Lake Effect

 

The sky's been grey for days. Today, fine snow added to the impressionistic softness. Nice, but craving sunshine. I've been satisfying my curiosity and writing some entries about buildings of interest (not for the easily bored) today, and keep coming upon albums of photos taken in bright sun. 'Nuff said. Let's go back to Bled, one lovely day last May. 

Lake Bled, despite its rather unappealing name, is glorious. It's in north-western Slovenia, about 55 km. from the capital Lubljana (another sunny day visit.) We're in the Julian Alps, just south of the Austrian border. 

The lake became the retreat of royals and aristocrats during the Austo-Hungarian Empire. 

Another era produced another lake lover. The rather Soviet era building to the left was the summer residence of Josip Broz Tito, built in 1947 on the site of the former royal residence. Here Tito entertained the likes of Nikita Krushchev and Indira Ghandi. Now the building's a boutique hotel - we didn't inquire about rates.

Yugoslavia's royal family's story highlights the complex history of Croatia and Slovenia. the Karadordevics were once the Serbian royal family. I'll just park this challenging bit of history right here for now.

All this new information and not a single card catalogue has been rifled in its discovery!  What a wonderful world. 

The beauty here defies description. An embarassment of riches, as mom used to say. One could almost imagine Bob Ross suggesting "let's pop in just one more picturesque detail here." A storybook medieval castle on a cliff, a church on an island. Turquoise glacial waters. Forest, snowtopped mountains. 

And despite my thinking I might miss a day without archi history, it was a fabulous unforgettable day.

Bled island is accessible only by the traditional wooden pletna boats, suitably picturesque. The colourful wooden boats with gay awnings are powered by a single standing rower. The role is hereditary, with licences held by only a few families, passed down through the generations. The pletna boats have been operating since the 1500s, when they ferried people and materials to the island church. We clambered aboard one of the 23 boats, twenty or so of us in convivial facing rows, looking forward to bobbing along historically for the 20 minute ride.

Once on the island, we took the 90 steps up to the Assumption of Mary Pilgrimage Church.   The changing topography, the vegetation - the views!!! all come back to me as I write this.

As to church history, I can report that the Gothic style church consecrated in 1465 was a remodel, the original dating from 1142. Earthquake damage led to another rebuild, this time in built in early Baroque style. The church has that northern Europe flavour, so different from the churches I love in Italy. The shape of the church, the wall and the 99 steps leading up have endured since the early 17th century. 

I passed on a visit inside the church, preferring to soak up sun and history without benefit of interpretation or intercession.

Bled Castle

water colour due to the limestone lake bottom

The walk back down the path to the waiting boats (consious that our boat left at a certain time, and I had no idea how long the path woud take) provided  marvels underfoot and at a distance.

And unbelievably, the day offered even more. We visited that castle on the rock pinnacle, Bled Castle. Yes, there is a road up! The castle's origins are medieval, it's been through countless misadventures and iterations until final work in 1952 by respected architect Tone Bitenc, keeping the medieval character while adapting it to earning its living via events and the tourism economy. 

Castellum Veldes, as it started out, I read on their website, is the oldest castle in Slovenia; a document of  ownership dated 1011 establishes the fact. Here's the entire ownership history, too much for me. 

I never did get fully oriented. I think I needed this aerial shot (thanks Wikipedia). 

The castle is composed of upper and lower courtyards connected by a staircase. A  museum and functioning historical printing shop, and bunches of people distracted me further. 

Romanesque tower, the oldest part of the castle. Struck by lightning several times, I read somewhere, so goodness knows how much of it's actually Romanesque.

I wandered and captured details and vignettes that pleased me. And they still do. This is what I love about my little blogging habit - I can just keep on travelling (thanks Rick Steves.)

The spot I loved most, a refuge from the moderate tourist bustle was the serene and lovely 16th century Gothic Chapel; frescoes date to the late 1600s, so a bit Baroque for my taste. Nice meditative space, however with the windows and oculus in its little arch. 

