The Presence of Monastic Institutions from Other Dioceses in Koper and the Koper District in the Middle Ages: San Giorgio Maggiore from Venice

Abstract

Based on the documents from the archive of the Abbey of St. George in Venice and the archives of the Koper commune, the author analyses the nature of the abbey’s presence in Koper during the late Middle Ages. He concludes that its presence was part of the religious, political, and economic policies of the Patriarchs of Aquileia and the bishops of Trieste. The Abbey of St George acquired its first property in the Koper district in 1152, when Bishop Bernard of Trieste granted it the Church of St Mary in Šmarje near Koper. In the last years of the 12th century, a dispute arose between the monastery on the one hand and the newly established Koper diocese, cathedral chapter, and elite on the other. The historiography has reduced this to a dispute between the monastery and the chapter over the latter’s original rights.