Euphrasian Basilica
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How it came to be
Christianity took root in Poreč, on the Istrian peninsula of Croatia, in the 4th century. The earliest phase was a small chapel in a large Roman house, holding the bones of the local martyr Maurus. Its floor mosaic is still preserved in the church garden.
In 553 Bishop Euphrasius began a new basilica on the site of the dilapidated older one, and the work took about ten years. The marble came from the coast of the Sea of Marmara, Byzantine masters made the wall mosaics and local craftsmen the floor mosaics. In the apse Euphrasius, holding the church, stands beside Saint Maurus. The bishop also built an atrium, a baptistery, a bishop's palace and a small memorial chapel.
In 1277 Bishop Otto commissioned a marble ciborium modelled on the one in St Mark's in Venice, and a bell tower followed in the 16th century. The complex, described as the most complete surviving one of its type, was inscribed in 1997.
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