The two-birds capital
Birds drinking from a chalice, a fifth or sixth-century Eucharistic symbol.
Jürgen Friede — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Falk2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Falk2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Falk2 — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Cathedral of the Assumption, one of the oldest working cathedrals in Croatia — the diocese of Krk has existed since the fifth century. The present building is **twelfth-century Romanesque**, but it stands on older layers: beneath its floor are **Roman baths** of the first century, above them an **early Christian basilica** of the fifth with its mosaic, and then the cathedral. The columns in the nave were **taken from Roman buildings** and re-used, so no two match — their capitals differ in style and size, and some are upside down. This is not carelessness but standard medieval practice, unusually legible here. Its best-known detail is a **capital** carved with **two birds drinking from a chalice** — an early Eucharistic symbol of the fifth or sixth century. Beside it stands the **church of St Quirinus**, joined wall to wall, a separate two-storey building — a rare arrangement on the Adriatic. Note: the bell tower is detached from both, with an angel on top serving as a weather vane.
Birds drinking from a chalice, a fifth or sixth-century Eucharistic symbol.
Capitals of differing styles, some set upside down.
Joined wall to wall, two storeys — a rare arrangement.
Trg svetog Kvirina, Krk town
A large inscribed slab found in the **church of St Lucy at Jurandvor** near Baška on this island, dating from around **1100**. Its text is written in the **Glagolitic** alphabet and records a grant of land from King **Zvonimir** to a Benedictine monastery. Its importance is threefold: it is **the oldest substantial text in the Croatian language**, the first document naming **a Croatian king in Croatian**, and one of the most important surviving Glagolitic inscriptions anywhere. It is therefore described as the **«birth certificate» of written Croatian culture** and taught in every school. ⚠ **The original is not on the island** — it was moved in 1934 to the **Academy of Sciences in Zagreb**, where it is displayed. What you see in the church at Jurandvor is an exact replica in its original position.
