,
carved with ornament similar to that on the baptistery of Calixtus at
Cividale; the pyramidal roof terminates in a carved finial. The greater
part of the building is of the thirteenth century. The church, having
become ruinous in 1237, was restored in 1287, and again in 1438 and
1490. It is now the chief parish church of the diocese of Veglia. The
west door belongs to the last restoration; in the tympanum is a poorly
carved Pieta. It is flanked by some remains of a flat arcading. The
wheel-window above, though Romanesque in design, bears the date 1439. A
pink marble is used in this facade with very good effect. In the north
wall is a square marble panel with an enthroned Christ, of Byzantine
type, like the ciborium and the nave columns a relic of an earlier
building. The stalls are fine of their kind, and we were told that an
offer of 50,000 florins and a new set had been made for them and
refused. They are dated 1445, and are elaborately carved with figures
and the usual nerveless foliage of the period, of which other good
examples occur at Zara and Parenzo. In a chapel in the north aisle is a
polygonal Renaissance font of rather pleasing design, with S. John the
Baptist in the central panel and fruit, &c., hanging in the others. In
the apse of the north aisle is an early Madonna with the Child, robed in
red and blue with golden diaper patterns; and over an altar in the south
aisle is an interesting tempera picture in a frame of the fourteenth
century, painted on a gold ground, with Greek inscriptions and
technique. In the central panel is a Crucifixion, on the left is S.
Matthew, and on the right S. Christopher.

S. Christopher was patron of the town and diocese, and the greatest
relic is his head, now that those of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego
have disappeared. The first mention of it occurs in the eleventh
century, when Bishop Dabrana or Domana (1080-1086) brought it forth with
prayers and hymns to deliver Arbe from an attacking horde which had
besieged the city for a month. A great stone fell from heaven into the
camp of the besiegers on that occasion, and the missiles which they
shot recoiled upon them. In Arbe, S. Christopher's Day is kept on May 9,
the day of this discomfiture, instead of July 25 as elsewhere. Other
deliverances took place in 1097 from Coloman of Hungary, and in 1105
from a Hungarian Count Sergius, according to tradition. The shrine
appears to be work of the twelfth century, and is based on