But one can't top this for serenity. From here I'm looking back at the island I visited earlier in the day. I still can't believe I was here. 

So very grateful for this day.

Losing perspective - Let me just back up a bit

Orsanmichele Church

 This structure has intrigued me since I first spotted it in 1995, down a narrow street off the Palazzo della Republica, as we rushed past. I glimpsed it again from afar on a walking tour in 2023. What a curious thing.

During my solo week in Florence in 2024, I booked to spend hours in the astonishing church and museum housed upstairs here and ponder the structure's origins and history. I walked all around it, photographing the magnificent sculptures (replicas of the magnificent originals housed inside for their protection) in niches round about, as well as countless other architectural details. 

But I still left mildly frustrated as what I wanted to do most was not possible. I wanted to walk back several yards to get an unimpeded look, to "take it all in." Alas, with narrow lanes heading off in all directions and pedestrian, bicycle and trade vehicle traffic, there just isn't a vantage point from which to properly appreciate the multi-layered historical styles

Arte della Lana 

To me the even more intriguing building sharing the corner, on the other side of the small street is the Arte della Lana building; appreciating its detail demands the long view even more. 

I've added a Streetview link here, to share my quandary with you.

So I'm spending time visiting blogs and tourism sites, and revisiting my photos to try to get myself oriented.  

The  Arte della Lana building  is joined to Orsanmichele church by a bridge on the second floor. In fact, the only way to enter the museum on the second floor of the Orsanmichele church is by entering this building first at a side door and climbing the stone stairs. The walls are adorned with hints of the frescoes housed inside the former wool guild headquarters.

The fascinating Arte della Lana building with its magnificent Gothic doorway was by 1308 the headquarters for the Wool Guild, at that time the most wealthy of the seven Medieval trade guilds in Florence. The Italian Dante Society now owns the building; you can see a coloured relief of Dante presenting his Divine Comedy above the peaked Venetian gothic entrance.

Inside the Arte della Lana palagio (tower/palazzo hybrid)  are splendid frescoes and decorated ceilings worthy of the authorities in charge of the serious business of wool. I didn't get to visit. But I fully appreciated, head tilted to the sky, its medieval castellated tower and the later Renaissance detail. 

The photo above right shows the 'back stairs' used to access the church's second floor - a taste of the splendours inside Arte della Lana. 

Now, back to the top and the strangely proportioned Orsanmichele Church. Let me take you into the splendours inside, and then we'll talk.

The Church's not very elegant boxy shape reveals its c.1290 origins as a municipal grain storage under open loggia. As it evolved, the arches of the original loggia housing the open-air market (similar to the Mercato Nuovo, or straw market) were closed in and fitted with magnificent late Gothic mullioned windows and two extra stories were added. 

The transformation from market to church took place over time, starting with an image painted on a pillar of the Virgin Mary, to whom miracles were attributed. Fire. Rebuilding. The humble Virgin painted on a market pillar evolved to the massive painting of the Madonna by Bernardo Daddi in 1347 housed in a magnificent Gothic marble altar carved by Andrea Orcagna. The church as we see it was completed in 1404. Here's a link to a post about Mary's miracles, to help explain what I cannot about the origin of this church. 

The interior of Orsanmichele Church is breathtaking There is so much devotional art here - frescoes, sculpture, paintings and stained glass, so much of it by the most celebrated artists of the era. I was mesmerized by the late Gothic/early Renaissance ceiling frescoes. You can feel the arcane mystery that faith must have been to simple people of the 14th century.   

Museums in Florence provides the full story here.

 Here's another great site, with great photos and information I've not included.

So, that's the first floor of Orsanmichele. I mentioned at the top of this post the somewhat circuitous route the art pilgrim makes to the second, up stairs in the adjoining guild building and back across a footbridge. Here, under soaring brick groin vaulted ceilings which once housed civic grain storage are displayed the sculptures that originally adorned the niches on the street-level exterior of Orsanmichele. 

