Ars: časopis Ústavu Dejín Umenia Slovenskej Akadémie Vied (43.2010)

2. BýA7, D/btc/zz/tf <rí/%^ry. Rtprc.'Aízzt^z^? T CrcďZMZzHtT^bgvAAÍozz^^A

just after the Frankish conquest and conversion, ca.
800, a very simple tower was added to an equally
crude aisled structure built in a local tradition of
straight lineš and fiat chevets, what is, however, also
in harmony with p^pology of some Early Carolingian
achievements. CrkvinainBiskupija [Fig. 1.1] and the
church at Kol j ani (according to the newest révision
of the latter) [Fig. 1.2] may háve had Rat chevets.
Bijaci and Koljani had simple square towers, whereas
at Crkvina a more complex, two-storey aisled west-
work preceded the navě. At Bijaci, A. Miloševič has
identihed, in my opinion successfully, a considérable
group of reliefs datable around the year 800, one
of which bears an inscripdon A. AA?- .A
("... íA. .^) quite likely referring to
a "iupanus" (count) of the Croats, the earliest men-
tion of the national name in historyA
Some of the elements of the above mentioned
group seem to be common to other Pre-Roman-
esque families of buildings. In a recent book on
Pre-Romanesque architecture, Charles McClendon
has paid a very careful attendon to the earliest phases
of Christian architecture on the British Isles. His fine
summary leads to a conclusion that a wooden An-
glo-Saxon post-built hall is not an unlikely prototype

^ To avoid overburdening the text with tefetences, I suggest
that the interested reader consult relevant entries %o-
in MILOŠEVIČ, A. (ed.): 1 [Exhib.
Cat.] Vols. 1-2. Split 2000, with extensive bibliography; also
GVOZDANOVIČ, V. [GOSS, V. P.]: A Note on Two Early

for early attempts at religious building (Chalton).
One should not overlook the undertakings by the
Irish monks whose monasteries were built on the
model of Celtic circular forts, surrounded by dry
wall or earthen ramparts, and consisdng of a sériés
of circular beehive huts, be it of wood or of stone
in which case they were covered by corbel vaulting.
The only rectangular building was the orátory. Here
we hâve two basic architectural types joining hands
in producing a fairly sophisticated element of a
cultural landscape, and a framework for existence
of a fairly complex social group. In passing, we
note a similar coexistence of an elongated hall and
a circular area used as sanctuary in early Slavic archi-
tecture, an offshoot of which is, I believe, a building
such as the church/palace at Ostrow Lednicki in
Poland. McClendon goes on to show how some key
Anglo-Saxon sites featured buildings of elongated
rectangular plan — nave plus sanctuary, even with
some sort of aisles, as in the case of Monkwear-
mouth, founded in 675, and [arrow, founded in 680.
The forms of these two important Northumbrian
foundations are reÜected in a well preserved church
at Escomb from ca. 700, as well as by the forms of
the mid-7* Century wood-frame church traces of
Ctoatian Royal Mausolea. In: PgnVzY, 18-19, 1976, pp. 5-13;
MILOŠEVIČ, A.: Ptva ranosrednjeovjekovna skulptura iz
crkve Sv. Matte u Bljacima. In: převyš, 26,1999,
pp. 237-264; DELONGA, V: L^ZArA' ^
Split 1996, p. 52.

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