The richest and best investigated fund place from the Neolithic is the Vela spila (the big cave) in Vela Luka. They found and investigated there several stratums of pre-historic life with fire places, ceramic pieces, graves (5000-3000 before Christ). From that time originate numerous Neolithic heaps, culture places and graves - stone pieces, and they can be found everywhere on the island. In the 6th century before Christ the island was inhabited by Greek; at first next to Vela Luka.
The colonists were Knids that named the island Corcyra Melaina (black ). some time later, on the other end of the island, on the part of today’s Lumbarda, came Greek from the island of Vis (Issa) and founded the significant settlement that is mentioned in the PHSEPHISMA, found by the end of the 19th century and that originates from the 3rd century before Christ. In Lumbarda were found Greek graves with additional gnathia vases from that time.
A systematically archeological excavation would certainly discover not only a whole Greek metropolis but other trails of their settlement.
In the 1st century after Christ the island, as well as whole Dalmatia, were occupied by the Romans and they named it Illyricum. In the 7th century the Slaves came to the Adriatic Coast - the Croats - and they established their own state, that was at first a principality, and from the year 925, with the crowning of the first king Tomislav, it became a kingdom. Within the framework of that state was Korcula as well. Running from the invasion of the Slaves the Roman population from Salona came to the islands of Brac, Hvar and Korcula, and, after the claming of the circumstances, most of them returned to their old dwelling, the rest assimilated with the settlers.
In the year 1000 the Venetian doge Peter II Orseolo took over the Dalmatian towns and islands, and Korcula came under the rulership of Venice, too. Right here on the nearby small island of Majsan the doge had his camp from where he led his campaign towards Korcula and Lastovo. They resisted but were soon subjugated.
After that the government over Krocula changed quite often: Venice was replaced by the Zahumlje governors, Croat-Hungarian kings, again Venice, from 1413 to 1420 the Republic of Dubrovnik, then from 1420 to 1793 Venice. When Napoleon pulled down the Venetian Republic, Dalmatia was taken over by Austria for a short time, but soon came the Frenchmen.
In the period from 1807 to 1813 the governors were Frenchmen, then the Englishmen till 1815, when on the Congress in Vienna it was decided about the new borders of the European countries. Dalmatia came under the rulership of Austria and stayed there until the end of the I World War (1919). It was annexed to the new established state Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians in 1921 and that state was named later Yugoslavia. After the multipartial elections in 1990 the population of Croatia decided on a referendum to separate from Yugoslavia and the independent state Republic of Croatia was declared.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION AND CHARACTERISTICS
Position: Middle Dalmatian archipelago in the Adriatic Sea, 42° 58' N; 17° 08' E (the town of Korcula), 12700 metres from the mainland at nearest point, 49 nautical miles northwest of Dubrovnik, 57 nautical miles southeast of Split, 250 nautical miles from Venice, 250 nautical miles from Corfu.
Area: 276 sq.km; sixth largest Croatian island in size
Length: 47 km
Width: 8 km
Length of the coast of the island: 182 km
Number of islets in the Korcula Archipelago: 50
Number of calms and capes: 195
Depth of the sea around the island: from 20 to 75 m
Height: 568 m (mount Klupca)
Composition of the soil: limestone, dolomite and marl
Relief: hilly island with numerous small fields and valleys
Sea currents: around the island 1-3 knots, in the peljesac Channel around 3 knots
Salinity of the sea: 38 per thousand
Snow: 2-5 cm overnight once in 3-5 years
Waters: there is practically no surface water
Winds: in winter time, the south wind (jugo) mostly blows (a warm and moist wind from the SE direction), and the cold and dry north wind (Bura) from the NE, but in summertime, the winds are most often Maestrals from the NW and numerous thermal winds
Tide: normal rise and fall of 30 cm
Mean number of sunshine hours per annum: 2700 hours
CLIMATE
The island has a very mild Mediterranean climate. Mean temperatures are rather high: the mean annual temperature is 16.8C, in the coldest month of January it is 9.1C, in the hottest month of July 26.9C. Daily and annual temperature differences are small, which is very favourable for agriculture and tourism. There are many hours of sunlight, 2,700. There is little rain, about 41 days during the year, mostly in autumn and winter, while late spring is usually a dry period interspersed with rare short-lasting storms. Snow is uncommon; when it does fall it falls first in Pupnat and the surrounding peaks but thaws quickly because the temperature rarely drops below OC. It is almost always windy in the Peljesac Channel. In summer the refreshing western maestral usually blows, well for sailing; in winter the south-easterly jugo, the cold north-easterly bura, or strong northerly tremuntana.
