenzo Pedrini’s Baroque painting, under which the Gothic Christ Pantocrator fresco was discovered.[8] The interior plaster was also removed from the wall, while inside the building, a baptismal font, later converted into a Baroque tomb, was found. Lorenzo Pedrini’s painting was restored in 1999. A year later, a project for the static renovation and presentation of the former baptismal font’s foundations or the Baroque tomb with glass was prepared.[9] In 2001, the brick dome,[10] the roof structure and roofing, the bell-gable, and the roof finishing were renovated and restored. Over the next two years, the static renovation and restoration of the peripheral wall and foundations were completed, the baptismal font/tomb cleaned, and electric lighting installed.[11] In 2004, the following was restored and presented: the Baroque stone stair, the paving by the entrance and the altar, the stone window frames of the entrance portal, the small Gothic brick roof, the stone slabs above the entrance, the tomb slab, and the walls. Furthermore, the entrance door was restored, the windows renovated, while the Christ Pantocrator fresco, the stucco frame, Lorenzo Pedrini’s Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan painting, and the altar were restored and presented. Finally, new paving in the cocciopesto technique was laid. In 2004, the renovation works were completed, and the Baptistery reopened in June 2005.[12]
________________________________________
[1] FORLATI 1956, pp. 117–119. See the Architectural development section.
[2] GUČEK 1997, pp. 81, 84. See the Architectural development section.
[3] FORLATI 1956; GUČEK 1997, p. 84. See the Architectural development section.
[4] GUČEK 1997, p. 84.
[5] For a more detailed account of the restoration works, see KOVAČ 2007, pp. 87–99. The documentation related to the restoration and interventions is kept by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Piran Regional Unit.
[6] KOVAČ 2007, pp. 93–94.
[7] Krstilnica 2007, p. 124.
[8] For more information about the fresco, see HÖFLER 1997.
[9] Krstilnica 2007, p. 125.
[10] For more information, see ERIĆ, UMEK, ŽUPANČIČ 1997, pp. 97–104; cf. ERIĆ 1994, pp. 70–75.
[11] Krstilnica 2007, p. 126; cf. KOVAČ 2007.
[12] Krstilnica 2007, pp. 126–127; cf. KOVAČ 2007.
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