Four Crowned Saints (Nanni di Banco 1412-15)

I appreciated seeing the sculptural detail at eye level, and reading all the information, but the replicas outside (over the past decades the originals have been gradually moved inside and restored) have such power, standing as they have done since the early Renaissance in ornate niches, overlooking the daily human drama unfolding below. Something lost in translation here.

I'm obliged to a couple of writers for helping me know this corner better.

This post from the entertaining From a Tuscan Hillside is really good, this link to Leslie's The Geographical Cure says all I really needed to say about Orsanmichele. And then there are my favourite architecture history presenters on Smarthistory.

The day ended on the third floor of Orsanmichele. Here a massive open space offered misty views of the city. 

Research projects like this post highlight for me the reality of impermanence in medieval cities - it didn't always look like this, folks. Fire, war, changing tastes, growth and decline change everything. What we see when we visit; it's just a snapshot. Even the oldest places are still in transition. As are we all.

Split Personality

 

I had been looking forward to this coastal city in Croatia for ages. Like a lot of travellers, I go for the history and stay for the palm trees. I'm usually urged to consider the gelato but it hasn't become a go-to. So Split, the home town of our erudite and personable guide Vanya, was my happy place, with its medieval and Roman structures literally grown together over the centuries, the scars of their uncomfortable fusion hardly visible. Of course, Vanya added layers of his own, sharing stories of the mischief he and his teenage friends got up to down the narrow medieval alleys, once the passageways of Diocletian's palace..

Split started out as Spalatum, the Roman name for this town that grew up around the massive (about 7 acres) retirement palace and fortress complex of the Emperor Diocletian, built over 10 years around 300AD. This photo from Wikipedia helps to visualize the build and the scale. 

In the day, the Adriatic washed up right to the base of the complex, and a sea gate provided access as at the Traitor's Gate at the Tower of London. So the gardens and parking in the photo above weren't there yet.

You can see the Roman arches of the massive wall, which has stood all this time, standing tall above the parking. Can you say 'gob-smacked'?

Given the astonishing history of conquest and ownership over the centuries since Diocletian, it's not surprising that Split's architecture is multilayered, fascinating, bewildering. But I don't intend to let historic fact-seeking to spoil the fun. I was in awe the entire day I wandered inside its walls, seeing marble raised by a Roman Emperor's people, and razed by indignant Christians later, who had suffered terribly at his hands.

 I read somewhere that in the process of smashing down all he'd built (although a lot of the dismantling may have been that ever-sensible Medieval reuse of ancient stone) some wise head suggested they keep a few spots and reuse them. How better to flip the bird in the face of this tyrant. So Diocletian's mausoleum became St. Domnius church in the 7th century, and a Temple to Jupiter became a Christian baptistery in the 6th. 

Roman walls and gates, modified over centuries

North Gate

Substructure, originally storage, sewers by medieval era

Oculus in the Vestibule, a ceremonial entrance hall

View fit for an Emperor from the Grand Hall

People and Peristyle - granite colums from Egypt

The central peristyle, once the ceremonial centre of Diocletian's residence, buzzes with tourists but there is always a quiet corner from which to observe Romanesque stonework, a 5th century BC granite sphinx (brought from Luxor to decorate the new pad), the Emperor's actual palace steps and colonnades or just do that thing we do, musing on history and change.

original portico surrounding Diocletian's mausoleum

Romanesque carved doors(1214)

the original Roman dome, columns and capitals of the mausoleum

Romanesque lectern

original basalt Roman columns

And if you want more, I recommend  Jet-Setting Fools, an outstanding travel site, thanks Sarah and Kris. Should their fabulous photos not be quite enough, here are a couple of great videos to tour you about.

 Through no fault of the creators, there are hilarious  errors made by the automatic captioning, which struggled with peristyle and did its best with "peristal,"  "Paris style," "pair style" and "hairstyle"    

If you, like me, want to wander more around the city, here are a couple of YouTubers whose photos likely say more than all my words, enthusiastic as they are: Andy's Awesome Adventures (ads) or Scenic Routes to the Past (kudos historian Garrett Ryan) with its phenomenal drone shots. Thanks folks.