A peek inside Gračišće's Salamon Palace

I have already written about the Salamon Palace, a building that intrigues many visitors to Gračišće. It was built in 1570 (almost 450 years ago!) in Venetian Gothic style. Sadly, this beautiful palazzo has been abandoned for decades and is slowly rotting away.

During the recent wine fair (held every Easter Monday), one of the ground-floor rooms of the palace was used as a wine cellar. The next day I noticed the doors were left open. I couldn't resist a peek inside, so I grabbed my camera and snuck in.

Inside I found a treasure trove: stone steps, intricate railings, walls painted in beautiful patterns, French doors, Gothic windows, stone sinks, an old-fashioned fireplace, wooden floorboards, Venetian shutters, painted ceilings, a view of the village's main church... oh, and old-fashioned toilets!

This is such an achingly beautiful building and it pains me to see it deteriorate by the day. It would be wonderful if it could be restored with all its period details preserved and transformed into a heritage hotel or a museum. Wishful thinking?

See it for yourself... Take a walk through the Salamon Palace:

100 years ago today: Kaiser Karl I's visit to Gračišće

A few months ago I was looking for old photos of Gračišće online when I stumbled on the photo archives of the Austrian National Library and found a treasure trove!

I found 10 photos taken here exactly 100 years ago when Kaiser Karl I, the last Austrian emperor, was on an official visit of Istria. He had a whole entourage with him including his own photographer, Heinrich Schuhmann, who documented his travels.

Kaiser Karl I (or Charles) was the grandnephew of Emperor Franz Josef, who he succeeded at his death in November 1916. He was only 29 when he became the head of the Austrian monarchy and he would be their last reigning monarch. His uncle Franz Ferdinand had been next in line to the throne but was assassinated in 1914 in Sarajevo, an event that sparked the First World War.

The photos I'm sharing here were taken on April 6, 1918. It was only a few months before the end of World War I – which would also be the end of the Austrian Empire which had ruled Istria for over 100 years by then. By the end of the year Istria would become part of Italy.

As for the young Kaiser's fate, he would die just a few years later in 1922 of pneumonia while in exile on the Portuguese island of Madeira. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004 and is called Blessed Karl of Austria by the Roman Catholic Church.

These photos are truly fascinating. We see crowds of villagers welcoming the monarch: mostly women and children and only a few older men because most men were serving in the war. We also see many familiar landmarks like St. Mary's Church, Salamon Palace, the main gate, and St. Vitus Church.

My father's late uncle was a young boy at the time and used to talk about this important event. He said that some of the women were asking the Kaiser about the whereabouts of their sons who were away at war.

Take a step back in time exactly 100 years ago...

Gračišće landmarks: St. Anthony's Chapel

Continuing with my series on the village's landmarks, today I'm taking you on a virtual visit of St. Anthony's Chapel.

This must be one of Gračišće's oldest religious buildings because it was built in 1381, much before the Church of St. Mary on the Square and just two years before St Euphemia's church.

What makes this building stand out is its Gothic windows and arched passageway. If you're approaching it from the square you'll see the bishop's coat of arms on the facade. Staring down at you from one of the corners of the passageway is a gargoyle-like figure but he's easy to miss.

A door opens to the chapel. This is usually locked but you can have a peek through the windows. 



The chapel is quite small and sparse but it's dominated by its baroque altar and above this, a painting of St Anthony of Padua. The altar is set against the eastern wall which is a characteristic of churches built in the Middle Ages. Look up and you'll see a vaulted ceiling, also typical of Gothic architecture.

Compared to other historical buildings in the village, churches and religious buildings tend to be taken good care of and St Anthony's Chapel is probably one of the best preserved.

Snow in the village!

On December 9th I woke up to a surprise: snow! This was the first time I was seeing the village under a blanket of the white stuff. So I grabbed my camera and headed out to capture a few shots. I'm glad I did because it soon melted. This is what it looked like:

Gračišće landmarks: Kašća

Another important historical landmark here in the village located right next to the Salamon Palace and opposite St. Mary's Church is a building called kašća. This was the granary and many towns and villages dating back to medieval times had one. 

A post shared by Isabel (@isabelswindow) on Apr 14, 2016 at 11:02am PDT

Next to St. Mary's Church is a large piece of stone with five deep indentations (see photo above). This was used as a measure for taxes paid in the form of grain. After it was collected it would be stored in the granary and a share was distributed to poorer residents.

The building dates back to 1576 and like its next-door neighbour, is in a sad state of disrepair. More recently the roof has fallen in and like other abandoned buildings here in the village it's under long-standing litigation.

There are plans by the municipality to restore this handsome building and turn it into a wine museum though I would prefer to see it used as a cultural space instead. But I'm looking forward to the day when one of the village's important landmarks located on its main square is completely restored to its former glory. 

Gračišće landmarks: The Church of St. Mary on the Square

I've decided to do a mini-series on a few of Gračišće's most notable landmarks. I've already written about the crumbling elegance of the Salamon Palace, the 16th century Gothic building that probably attracts the most attention from visitors to the village.

I also wrote about my climb up to the top of the bell tower, from where I enjoyed the amazingly scenic views. 

