The walls, which
were built in the 12th century, and with just two gates into
the city. are a gem not just for historians but for tourists
as well
The walls of town of Pag
The length of the walls of town
(historical superficial area) was 1.050 m"
The width of the town walls
(on an average of the three
venetian ells) was 2.04 m2
The area of the town walls
(recognition) was 2.150 m2
Pag, the town with a long and
strong mediaeval tradition, underwent a strange destiny at
the middle of the fifteenth century. The complete city was
left and it was built again on the new place, a few
kilometres from the existing city. Such emergence of the new
planned city was an exception in Croatia and it was also a
rarity in the world.
The ground plan of the new founded
city was symmetrical. Symmetry of the ground plan and the
style characteristic of the first buildings at their
beginning adduced that the town of Pag is often quoted as
our first city of the renaissance.
The festal beginning of the
building of the parish church and the city walls happened on
the eighteenth of May in 1443 (18th May 1443)
when the present town was founded.
If we want to value the plan and
the building of town of Pag in a town-planning idea, when
the renaissance renew the idea of an ideal city, after the
ancient times and Platon, in the eastern coast of the
Adriatic Sea in the magnificent bay, the new city was being
built with its walls.
The building of the city walls was
connected with the acting of a famous renaissance master
George de Matteo of Dalmatia.
By researching George's work as a
builder of the fortifications in some Dalmatian cities, a
historian of art, Doctor Ana Deanovic (CH) was concerned
with it for a long time, and she said in the symposium in
Sibenik in September in 1975, which was held on the occasion
of 500 anniversary of George's death, about the walls of
town of Pag.
"The most interesting George's
work is a concept of the walls of town of Pag. In his idea,
the fortification of the city surrounded a settlement with
the walls that were thin about 2 or 3 ells. On those walls
the towers were disposed on the distance of 80 metres from
each other, which were neither square nor cylindrical. On
the most displayed line of the walls, he placed the
polygonal towers with the shape , which was
used in romanic. The towers were
leant against the walls, so that convexity from the line of
the walls was able for the wider operations with firearms.
This polygonal shape of the towers, which were placed on the
walls, and in his time their reciprocal distance, was a
progress for a direction of a bastion system of the
renaissance.
The contemporaneity of this
conception was confirmed with the door that was not placed
monumentally on the façade in the axis of the street, but
on the lateral side. From the bastion wall, which closed the
eastern part, it went over into southern complex directed
towards the "salt-pans". But because of the
reduced danger on that place, the whole line was protected
only with the round angle towers and there was a portal
between them. The main portal was placed on the lateral part
of the tower. Nowadays these walls, are mainly in ruins, and
we know many things about them from the archival materials,
old graphics and ground plans from the 18th and
19th century…."
Unfortunately, the destiny of the
walls was sealed up with Franz Joseph's decree in 1848,
which was about pulling down the walls of Vienna.
In 1797 with the peace which was
concluded between the Napoleon and Austrian Emperor Franz 1,
Dalmatia was under Austrian's authority. In that time
Austria was leaving some fortresses and it gave them to the
financial authority of the Austrian empire which pulled them
down little by little in the second part of the 19th
century and the first part of the 20th century.
The salt-magazines were built from the same building
material and the cylindrical tower (marked with the
registered town-planning with the letter "c") was
being pulled down even after the second world war.
The walls of the town of Pag (the
existing and in ruins) are the component part of the
registers monument of culture (the town-planning integrity
of town of Pag from the 21st of December 1966)
and they represent the identity of the new planned town
which was built on the transit of the centuries of the
European civilization.
Although, town of Pag is "The
youth" among Dalmation towns, it tis necessary to give
back the dignity and to renew the town walls. The rebuilding
of town walls will be a long lasting and continued process
without any limiting.
In the future the idea of the
wall-rebuilding will be more acceptable, so we hope that the
young generations of our town will be more acceptable, so
out town will take part in rebuilding the town walls with
their activities.
The first step we have undertaken
in that direction is our applying for becoming a member of
the association of the walled towns of Europe. We hope you
will give us an opportunity to use your experience and
knowledge so far as a member of your association in
estimation of historical, traditional, cultural, art
heritage and habits.
The Mayor
Ivo Fabijanic
Zadar
I
Osor I Pag I Dubrovnik
I Novigrad
