Italian cultural and historic presence in Dalmatia
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Italian cultural and historic presence in Dalmatia is related to the Italian influence in Croatian and Montenegrin Dalmatia, from the historical and cultural points of view.
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[edit] Historical Influence
The historical presence of Italian people in Dalmatia started with the Roman conquest of Illyrian Dalmatia. The historian Theodore Mommsen stated in his book History of Rome that all Dalmatia was fully romanised and Latin speaking by the 4th century. However analysis of the archeological material from that age has shown that process of romanization was rather selective. While urban centres, both coastal and inland, were almost totally romanised so Latin language was spoken and written there and life was the same as in the other bigger cities in the Roman Empire, situation out of these cities was completely different. Although Illyrians were subject to strong process of aculturisation they continued to speak their native language, respect their own gods and other traditions and follow their own social-political tribal organization which was only in some necessities adapted to Roman administration and political structure. [1]
During the Barbarian Invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries, among others, Avars and Slavs invaded Illyria. This invasion opened the way to the settlement of different Slavic tribes.
During those years the original Dalmatian population found a shelter in the coastal cities and in the islands, whilst other migrated to the mountains (they were later called "Morlachs"). So, in the Dark Ages, the coastal area retained its original culture the most, mainly on the islands and cities such as Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik and Kotor. These cities maintained deep cultural and commercial links with the Italian mainland, through the Adriatic Sea[2].
The Republic of Venice controlled most of Dalmatia from 1420 to 1797. During that period, a minor part of its Slavic population was romanized. According to the reports of Venetian trade unionist Giovanni Battista Giustiniani in 1553, only some noblemen in the Dalmatian cities lived, spoke and dressed on Italian way, "while all citizens were living by Croatian customs". Starting from the 15th century the Republic of Venice imposed its influence on Dalmatia, gradually assimilating the rest of the neolatin speaking Dalmatians, who were not Slavized earlier.
In these centuries, the Venetian language became the administrative language of all the Venetian Dalmatia, influencing partially the coastal Croatian language (in particular the Chakavian dialect[1]) and the Albanian language.[3] Zadar was the capital of the Venetian Dalmatia, a role that has maintained through the successive centuries (during WWII it was the capital of the Italian Governatorato di Dalmazia). In those centuries, the most southern area of Dalmatia was called Albania Veneta, now part of coastal Montenegro.
After the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797 to Napoleon's Armies, Dalmatia was incorporated briefly (1805-1809) in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Afterwards, Napoleon reorganized the map of the area and placed the region in a new political entity, the Illyrian provinces. In those years the scholastic system was expanded to all the population (following the ideals of the French Revolution) and the Italian language was instituted as the official language in the schools of Dalmatia.
The Slovenian Marko Trogrli in his essay "The French school system in French Dalmatia" wrote that "Vincenzo Dandolo, the French governor of Dalmatia as well as Bartolomeo Benincasa, an official from the local (Dalmatian) Education Department, published in May 1807 a plan for the province’s public education (Il piano generale della pubblica istruzione in Dalmazia), which had to be consistent with the education system throughout the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy....Instruction was to be in Italian" [4].
When Austria occupied Dalmatia there was a revival of the Slav society inside Dalmatia, while the Italian population, according to the Austrian census, decreased from 22% in 1816 to 12.5% in 1853 and a mere 2.9% in 1910.
After WWI Italy obtained Zadar (called Zara in Italian) and some northern Dalmatian islands likeCres and Lošinj (called Cherso and Lussino in Italian). During WWII, Mussolini's Italy occupied and annexed a large portion of Dalmatia, organising it within the so-called "Governatorate of Dalmatia" (Governatorato di Dalmazia). In 1942 there were 4,020 Italians in these areas: 2,220 in Split, 300 in Šibenik, 500 in Kotor and 1,000 in Krk. There were approximately 10,000 Italians in Italian occupied Yugoslavia who took Yugoslav citizenship after WWI.[2]
After WWII, Italy was forced by the Allied powers to return the occupied areas to Yugoslav administration. According to some, more than 22,000 Dalmatian Italians emmigrated mainly to Italy. There are still some Dalmatian Italians in Dalmatia: 300 in Croatia and 500 in Montenegro.
During a period of 100 years (from the 1850s to the 1950s), Dalmatian Italians decreased from 45,000 in the 1857 Austrian census [3] to less than one thousand in the last Croatian and Montenegrin Census.
[edit] Cultural Influence
The cultural influence from the Italian peninsula started during the Roman times.
The British Encyclopedia states that:
"....The monuments left in Dalmatia by the Romans are numerous and precious. They are chiefly confined to the cities; for the civilization of the country was always urban, just as its history is a record of isolated city-states rather than of a united nation. Beyond the walls of its larger towns, little was spared by the barbarian Goths, Avars and Slavs; and the battered fragments of Roman work which mark the sites of Salona, near, and of many other ancient cities, are of slight antiquarian interest and slighter artistic value. Among the monuments of the Roman period, by far the most noteworthy in Dalmatia, and, indeed, in the whole Balkan Peninsula, is the Palace of Diocletian at Spalato. Dalmatian architecture was influenced by Constantinople in its general character from the 6th century until the close of the tenth. The oldest memorials of this period are the vestiges of three basilicas, excavated in Salona, and dating from the first half of the 7th century at latest. Then from Italy came the Romanesque. The belfry of S. Maria, at Zara, erected in 1105, is first in a long list of Romanesque buildings. At Arbe there is a beautiful Romanesque campanile which also belongs to the 12th century; but the finest example in this style is the cathedral of Trail. The 14th century Dominican and Franciscan convents in Ragusa are also noteworthy. Romanesque lingered on in Dalmatia until it was displaced by Venetian Gothic in the early years of the 15th century. The influence of Venice was then at its height. Even in the relatively hostile Republic of Ragusa the Romanesque of the custom-house and Rectors' palace is combined with Venetian Gothic, while the graceful balconies and ogee windows of the Prijeki closely follow their Venetian models. In 1441 Giorgio Orsini of Zara, summoned from Venice to design the cathedral of Sebenico, brought with him the influence of the Italian Renaissance. The new forms which he introduced were eagerly imitated and developed by other architects, until the period of decadence - which virtually concludes the history of Dalmatian art - set in during the latter half of the 17th century. Special mention must be made of the carved woodwork, embroideries and plate preserved in many churches. The silver statuette and the reliquary of St. Biagio at Ragusa, and the silver ark of St. Simeon at Zara, are fine specimens of Italian jewelers' work, ranging in date from the 11th or 12th to the 17th century...".
