"The dance of death (left part)" Beram Things to Do Tip by JLBG

This field is on the western wall, over the two previous fields and the main entrance. The bottom has been destroyed when the two new windows were open.

There are two dances of death in Istria. The first one is located in Hrastovlje, Slovenia. The second and oldest one is in Beram. St-Mary's church (Sveta Marija na Skrilinah) painted by Vincent de Kastav in 1474. In this work of art, like in the dances of death of Hrastovlje and of Clusone, the characters walk in procession from right to left. Unfortunately, time has damaged the painting ; some characters are now scarcely distinguishable, and because windows have been made in the wall, the lower section of the fresco is in some parts destroyed. In this dance of death, the skeletons do not really dance ; they rather walk. The usual narrator is replaced by a skeleton playing bagpipe. This absence of a narrator underlines the fact that there is no text to this dance of death. This field occupies the top half of the western wall.