Sea currents in the Peljesac Channel are rather weak, growing stronger only with the jugo. The average temperature of the sea surface in March is 13.7C. It is the warmest in summer, in July, August and September, when it averages 22.3C. Changes of the tide are small; the difference between high and low tide is about 50 cm.
Mean air temperatures in C°;
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII
9,1 9,4 10,7 13,9 18,5 12,7 26,9 24,8 21,7 17 13,4 10,4
Mean sea temperatures in C°;
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII
14,3 13,6 13,7 15 18,6 21,5 23,8 23,2 22,5 20,9 18,3 16,7
Mean rainfall in mm (annual total: 1088 mm)
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII
142 82 93 107 22 17 7 56 80 165 173 144
FLORA AND FAUNA
The island vegetation is Mediterranean, rich and varied. Korcula is one of the most forested Adriatic islands, as much as 61% of its surface is covered with woods and macchia thickets. Conifers grow everywhere: Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), stone pine (Pinus pinea), Dalmatian black pine (Pinus nigra), cypress (Cypressus), and other species. The island has thick indigenous forests of holm oak (Quercus ilex), wild olive, carob, and bay. Heather, arbutus, prickly juniper, vetch and other plants grow in the low undergrowth called macchia.
Indigenous herbs and aromatic plants also grow on the island: sage, rosemary, lavender, irnmortelle, mint, marjoram etc. The forests and macchia support a variety of climbing plants and vines. A large number of grasses and greens that are very good to eat grow in neglected vineyards; there are olive groves, and several species of mushrooms.
The plants and trees make a splendid green backdrop for this island, which is why the Greeks named it Corcyra Melaina - Black Korcula. The rocks and earth can hardly be made out through the lush vegetation that grows right down to the seashore everywhere.
Various kinds of decorative trees, shrubs and other plants can also be found on Korcula, some of them brought from tropical areas and well adjusted here. These include several species of palm, eucalyptus, wistaria, bougainvillea, oleander, many kinds of cacti.
The island animal world boasts the otherwise rare jackal (Canis aureaus Dalmatics) and mongoose (Mungus mungo), and a large number of birds and song birds. There are also various species of game: hare, pheasant, mallard, wild boar, and more recently deer have been introduce to the islet of Badija.
The sea around the island is rich in all kinds of fish, about 200 species live in the Adriatic, and crabs, shellfish, sea urchins.
POPULATION
The oldest island settlements were in the interior beside the poljes and the many caves, Zrnovo, Pupnat, Cara, Smokvica and Blato, later developed on the sites of Greek and Roman settlements, and near them: only the city of Korcula grew on the sea shore. Lumbarda developed rather late, because a provision from the 14th century Korcula Statute explicitly prohibited the settlement of that area. Nevertheless, from the end of the 15th century people of Korcula built their summer houses and worked the land there, and a village gradually formed around them. Raciste dates from the 17th century, founded by refugees from the Turks on the mainland, mostly from Herzegovina, while Vela Luka developed at the beginning of the 19th century.
The island population often changed considerably in number because of political and economic conditions, and frequent epidemics of contagious diseases. The present inhabitants are Slavs, and the original Roman population that the Croats found when they came here in the 7th century was completely assimilated by the beginning of the 14th century. A mid -14th century census shows that about 5,000 people lived on the island and about half of them in the city of Korcula. At the end of that century, however, after several epidemics of the plague and the Turkish siege of 15 7 1, the number of islanders fell to only 2,500, and of that number 1,000 lived in the city. Since then the number of islanders has slowly increased, but the population of the city of Korcula remained almost the same until the beginning of the 1 9 h century when it, too, began to increase. Economic hardship made many craftsmen, especially shipbuilders and stone-masons disperse throughout the Mediterranean. In the first decades of the 20th century many people left the island for South and North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Most people left the island in 1925, when 3,500 people left Blato and Vela Luka.
In the second half of the 20th century, especially after the Second World War, the number of islanders has constantly been growing, and has today reached about 20,000.