In the XIX century the cultural influence from Italy originated the editing in Zadar of the first dalmatian newspaper, in Italian and Croatian: Il Regio Dalmata - Kraglski Dalmatin, founded and published by the Italian Bartolomeo Benincasa in 1806.
The Regio Dalmata - Kraglski Dalmatin was stamped in the tipography of Antonio Luigi Battara and was the first done in croat language.
[edit] Perast
An enduring example of the Italian cultural and historic presence in Dalmatia is the small town of Perast in coastal Montenegro.
.jpg/300px-Perasto_(1900).jpg)
Perasto was at its peak in the 18th century under the Republic of Venice, when it had as many as four active shipyards, a fleet of around one hundred ships, and 1,643 residents. At that time the most beautiful buildings arose in this fortified town. Many ornate baroque palaces and magnificent dwelling-houses decorated the town of Perast, full of typical venetian architecture[5]. Perasto had the privilege to keep war-flag of the Venetian Navy in the peace time (it was called "La fedelissma Gonfaloniera")[4].
The sailormen of Perasto were involved in the last battle of the Venitian navy, fought in Venice in 1797[5].
At the fall of the "Serenissima" (1797) Perast was the last city of the Repubblic to lower the Venetian flag. On 12 May 1797, the Republic of Venice ended, but a few places in the Albania Veneta for several months still continued to remain loyal to the Venetian Repubblic: Perast was the last place of the Republic to surrender. On 22 August 1797 the Count Giuseppe Viscovich, Captain of Perasto lowered the Venetian war-flag of the Lion of Saint Mark pronouncing the farewell words in front of the crying people of the city and buried the "Gonfalon of Venice" under the altar of the main church of Perast.
The population has since decreased to 430 in 1910 and around 360 today. According to the "Comunita' nazionale italiana del Montenegro", in Perast actually there are 140 persons who still speak at home the original venetian dialect of Perasto (called "veneto da mar"), and call themselves in the census Montenegrins.
[edit] Gallery
 Morska vrata, Zadar. |
 The "Sponza" Palace in Dubrovnik. It is the best example of Venetian-influenced architecture remaining in the city. |
 The "Stradun" in Dubrovnik is the main street of the town. |
 Catholic Cathedral of Saint Tryphon in Kotor |
 Church in Perast with typical Venetian belfry |
.jpg/120px-Budua_(1900).jpg) the Venetian walls of Budva in Montenegro in a 1900 postal. |
 Old Kotor |
 Old Perast |
 Venetian walls of Kotor |
[edit] Notes
- ^ A. Stipčević, Iliri, Školska knjiga Zagreb, 1974, page 70
- ^ Dalmatia - LoveToKnow 1911
- ^ Bartoli, Matteo. Le parlate italiane della Venezia Giulia e della Dalmazia
- ^ Sumrada, Janez. Napoleon na Jadranu / Napoleon dans l'Adriatique.pag 335
- ^ Citizens of the venetian Perast (in that period the city had 1,600 citizens) became privileged in the Venetian Republic. They were allowed to trade with large ships and to sell goods without tax on the Venetian market, which made them very rich. As an example of the wealth of people from Perast, at the end of 18th century they managed to collect 50,000 Venetian gold coins (about 200 kg of gold) in order to pay the famous Venetian constructor Giuseppe Beati to build them the highest campanile (55 m) on the East-Adriatic coast. Right in front of Perast there are two small islands. St George with its small church from the 12th century and the artificial island "Gospa od Skrpjela" (in venetian Madonna dello Scarpello) with a very interesting legend. On the reef whose top was 1m above the surface of the water, people from Perast had been throwing rocks and sinking old shipwrecks for 200 years, thus creating a plateau of 3,030 square meters, which they then built a church on. Along with the impression that the island gives with its architecture, for centuries the church received many gifts and now it is a type of gallery and treasury of various objects. Beside 68 oil on canvas works done by Tripo Cocolia (the most talented baroque painter on the East-Mediterranean coast during the 17th century), on the church walls there are 2,500 golden and silver votive tablets which people from the Kotor area donated to the church, in order to avoid various human disasters.
[edit] Bibliography
- Diehl, Charles. La Repubblica di Venezia. Newton & Compton Ed. Rome, 2004
- Durant, Will. The Renaissance. MJK Books. New York, 1981.
- Lane, Frederick. Storia di Venezia, Einaudi. Torino, 1978
- Manno, Antonio. I tesori di Venezia. Mondadori. Vercelli, 2004
- Martin, John Jeffries. Venice Reconsidered. The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297–1797. Johns Hopkins UP. New York, 2002.
- Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice. Vintage Books. New York, 1989.
- Zorzi, Alvise. La Repubblica del Leone. Storia di Venezia Euroclub Ed. Milano, 1991
[edit] See also
- Dalmatian Italians
- Albania Veneta
- Italian language in Croatia
- Istrian exodus
- Dalmatia
- Myth about Italianicity of Dalmatia
