| The cathedral and treasury |
| Korčula |
 Immediately beyond the church lies St Mark's Cathedral (Katedrala svetog Marka), squeezed into a diminutive space that passes for a main town square. The cathedral's facade is decorated with a gorgeous fluted rose window and a bizarre cornice frilled with strange beasts. In the centre, a matronly lady looks down with half-closed eyes; no one knows for sure who she is - suggestions have ranged from the emperor Diocletian's wife to one of a number of Hungarian queens who helped finance the church.
The main figure directly above the porch is St Mark, flanked by lions pawing smaller, more subservient animals, while the door is framed by statues of Adam and Eve.The cathedral's interior is one of the loveliest on the coast, in a curious mixture of styles developed over three hundred years, from the Gothic nave to the Renaissance north aisle. Local stonemason Marko Andrijić completed the elegant ciborium some time in the 1490s, topping its Corinthian columns with statuettes of Archangel Michael and the Virgin, and adding a pagoda-like roof. Beneath its canopy you can just about make out an early Tintoretto altarpiece, depicting St Mark flanked by SS Hieronymus and Bartholomew. There's a wealth of interesting clutter in the south aisle, including some of the pikes used against Uluz Ali, another Tintoretto (an Annunciation, with the Archangel appearing to the Virgin in a shower of sparks), and a thirteenth-century icon of the Virgin.This was once kept on nearby Badija island and is credited with offering miraculous assistance to the Venetian fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571; accompanied by a flotilla of small boats, the icon is taken back to Badija every year on August 2 to preside over a special thanksgiving mass. At the end of the south aisle lie the fine Renaissance tomb of Bishop Malumbra and an altar featuring a murky, time-darkened allegory of the Holy Trinity by Venetian painter Leandro Bassano. Many of the church's treasures have been removed to the Bishop's Treasury (riznica;July &Aug: daily 10am-noon & 5-7pm; rest of year apply at the tourist office), next door. This is one of the best small art collections in the country, with an exquisite set of paintings which takes in a striking Portrait of a Man by Carpaccio, a perceptive Virgin and Child by Bassano, a tiny Madonna by Dalmatian Renaissance artist Blai JutJev ofTrogir, plus some Tiepolo studies of hands, and drawings by Raphael. Oddities include an ivory statuette of Mary Queen of Scots, whose skirts open to reveal kneeling figures in doublet and hose - what it's doing in Korcula remains a mystery. A modest annexe to the treasury, entered just round the corner on Marka Andrijića, displays Roman and Byzantine pottery retrieved from offshore wrecks. |
