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On your way to Beram, the view of it will appear suddenly. You will be able to see the top of the belfry while the village covered by thick forest is hardly noticeable. Fifty years ago the terraces of the hill were still cultivated and showed a completely diferent aspect of this acropolis-type of settlement, whose present-day appearance has been created in pre-history and the Middle Ages.

Frescoes in the Church of St. Mary’s at Škrilinah are the best known mural paintings in Istria, and along with the Arena in Pula and Euphrasian Basilica, is the best known cultural monu-ment of Istria. Late Gothic frescoes were completed by the workshop of Master Vincent from Kastav on November 8, 1474 commissioned by the confraternity of St. Mary’s, testifed in the Latin inscription and painted on the southern wall above the side entrance. Te frst scene you will notice when entering is an unusual representation of jester on its right embrasure. When our eyes adapt to the dark interior after a few moments, as if in some puppet theater, fgures of saints start to appear within the felds framed by a climber of acanthus leaves. Scenes from Mary and Christ’s life are mixed with scenes of saints. One of the most skillful depictions is the Baptism of Christ, whose fgure can favorably be compared to all works of art of the time of sub-Alpine origin. Clearly modeled fgures such as Joseph in the Flight to Egypt and King David with a violin are in disharmony with the fgures in the scenes of Entry into Jerusalem and the Prayer on the Mount of Olives of lesser quality. Te rustic component of the latter scenes has led earlier scholars to consider this painting a work of local craftsmen. On the western wall, above the scene of the Original Sin and the Wheel of Fortune, the Dance of Death is the one that most attracts the attention of the visitors. It is one of the old-

est preserved representations of this theme, painted after the epidemics of Bubonic plague. Te fear of death and the equality of all before the inevitability of the end of life are even nowadays engaging while watching representatives of every class and age. Along with the dancing skeletons, in the silent procession, toward the open tomb march the merchant and the knight, the beggar, child and inn-keeper, and profane and secular dignitaries. Te rhythm to the dancing skeletons is given by death itself by playing the bagpipe. Meticulously deline-ated fgures of clear and delicately created volume as well as the harmony of composition and color, confrm to us the skillfulness of its painter. Infuences of German and Dutch graphic sheets, such as the Master with Scrolls, indicate once again that Vincent’s art is close to the origins of the northern Gothic Knitterungstil (sharp corners on tube-like drapery folds), nowadays the territory of Carinthia.

Te Parish Church of St. Martin in Beram keeps less known frescoes. Te one-time medieval church has been preserved as the sanctuary of the present-day one. In the sanctuary of the Gothic building is the representation of St. Martin, a painting by the North Italian artist in-fuenced by the work of Vitale da Bologna. By compact voluminous masses, the equestrian fgure of St. Martin has been placed within the clif-like landscape with act of a beggar and impressive frontal rotation of the horse’s head. Te other, less skillful master painted the partly preserved angel musicians on the left side of the triumphal arch of the older church. On the right side of the wall, the hybrid iconographic composition of the Virgin Mary the Protectress with Christ in the mandorla on her chest. While holding the hem of her mantle by her open arms protecting two groups of saints, the soaring angels hold her crown.