SITES IN PULA
Alongside the Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč, the Basilica of St. Mary Formosa is the most significant monument of sacral art from the era of Justinian's reconquest in Croatia. Justinian's protégé Maximianus, Bishop of Ravenna (546 - 556 AD), a native of today's Veštar near Rovinj, was a pivotal figure in imperial policy on the northern Adriatic. After Maximianus completed magnificent structures in Ravenna (the Basilicas of S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe), he built the Basilica of St. Mary in the southern part of Pula's old town.
It was a splendid, three-aisled basilica (19 x 32 m), with a pair of sacristies (circular plan) and a pair of mausoleums (Greek cross plan), featuring typical Paleo-Byzantine polygonal apses at the rear and "mushroom-shaped" doors on the facade and side facades. The rhythm of columns and arches inside the church was repeated on the exterior of the perimeter walls, with a breakdown of windows and pilasters that ended in blind arches, creating a vibrancy of shadows on the facades and a mystical ambiance of light contrasts. The floors of the basilica's naves and sacristies were adorned with polychrome floor mosaics featuring stylized floral and geometric motifs, akin to the mosaics of the Justinian era in churches in Ravenna and North Africa. A fragment of a mosaic depicting a pair of marsh birds with a basket of fruit was found in the southern intercolumniation. A fragment of a wall mosaic depicting Christ and St. Peter originates from the apse of the southern mausoleum.
The basilica was a symbol of the great landholding of the Ravennate church (the S. Apollinare fief), which is recorded until the 12th century in the area of the Pula diocese. Richly decorated with marble and mosaic, it was called "Formosa" (beautiful), but due to neglect in the medieval swamp, it was later known as "del Canneto" (of the reeds). It was particularly damaged during the Venetian burning of Pula in 1242. It is probable that architect J. Sansovino shipped marble columns for his buildings to Venice in 1547. Tradition holds that the alabaster columns of the ciborium of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice might also have come from this Pula basilica. Besides the remains of the basilica's foundations, only the southern mausoleum up to the roof and a part of the northern lateral wall, behind which a Benedictine monastery was situated, are originally preserved today. Following recent archaeological research and conservation interventions, the extent of this three-aisled basilica has been architecturally outlined.