And I've written about other landmarks like the church of St Euphemia (Eufemija), and the loggia (loža) as part of my Istria abecedary.

This post is about another of the village's six churches. You're probably thinking that that's a lot of churches for such a small place, but as you know, the medieval period in Europe was all about building churches and cathedrals -- and Gračišće used to have seven churches in total! 

Once you come through the entrance gateway and loggia and enter the village, one of the first buildings you'll see is the Church of St. Mary. It has a prominent place on the village's main square and stands out for its handsome stone porch. 

This little church dating back to the 15th century is full of fascinating little details: 

• It was built by Master Dento in 1425 and commissioned a local nobleman called Petar Beračić. During the Middle Ages it was often patrons from this privileged class who financed the building of churches as well as secular buildings. The names of both the builder and patron are engraved in Latin on a stone plaque to the left of the door.
• The altar is placed against the eastern wall as was common in the Middle Ages, so that the priest and congregation would face east.
• The eastern wall is covered by magnificent frescoes depicting the Adoration of the Magi, which also date to the 15th century. At some point they were actually painted over and only discovered much later when the church was being restored. Of the Three Wise Men depicted, one of them is wearing a hat and has detailed features: he's believed to be Petar Beračić. It was common at the time to paint the patron into a work that was commissioned by him. 
• If you look carefully at the joints between the stones that make up the western wall (to the right and left of the entrance) you'll see the twisted and rusty ends of nails that were hammered in between the blocks of stone. The story goes that on the night of the feast of St. Mary (August 15th), childless women would drive a nail into the wall after walking on their knees from the village's entrance gate. By doing so, they believed that they would conceive.
• The church's porch was added later, in the 17th century.

Today mass is still held here, but not regularly – usually when the main church is closed for renovations. And of course every year on August 15th, there's a mass dedicated to St. Mary.

The door is kept locked so if you'd like to visit the church, you have to ask for the key. Tip: in every village there's always a dedicated person who has the key to the church. How to find them? It's not that difficult: just ask anyone. Don't be shy to knock on someone's door. They'll be happy to help and thrilled that someone is interested in seeing the 15th century frescoes up close. Or knock on the green door on the square!

Where everyone knows your name

I've always lived in big anonymous cities. Life here in the village is different. 

Here, everyone knows your name.

My father is from here so I'm known as A's daughter. (My father's name is actually M but everyone calls him A – because everyone seems to have two names here: an 'official' and 'unofficial' name – this probably needs to be the subject of a future post!) My husband is known as A's zet (son-in-law).

The village has only a few hundred inhabitants and is made up of a few extended families who have lived here for generations so it's not surprising that everyone knows each other. No anonymity here!

But sometimes I'm surprised that even in Pazin – a town eight kilometres away with a few thousand inhabitants – it's hard to be anonymous.

I was reminded of this recently when my husband and I visited a government office there. He needed a document, so he filled in a form with his personal details. The clerk then told us when we could come and pick up the document. She was friendly and chatty and casually mentioned that she grew up close to the village. “You know that road that leads to your uncle's house?” she asked, wanting to point out to me exactly which house she grew up in. A flicker of confusion must have crossed my face because she paused and asked: “So-and-so is your uncle, isn't he?” I nodded, but I was trying to figure out how she knew who I was. I hadn't even given her my name!

So even people in Pazin know who we are... even if we don't know them. There have been many other incidents like this:

Sometimes when we meet people and tell them where we live they answer: “Yes, I know.”

Then there was the time the cashier at the supermarket asked my husband how his brick oven project was going.

And when someone drove into the back of our car at a stop sign and later the same day, my aunt called to ask how bad the damage was.

But the creepiest experience was at a hardware store in Pazin: a man who was intently studying me said to me: “Your mother's name is so-and-so and she's from this-place.”

It's not that my family is famous or anything. That's just how things are here. 

Like it or not, everyone knows your name!

An old postcard of Gračišće

Last week a neighbour lent me his collection of 300 postcards of towns and villages across Istria photographed in the early 1900s. I've been looking through this fascinating collection of images and scanning the ones I find interesting. 

I've decided to start a new series on old postcards and will be sharing a few of them here.

I'm starting with the village I live in first, but the old postcards I'm including in this post do not come from my neighbour's collection, but from a book!

The postcard above is of Gračišće's Salamon Palace, with a greeting written in Italian: un saluto de Gallignana (Gallignana being the name for Gračišće in Italian). This Gothic-style building was built almost 450 years ago, and always gets noticed by visitors to the village. Unfortunately, this historic building is crumbling away with time -- I told its story in this post. This is what it looks like today:

The date on the postcard below is 1900, and this time 'greetings from Gračišće' is written in Croatian. 

The photographer who took the top photo was standing in front of St. Mary's Church on the village square (famous for its 15th century frescoes), and looking south. In the centre of the photograph is a house that no longer exists. This is what the same view looks like today:

Meanwhile the bottom image in the postcard was taken next to St. Anthony's chapel and is looking towards the church of St. Euphemia. This is the same view today:

I hope you enjoyed this step back in time!

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