Of the _Castello_ no traces now remain, its place having been taken by the Rector’s Palace, with which we shall deal later on. The buildings we have described were almost the only stone edifices in the town. All the rest, including the convent of the Clarisse, founded in 1290, were of timber.[272] Ragusa was in great part destroyed by fire in 1292, and rebuilt shortly afterwards, mostly of wood, as before. In a _Reformatio_ of 1320 the Government published a decree against the excessive use of timber in construction. But the city was improving in various ways. The streets were wider and more regular, and stone steps were built on either side of the _Stradone_ to make the higher quarters more accessible. Elaborate rules were issued to ensure the solidity of the roofs and chimneys, and by 1355 the town was paved with brick.[273] The steep streets on the seaward ridge and on the eight slopes of Monte Sergio began to assume their present aspect, although but few details of fourteenth-century domestic architecture have remained. There are several houses in the Venetian Gothic style, but these were built during the Hungarian occupation, the artistic influence of Venice outlasting her political suzerainty. Of the plastic arts we find as yet only slight beginnings, but we may mention a few early paintings in the Dominican church. A large crucifix in the Byzantine style, which hangs over the choir arch, was vowed during the black death of 1348. In the sacristy there is a polyptych in ten sections, with the Baptism of Christ in the centre of the lower row, and St. Michael, St. Nicholas, St. Blaize, and St. Stephen; the Virgin, with St. Peter, St. Dominic, St. Peter Martyr, and St. Francis above. The work is very primitive; but if it be by a local master, it is probably of a later date than the style suggests. The robes are very rich and profusely gilt, but the effect is garish rather than brilliant, although restoration may perhaps be responsible for this. A Byzantine Madonna and Child in red is in the same church between the nave and the transept. In the city records there are occasional entries alluding to the engagement of painters, and in 1344 a certain Magister Bernardus was commissioned to paint the new hall of the communal palace, which he was to decorate “pomis et stellis auratis.” No trace of this work has survived.