Šibenik

This afternoon our guide Irena took us on a remarkable walking tour of the city of Šibenik (pronounced SHE-buh-nik). This town was the first to be settled by the Croatians when they arrived here around the fifteenth century. Therefore, this village cannot trace its roots as far back as Dubrovnik or Çavtat, but until the plague wiped out most of the population, it was the largest city on the Dalmatian coast. Traditionally wine and olives were the main products. As part of communist Yugoslavia, it provided the USSR with aluminum and steel. But now this quiet little city hosts a population of some 35,000. Outgrowing it’s old city walls, which now form part of the public library, the town has expanded towards the Krka River delta, an estuary leading to the Adriatic Sea. Although it is a lovely and peaceful place, Šibenik’s important buildings were rebuilt after the war with Serbia from 1990-1994. Less important buildings still show scars from machine gun, mortar and artillery fire.

The bucolic charm of the city was dripping on every street, but I found myself especially taken with the cathedral. Begun under the design and direction of native son George of Dalmatia, his premature death left the completion of the church to other architects and engineers. Having absorbed the new renaissance philosophy of humanism in Venice, George chose to adorn the cathedral’s facade not with the faces of saints and angels, but with those of the common people of the town. No two statues are alike. The nave and sanctuary are remarkable in that this Roman Catholic Church is full of architectural and liturgical elements pulled straight out of the Eastern Orthodox traditions.

The main feature, however, that merits this cathedral’s listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is the Baptistery located downstairs under the sanctuary. This tiny octagonal room is filled with symbolism. In many systems of Biblical typology, eight is the number of a new beginning (after seven, the number of completion). The room has eight sides; baptism is a new birth. Effusive religious carvings adorn the walls up to a central boss in the center of the roof. On this central stone is carved the face of a stern older man with flowing beard and piercing eyes. This figure represents God the Father. Immediately below his chin is a descending dove, emblematic of the Holy Spirit. The puzzling aspect of this room is that the baby Jesus is nowhere seen. Yet it has been conjectured that the Son of God is symbolized by the presence of the human baby who would be placed in the water of the baptismal font. This ambiguous symbolism fusing human baby and human son of God would perfectly conform to the architect’s understanding of Christian humanism.

We had a rich and rewarding time in Šibenik this afternoon, and look forward to a return visit when we can spend more time enjoying this remarkable place.Read more