Page - 334 - in Die Repräsentation der Habsburg-Lothringischen Dynastie in Musik, visuellen Medien und Architektur - 1618–1918

334 Sektion IV: Zeremonielle Räume und die „Öffentlichkeiten“ procession seen from the bird’s eye view, and a galley from which its commander is bowing before the emperor, is situated to the far right, continuing, so to say, the casual depiction of everyday life in the harbour. With its abundant details, the paint- ing is a visual document of how the city tower looked like in 1728. The emperors’ busts are visible, and so is the inscription plaque above the clock, probably the one that is today located under the bust of Charles VI. The painting likewise documents Charles’ visit to Rijeka, complementing the far more numerous published documents on the emperor’s stay in various cities and towns. Although to a lesser extent, there are also preserved data on the visit of Charles VI to the Kvarner, which he reached from Graz via Klagenfurt, Ljubljana, Gorizia, and Trieste: “He arrived in Rijeka on September 15. He was received in front of the Ca- puchin monastery by its guardian, Giovanni Tudorovich, who presented him with a bouquet of flowers. The emperor was accommodated in a festively de- corated suite in Kaštel, with a view to the moat and the chapel of St Stephen. The following day, on Thursday, September 16, Emperor Charles VI proceeded to Bakar along the new road, later named Carolina, built by the engineering colonel Mattia de Waiss, and then by boat to Kraljevica. Upon his return to Rijeka, His Majesty was met on the bridge at Fiumara by the representatives of Senj and their vice-captain Lucancich. They had arrived in Rijeka on a galley in order to pay homage as the subjects of the Emperor and King of Hungary, and they invited His Majesty to visit their ship. After a brief excursion, the emperor distributed 200 golden coins to the sailors. With the events of September 17, which lasted the whole day, the most loyal city of Rijeka paid homage to the emperor. After that, the emperor left Rijeka and started on his way to Trnava, where he stayed with the parish priest, Antonio Spignaroli, a patrician from Rijeka.”16 A comparison between the written and visual histories indicates that the mentioned painting depicting the arrival of Charles VI in Rijeka – a picturesque panorama of the city with its recognizable topographic elements, today merged with the urban structure of modern Rijeka – in fact shows the encounter with the galley commander, as observed in an article by Margita Cvijetinović-Starac, curator of the Cultural-his- torical Department of the Maritime and History Museum Rijeka.17 The chronology of the tower before 1728 can be inferred, among other sources, from a print by Janez Vajkard Valvasor (Johann Weichard Valvasor, Freiherr zu Gal- leneck und Neudorff, Herr zu Wagensperg und Liechtenberg, 1641–1693) made in 1689, in which only the Habsburg coat of arms was attached to the compact square