POREČ, Diocese of. - Small town and diocese on the western coast of Istria, formerly in the province of Pola. First a Roman municipium, then a colony under Tiberius ("Colonia Iulia Parentium"); a free commune around 1194, it gave itself to Venice in 1267, the first among the Istrian cities; seat of the Diet of Istria from 1861 until the annexation to Italy.
The diocese of P., which still comprises the territory of the ancient Roman colonial ager and in addition the territory of Rovigno, appears as a suffragan of Aquileia at least from 451; with the suppression of the Patriarchate (1715) it was subject to Venice, and, in 1892, after further transfers, it passed under Gorizia and the diocese of Pola was united to it. At present (1952) it is governed by an apostolic administrator who has his seat at Pisino. Under Bishop Radossi (1942-47) the diocesan Seminary had been established; the diocese then counted 4 vicariates, 25 parishes, 34 priests, 8 religious institutes, which the Yugoslav occupation has for the most part dispersed.
The first bishop may certainly be considered St. Mauro, also the first of whom there is any record for Istria, probably a martyr at the end of the 3rd century, whose body was brought to the Lateran by John IV. Most celebrated is Bishop Eufrasius, of the middle of the 6th century, to whom is due the construction of the Cathedral, the Baptistery and the episcopium, still preserved, who moreover was among the most spirited in the "Three Chapters" schism. Besides St. Mauro, St. Eleutherius and Sts. Julian and Demetrius are venerated at P., though these are not local saints.
ARCHAEOLOGY AND ART
Within the Roman plan with intersecting streets, still intact, near the northern curtain of the walls, is grafted the complex of Early Christian buildings, which excavations begun in 1888 (Msgr. Deperis) and recent restorations (completed in 1937) have brought to prominence. They provide a most interesting example of the evolution from a private hall of worship to a tripartite basilica.
The oldest structure is a rectangular hall (8.70 × 21.80 m), with a mosaic floor with geometric ornaments and inscriptions, datable to the end of the 4th century, which includes to the east a square mosaic composed of a braided meander that forms four others. This panel may belong to a room of the Roman domus that was the first seat of the gatherings: it can be attributed to the end of the 3rd century. In the hall, on a flowering vase that adorns its center, was the movable altar; to the east was the seat of the cathedra and of the presbyters (two fish were then included in the mosaic). To the south of this hall another entirely similar one was built (duplicated hall), when, as an inscription states, the body of Bishop Maurus was brought within the city walls, probably into a martyrium to be sought near the second hall. On this martyrium, toward the middle of the 5th century, a large rectangular tripartite basilica was built, called pre-Euphrasian, with an internal presbyteral seat and cathedra, which encroached upon part of the duplicated hall. To the north of it, over the older mosaics, another smaller hall was erected, which is believed to be the catechumenate-consignatorium. Finally, on the same lines as the pre-Euphrasian basilica, Bishop Euphrasius, in the eleventh year of his episcopate (middle of the 6th century), with columns and capitals from Proconnesus and the splendor of mosaics, now surviving in the apses, erected the present basilica in the rhythms of Ravenna architecture. In the conch of the major apse, polygonal on the outside, is the Mother of God, between angels and saints on a gold background (redone at the end of the 19th century), in which Byzantine hieraticism is tempered by a lively plastic sense and by careful iconographic notations in the figures of Euphrasius and of Claudius the archdeacon; in the half-cylinder are arranged very rigid figures of other saints and two scenes from the life of the Virgin, alive with vibrant colors and narrative values; the dossal of the presbyteral seat is made of Roman and Ravenna inlays.
To say nothing of other works of art in the Basilica (the floor mosaic is lost, the ciborium was redone in 1277), mention is made of the annexed buildings: the octagonal Baptistery, the episcopium, a very rare building with a basilical plan, and the so-called mausoleum of Euphrasius, a trichora with a forceps-shaped atrium, all of the 6th century. Noteworthy in the city are the remains of the Roman temple on the Forum, the canonica, of 1251, some beautiful Gothic-Venetian houses and three towers of the 15th-century walls. - See pl. LXVI.
Bibliography13 works
Mario Mirabella Roberti