Paz, Church of St Vitus

The cemetery church of St Vitus near Paz was erected in the fifteenth century. This single-nave structure with a flat east wall originally featured two inscribed apses covered by pointed barrel vaults. During the seventeenth-century remodelling of the church, the apses were demolished, the building was heightened and enlarged, and new window openings were inserted. The preserved frescoes on the eastern wall bear witness to the original appearance of the sanctuary. The date and authorship of the wall paintings are known from the inscription beneath the depiction of the Virgin Enthroned in the former northern apse. The Glagolitic inscription records that Master Albert of Constance executed the painting in October 1461, during the tenure of Juraj Pazar, then feudal lord of Paz, his chaplain Andrija of Bužani, and the župan Vitko.

The Virgin and Child are shown enthroned upon an elaborately articulated throne flanked by two towers, accompanied by standing figures of St Anthony and St Vitus. The former southern apse is adorned with a depiction of the Holy Trinity. In addition to the apsidal scenes, fragments of wall painting survive in which only faint traces of figural compositions can be discerned. The compositions are framed by richly ornamented borders with stencilled geometric and floral motifs.

Conservation and restoration interventions on the wall paintings were carried out in 1960. Their first professional analysis was published by Branko Fučić in 1963 in the publication Istarske freske.

Iconographic programme:

Eastern wall of the sanctuary: 1. Virgin and Child with St Anthony and St Vitus, 2. Holy Trinity, 3–4. Remains of figural compositions.