PRAZNICA
Island of Brac
Description. Praznica is an ancient medieval settlement already mentioned in
the 12th century. A cattle breeding place with good pasture-grounds and lots of
pools. It is typical of the interior of Brac withought high houses but with many
characteristics of the local rural architecture. Praznica is an example of how
Brac’s settlements were created out of the scattered houses that were formerly
shepherds’ abodes. They finally formed the irregularly built
Mediterranean-type settlements which are, for example found on the coast of Brac.
Praznica somehow stopped in the middle of this process of development. The
praznicans would even now say, when they are going from their homes to the
square, that they are going to the Village. The influence of the former
scattered nature of the place is still maintained in the idea of the central
square. Praznica has only cottages and one-storey houses.
They are usually surrounded by yards entered from the street. The yards are
large with many flowers and with various auxiliary objects: small huts,
pig-sties and cattle-enclosures that house that cattle at night. These are all
inherited forms of the architecturural tradition of the island.
Being a place of considerable antiquity, Praznica has kept the ancient Brac
dialect very much alive. But unfortunetly, this is also slowly falling into
oblivion.
History. To the east of Praznica, round the church of St. George, there was
the medieval settlement of Strazevnik, which is mentioned in a document from the
12th century. It shared the same destiny together with Praznica right up to the
16th century, when the Strazevnicans moved to Praznica and Pucisca. The village
on Praznicah is mentioned on Povlja’s register from 1184. In documents from
the 15th century Praznica and Strazevnika are mentioned in connection with the
settling of Pucisca.
The church visitations from the end of the 16th century do not record Strazevnik.
Its parish priest Martin moved to Praznica. In 1461 they built up there the
parish church of St. Anthony the Friar. In that century there were about 300
inhabitants in Praznica and some centuries later, in 1857, 483. The population
was largest in 1910, 853 inhabitants. Then 60 years later (in 1971) it had
decreased by almost half, 437.
Name. The origin of the name Praznica is connected with the verb praziti (praziti= to roast, grill). The name recalls ancient times when lands were put on fire in order to get the tilling grounds. Of the same derivation is also Prag, the capital of Czechoslovakia. The Roman name Skrip (from Lat. rocky, stony land) for part of the settlement points to the fact that Praznica was already inhabited in pre-Croatian times.
Monuments. It we are going through Praznica, which is the crossroads for
Pucisca (7,1 km), Nerezisca (13,8 km) Bol (16,2 km) and Sumartin (19,7 km), we
should visit the little church of St. Ciprian (12th century) situated in the
village cemetery, passing through the avenue of high cypresses. It houses a
Renaissance stone relief from 1467, which has a very important place in history
of art in Dalmatia. The relief is a smaller altar polyptych with three framed
spaces and a decorated gable. In the middle is Christ giving his blessing with
an open book in his left hand. He is dressed in long robes, with the mantle in
the middle which seems to be artificially moved by the rhythm of the lines of
the folds. On the left side is St. Anthony the friar and on the right St. John
dressed in a hair-shirt. The folds of his dress reveal the same style. In the
gable the master carved the Madonna and Child, by unskillfully using only the
space in ther center. The line of symmetry that goes from the top of the gable
between the Mother and Child, over the line of the carefully arranged hair of
Christ, then through the line of the beard down to the bottom, reveals the
Renaissance feeling for correct proportions. But in the swinging folds of the
robes and the slightly bent figures a connection with the Gothic style can be
felt. The chisel was obviously in the hands of a skilled master who knew how to
draw the softness of the Child’s complexion out of white marble and how to
form the legs of John the Baptist. The expressivness is almost realistic as if
provided by a modal. The year 1467 is engraved at the bottom of the polyptych.
It is thought to be one of the works of the famours Nikola the Florentine, and
the engraved date antidates Nicola’s appearance in Dalmatia showing thus the
rapidity with which the new forms spread. (K. Prijatelj). In the parish church
of Praznica we find the interesting main altar in the baroque style with a stone
relief which presents the Holy Family in the upper part and the saints Anthony
and John the Baptist in the lower one. it is done by native masters.
We feel in it the motion of the figures and the soft play of lines (the clouds)
which the artist did not bring into the correct mutual relation.
The altar on the right side has a stone relief with St. Jerome in the cave in
the bottom part while in the top shell-like semi-circular gable is the Madonna
and Child. The upper part is less important, which can be seen from the stiff
figures and from the very rigidly modeled mantle of the Madonna. In the lower
part we find many details that accompany the motif of St. Jerome in the cave (
the books, the little church, the lion, etc.). The highest artistic achievement
is in the playful light contrasts of the cave and in the soft modeling of the
saint’s limbs. These details give to this rather rustic performance the force
of a real artistic expression. St. Jerome was especially payed homage to because
he was considered to be the creator of the Croatian script of Glagotica and he
as a saint originated from these parts. Some iconographical elements of the
relief refer us to the works of the famous master Andrija Alesi (the 15th
century), who often came to these parts to get stone for his works in Dalmatia.
The painted ceiling of the church is of rather a local value because of the
topographical motives. The Slav apostles with the Glagolitic letters point to
the unextinguishable tradition of the Slav ritual in the churches of Praznica.
In the square of Praznica, called the Village, in 1638 A. Mihovilovic raised the
little church of All-Saints. Still in the 17th century, it bears the elements of
the Romanesque-Gothic style, such as the parallelogram ground-plan, the
barrel-vault, the Gothic rosette and the Dalmatian belfry. The lintel bears the
year when it was raised.
If you stay in Praznica longer, we recommend a walk along a stone path to the
ruins of ancient Strazevnik, (also accessible via Gornji Humac), with the
pre-Romanesque little church of St. George. This church has nice blind arcades,
a barrel-vault with tranverse belts, a semicircular chapel and a Dalmatian
belfry above the front. As the belfry was built out of the same square stones as
was the church itself, which is recorded in 1111, this belfry is considered to
be the oldest known of its kind in Dalmatia (D. Domancic)