Korčula () is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea. It has an area of , is long and on average wide, and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 15,522 inhabitants (2011) make it the second most populous Adriatic island after Krk. The population are almost entirely ethnic Croats (95.74%). The island is twinned with Rothesay in Scotland. It is known for Grk, a white wine that is only produced on the island and not exported due to limited production.
Geography
The island of Korčula belongs to the central Dalmatian archipelago, separated from the Pelješac peninsula by a narrow Strait of Pelješac, between wide. It stretches in the east–west direction, in length of ; on average, it is wide. With an area of , it is the sixth largest Adriatic island. The highest peaks are Klupca, and Kom, high.
Main settlements on the island are towns of Korčula, Blato and Vela Luka. Villages along the coast are Brna, Račišće, Lumbarda and Prižba; Žrnovo, Pupnat, Smokvica and Čara are located inland. The island is divided into municipalities of Korčula, Smokvica, Blato and Lumbarda. The climate is Mediterranean; an average air temperature in January is and in July ; the average annual rainfall is . The island is largely covered with Mediterranean flora including extensive pine forests.
The main road runs along the spine of the island connecting all settlements from Lumbarda on the eastern to Vela Luka on the western end, with the exception of Račišće, which is served by a separate road running along the northern coast. Ferries connect the town of Korčula with Orebić on the Pelješac peninsula. Another line connects Vela Luka with Split and the island of Lastovo. Fast passenger catamarans connect those two ports with Split, Dubrovnik and the islands of Hvar, Lastovo and Mljet.
History
Ancient history According to legend, the island was founded by Trojan hero Aeneas or his friend Antenor.
The island was first settled by Mesolithic and Neolithic peoples. There is archaeological evidence at the sites of Vela Spila and at Jakas Cave near the village of Žrnovo. The findings at Vela Spila are on display at the Center for Culture in Vela Luka. The fate of these peoples is not known but the sites do provide a window into their way of life.
The second wave of human settlement was by Illyrians,The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. 11: The High Empire, AD 70–192 by Peter Rathbone documented around 1,000 BC.John Wilkes, The Illyrians (The Peoples of Europe); (1996) They were semi-nomadic tribal people living from agriculture. There are numerous old stone buildings and fortresses (gradine) left behind by the Illyrians.History of Korčula , Korčula.net; accessed 4 December 2015.
Melaina Korkyra () was the ancient Cnidian Greek colony founded on Korčula.An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation by Mogens Herman Hansen, 2005, Index Greek colonists from Corfu formed a colony on the island in the 6th century B.C. The Greeks named it "Black Korkyra" after their homeland and the dense pine-woods on the island. Greek artifacts, including carved marble tombstones can be found at the local Korčula town museum.
A stone inscription found in Lumbarda (Lumbarda Psephisma) and which is the oldest written stone monument in Croatia,Syll.³ 141 - English translation. records that Greek settlers from Issa (Vis) founded another colony on the island in the 3rd century BC. The two communities lived peacefully until the Illyrian Wars (220 BC to 219 BC)Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians, 1992, p. 120, , p. 160 with the Romans.
The island became part of the Roman province of IllyricumEncyclopædia Britannica, 2002; . The Roman province of Illyricum stretched from the Drilon River (the Drin, in modern Albania) in the south to Istria (modem Slovenia and Croatia) after the Illyrian Wars. Roman migration followed and Roman citizens arrived on the island. Roman villas appeared through the territory of Korčula and there is evidence of an organised agricultural exploitation of the land. There are archaeological remains of Roman JunianumCroatian Adriatic: History, Culture, Art & Natural beauties on the island and old church foundations."Church of Our Lady of Poja" , crkve.prizba.net; accessed 4 December 2015.
In 10 AD, Illyricum was split into two provinces, Pannonia and Dalmatia.John Everett-Healu. "Dalmatia" profile, Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names, Oxford University Press (2005). Encyclopedia.com Korčula became part of the ancient Roman province of Dalmatia.
Middle Ages
In the 6th century it came under Byzantine rule. The Great Migrations of the 6th and 7th centuries brought SlavicA History of the Croatian by Francis Ralph Preveden (1955) invasions into this region. Along the Dalmatian coast the Slavic peoples including the Croats poured out of the interior and seized control of the area of the Neretva Delta, as well as the island of Korčula, which protects the river mouth. The Christianisation of the Croats began in the 9th century, but the early Croatian rural inhabitants of the island may well have fully accepted Christianity only later; in the early Middle Ages the Croatian population of the island was grouped with the pagan Narentines or Neretvians, who quickly learned maritime skills in this new environment and became engaged in piracy against Venetian trade ships.
Initially, Venetian merchants were willing to pay an annual tribute to keep their shipping safe from the infamous Neretvian pirates of the Dalmatian coast. After the 9th century, the island was briefly under nominal Byzantine suzerainty. In 998 the Principality of Pagania came under Venetian control. Doge Pietro II Orseolo launched a naval expedition along the coast and assumed the title Duke of Dalmatia.Frederic Chapin Lane, Venice, a Maritime Republic, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1973; , p. 26 . Afterwards Korčula came under the control of the Great Principality of Zachlumia.
