Dominican square

Square · Dominican square, Pag

The square is named after the former monastery of the Fathers of the Order of St. Dominic, who in Pag had the monastery as well as the church of St. Ante the Abbot (Holy Cross).

Dominican monastery and church of St. Ante the Abbot were built during the second half of the 15th century. In 1457, Ratko Sprehnić and Ilija Radovanović, heads of the fraternity of St. Antun, they agreed with the Šibenik builder Jakov to build a church dedicated to their patron, demanding that it be the same length, width, and height as the church of St. Petar on Prosika. The wall had to be of the beauty and quality that master Radić Pokrajčić achieved on the city walls. Master Jakov also undertook to install the triumphal arch and all the windows, which the clients would give him already made, and to build and install two doors. The construction was certainly completed before 1465, but the works on the church and the monastery continued, so that as early as 1492, smaller sums of money were bequeathed and funds for construction were donated. In 1493, a "miraculous crucifix" was transferred to it from the church of St. Ante the Abbot in the Old Town, which is a reliable indicator that it was then completely completed. In the writings of the Apostolic visitator Augustine Valier in 1579, it was written that the church had five altars at that time: the main one, on which there was the aforementioned crucifix along with a suitable painting, the altar of St. Ante the Abbot with a suitable picture, the altar of St. Ivan the Evangelist with an old painting, the altar of St. Vincent with an old painting and the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary with the old, but a suitable picture. In the church and the sacristy there were several silver crucifixes, chalices, and other objects for liturgical use. With the abolition of the monastery during the French occupation, the church lost its function. The altar of St. Ante the Abbot as well as the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary were transferred to the Choral Church.

In 1831, it was proposed to convert the churches of St. Ante the Abbot and St. Frane into salt warehouses, which was fortunately not realized. However, for this occasion precise architectural recordings of both churches, the associated monastic complexes and part of the city walls were made.

With the transition of the monastery complex into private ownership, the church was transformed into a family house, divided into two floors, with old openings bricked up on the wall sheath and a new one breached. The apse is demolished to the ground, and the triumphant arc is walled off. Meanwhile, living quarters in the eastern half of the church have collapsed, while those in the west are still operational. The monastery buildings were also partly demolished and partly converted into residential houses.

The Church of St. Ante was built as a single-nave rectangular building (15.75 x 8.20 m) with an irregular square apse (5.25 x 5.25 m). It seems that the irregularity of the apse was caused by the direction of provision of the sacristy and the monastic buildings that continued on it, which followed the direction of provision of the city walls. The frontal arch of the apse was pointed, gothic, and was probably vaulted by a fractured semi-cylindrical vault.

To this day, only the wall mantle has been preserved, built of smoothly carved stone blocks on the street side, and much more rustically carved blocks on the courtyard. The apse was demolished, so that its outline is visible only in the foundation, and the sacristy and the door that communicated with the apse have been partially preserved. A part of the wreath of the triumphal arch has also been preserved. The interior of the building has been completely altered with the construction of residential premises. The original openings on the mantle are walled up, so it is only in the structure of the wall on the facade that it is possible to see that there was a round window above the portal, and old photographs show how the main portal had a simple stone frame and a lunette with a fractured arch.

The complex of monastery buildings is completely adapted to the urban structure of the newly built city. Namely, instead of the usual situation in which monastery buildings gather around a rectangular courtyard, in the Dominican monastery in Pag they were built to follow the direction of provision of the city wall, so the large courtyard got an irregular shape as well. Although the original situation is difficult to fully reconstruct, based on the 1831 draft, it can be concluded that the religious community was small and did not need more living premises. On the site of the former monastery buildings and part of the courtyard, today newer residential buildings are found, of which only one, judging by the direction of provision, occupies part of the former monastery premises. What also remained preserved is the crown of the cistern, which is today located in the yard of one of the residential buildings and is still in use.

A special interesting feature of the Pag Dominican monastery is the way in which the earthen embankment of the city walls was used as a garden of the monastery complex, which skillfully combined two useful functions.