EDUCATION AND CULTURE
Regular primary schooling was established on Korcula at the beginning of the 19th century, but much earlier than that priests taught children to read, write, arithmetic and natural sciences, and not only the sons of rich families. Many continued their education at universities in Italy, especially in Padua. Besides priests, there were local literate, educated people on Korcula quite early, mostly lawyers, and there were also educated foreigners: teachers, doctors, and pharmacists, mostly from Italy.
In the 19th century a relatively large number of islanders graduated from various universities, and they played an important role in the social, cultural and political life of the city and the island.
During Austrian rule at the beginning of the 19th century four-year schools were founded on the island in Korcula, Vela Luka and Blato, and by the end of the century in most of the other villages. In 1870 the school in Korcula became a middle school, and there was also a trade school for stone carving and shipbuilding. In the middle of the 20th century, after the Second World War, a secondary school was founded in Korcula, and now the network of secondary schools includes Blato and Vela Luka, while the rest of the villages have primary schools.
Closely connected to education is culture, and culture was very highly developed here. Croatian was used besides Latin in churches, and especially during folk religious ceremonies. Unknown domestic writers translated church hymns and psalms from Latin creating almost authentic folk poetry and, poetic translations. There were also quite a lot of folk poems, and several prominent poets: in the Renaissance period Ivan Vidali, 16th century, and the best-known Korcula poet and playwright Petar Kanavelic in the 17th century.
Many prominent scholars-humanists also came from the island: Jakov Banicevic from Zrnovo, Jakov Salecic from Smokvica, Vicko Paletin writer, seaman, missionary and cartographer, from Korcula. Although they did not live or work on Korcula, and acquired their knowledge far from their island, their thirst and encouragement for knowledge was still gained in their childhood here.
In the 15th century the city of Korcula reached a high peak in architecture, primarily under Venetian influence. Architects from Lombardy, Apulia and nearby Dubrovnik came here. This fact alone shows that the frame of mind and the mood in the town were such that people could follow cultural currents in bigger places. Lively trade connections with Venice neighbouring towns on the Croatia. And the Italian coast, and throughout the Mediterranean, enhanced this consciousness. Therefore paintings from Venice by prominent contemporary artists were acquired not only for Korcula Cathedral and for the other city churches, but also for those in nearby villages (Cara, Blato).
The cultural strivings of townspeople and islanders can be seen in Renaissance, Baroque and later works of art which they used to decorate their houses and especially in the books, manuscripts and incunabula, and complete libraries, that belonged to churches and to many prominent families. There are records about the atrical and musical performances in Korcula in the 16th century, about organs organists and other musicians and instruments. In the 18th and 19th centuries Italian theatre troupes often visited, and local amateurs gave their own shows and performances with music, singing and acting. In the second half of the 19th century, as a result of political changes and the awakening of national consciousness many cultural societies and institutions were opened on Korcula: the Slavjanska reading-room, Croatian municipal brass band, singing and tambura societies. At the end of the 19th century a regional museum was founded in Korcula, and soon the first buildings for social and cultural life were erected.
After the Second World War various cultural activities developed, numerous cultural and performing (folk) societies were founded, amateur theatricals, choirs, libraries, museum collections and church treasuries. Lectures, concerts, theatrical guest performances and exhibitions were organized - thus keeping abreast of cultural life in larger centres.
COSTUMES AND FOLKLORE
Although the islander’s way of life and work changed considerably and thoroughly through time, especially in the second half of the 20th century, many old customs connected to church holidays and other community and family events have been preserved.
Until recently most of the people lived in villages. Their clothes were similar because they wore national costumes that changed negligibly throughout the centuries. Everyday wear was simple and dark-coloured, and for holidays they dressed in finer clothes of a richer cut and decoration. These costumes have been preserved in most of the island villages and are used by folklore societies which cultivate folk traditions, songs and dances.
Women's costumes consisted of along dark brown, blue or black gathered skirt with an attached waistcoat, a wide white cotton shirt with embroidery or lace, a colourful woven or silk waistband (tkanica), old gold jewellery, and several layers of coral beads that were very popular among the girls and women.
Men's costumes have changed more: men used to wear gathered pants down to the knees, a silk collared waistcoat and a silk waistband, a white shirt and a red cap with a tassel, but today this costume has been preserved only in the folk dances Kumpanija and Mostra.
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