Trilobe Church Facades in the Eastern Adriatic Architecture (15th–16th centuries): Italian Influence and the Local School of Architecture
Keywords:
architecture of Croatia, Renaissance architecture in the Balkans, trilobe façades, Renaissance church architecture, cultural relations in the AdriaticAbstract
This work is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 25-18-00656) and done at the Research Institute of Theory and History of Architecture and Town Planning — branch of the Central Research and Project Institute of the Construction Ministry of Russia.
In the 15th century, Dalmatia experienced an influx of cultural influence from Venice, which marked the architecture of the Adriatic coastal cities. One of the architectural types that show parallels with Venetian architecture is the type of trilobe churches. The earliest examples of these are the Gothic Duomo of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Muggia in Istria and the key Renaissance monument in Dalmatia, St. James Cathedral in Šibenik. The article analyzes these buildings in comparison with the Northern Italian Gothic and Renaissance monuments which are the most likely sources of the trilobe façade silhouette. The article focuses on expanding the range of possible sources beyond Venice in other Italian regions, as well as analyzing the architects’ creative interpretation of borrowed elements. The article also suggests reviewing the role of the Šibenik Cathedral in the further development of the type of churches with a three-lobed façade silhouette. In conclusion the article briefly describes the changes in the attitude of architects towards borrowings from Venetian architecture during the 16th century.
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