Sveti Frane u Zadru - arhitektura crkve i samostana u doba gotike i renesanse

The author discusses the architecture of the church and the monastery of St Francis in Zadar in their original form, and their transformation during the Gothic and Renaissance periods. Based on an analysis of published historical sources and the preserved architectural elements, it has been concluded that the extant structure of the complex emerged between the mid-13th and the early 14th century, when the church and the sacristy were built, as well as the monastery wings and the original cloister. An important typological feature of the church is its three-apse rear structure, which the author brings into connection with the Gothic architecture of Franciscans and Dominicans from Umbria and Veneto during the 13th century. The sacristy, in which the Peace of Zadar was signed in 1358, was also a chapel of St Louis and the chapter hall. Its significant rearrangement, with the furnishing of the choir and the sanctuary, took place at the end of the 14th century, when the General Chapter in Cologne proclaimed the monastery the seat of the Franciscan province of St Jerome for Dalmatia in 1393. The choir rebuilding was completed by the mid-15th century with the construction of Giorgio da Sebenico’s podium on the site of the presumed earlier railing.