In the 12th century Korčula was conquered by a Venetian nobleman, Pepone Zorzi, and incorporated briefly into the Republic of Venice. Around this time, the local Korčula rulers began to exercise diplomacy and legislate a town charter to secure the independence of the island, particularly with regard to internal affairs, given its powerful neighbors. The brothers of Stephen Nemanja, Miroslav and Stracimir, launched an attack on the island on 10 August 1184, raiding its fertile western part. The island's inhabitants called for help from the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), which in turn captured all of Stracimir's galleys.Robin Harris, Dubrovnik: A History (page 37)], books.google.com; accessed 4 December 2015.
The Statute of Korčula was first drafted in 1214.Korčulanski Statut: Statut Grada i Otoka Korčule iz 1214 Godine. English chapter-page 195Korčula Statute , korculainfo.com; accessed 4 December 2015. It guaranteed the relative autonomy of the island against her outside rulers including the semi-independent Grand Principality of Zachlumia, the Grand Principality of Serbia, the Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia and the Republics of Ragusa and Venice. Captains were created for each of the island's five settlements for organized defence. Korčula had fewer than 2,500 inhabitants at that time.
In 1221, Pope Honorius III gave the island to the Princes of Krka (the Šubić family). During the 13th century the hereditary Counts of Korčula were loosely governed in turn by the Hungarian crown and by the Republic of Genoa but also enjoyed a brief period of independence. In 1255, however, Marsilio Zorzi conquered the island's capital and razed or damaged some of its churches in the process, forcing the Counts to return to Venetian suzerainty.
In 1298, the Republic of Genoa defeated Venice in the documented Battle of CurzolaDavid S. Kelly, "Genoa and Venice: An Early Commercial Rivalry" in William R. Thompson, ed., Great Power Rivalries, Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina, 1999, , pp. 125–71, p. 142 .Angeliki E. Laiou, Constantinople and the Latins: The Foreign Policy of Andronicus II, 1282–1328, Harvard historical studies 88, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard, 1972; , p. 108 off the coast of Korčula. According to a later tradition (16th century) recorded by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Marco Polo was a galley commander in the Venetian navy and taken prisoner by the Genoese at the battle off the coast of Korčula.Polo, Marco; Latham, Ronald (translator) (1958). The Travels of Marco Polo, p. 16. New York: Penguin Books. . Other scholars place the Genoese capture of Polo as probably being in a skirmish in 1296, off the Anatolian coast between Adana and the Gulf of Alexandretta.According to fr. Jacopo d'Aqui, Chronica mundi libri imaginis
After the writings of Pope Martin IV in 1284 and Pope Honorius IV in 1286 to the Archbishop of Ragusa, the Archbishop installed a certain Petar as Bishop of Ston and Korčula – stacnensis ac Crozolensis. In 1291, Ivan Kručić was in Korčula's city as the Bishop of Korčula. Kručić contested his overlord, the Archbishop of Hvar, and wanted to unite Ston with his church domain. In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII finally founded the Korčula Bishopric under the Archbishopric of Ragusa. In 1333, as the Republic of Ragusa purchased Ston with Pelješac from the Serbian Empire, the suzerainty of Ston's Roman Catholic Church with the peninsula was given to the Bishopric of Korčula.
Curzola, as the Venetians called the island, surrendered to the Kingdom of Hungary in 1358 according to the Treaty of Zadar, but it surrendered to the Bosnian King Stephen Tvrtko I in the summer of 1390. However the Kingdom of Hungary restored rule of the island, and in December 1396 Croatian-Hungarian King Sigismund gave it to Đurađ II Stracimirović of the Balšić dynasty of Zeta, who kept it up to his death in 1403, when it was returned under the Hungarian crown. In 1409 it again became a part of the Republic of Venice, purchased by the neighbouring Republic of Venice in 1413–1417, it still declared itself subjected to Venice in 1420. In 1571 it defended itself so gallantly against the Ottoman attackers at the Battle of Lepanto that it obtained the designation Fidelissima from Pope Pius V.Korčula korcula.net; accessed 4 December 2015.
Venetian and Austrian rule
Korčula had for years supplied the timber for the wooden walls of Venice, and had been a favourite station of her fleets. From 1776 to 1797 Korčula succeeded Hvar as the main Venetian fortified arsenal in this region. According to the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 in which the Republic of Venice was divided between the French Republic and the Habsburg monarchy, Korčula passed on to the Habsburg monarchy.
The French Empire invaded the island in 1806, joining it to the Illyrian Provinces. The Montenegrin Forces of vladika Petar I Petrović-Njegoš conquered the island with Russian naval assistance Dalmatia and Montenegro by J. Gardner Wilkinson in 1807 during his attempt to construct another Serbian Empire. The defeat of Austria however at the Battle of Wagram in 1809 had put most of the Adriatic under French control. On 4 February 1813 however, British troops and naval forces under Thomas Fremantle captured the island from the French. This short period of British rule left an important mark on the island; the new stone West quay was built, as well as a semi-circular paved terrace with stone benches on the newly built road towards Lumbarda, and a circular Martello tower, "forteca" on the St. Blaise's Hill above the town.
According to the terms of the Congress of Vienna, the British left the island to the Austrian Empire in the 19th of July of 1815. Korčula accordingly became a part of the Austrian crown land of Dalmatia. From 1867, Korčula was in the Cisleithanian part of Austria-Hungary.
20th century