#zaglav

It's been my wish for quiet some time to visit Dugi otok (Long Island), the long and the most distant of the Croatian islands located in the center of Croatian part of the Adriatic sea. Actually, I visited one part of it – the Nature Park Telašćica, when I was a kid more than 15 years ago…but never other places and with the new purpose. However, my wish had been granted surpassing all the expectation I had about this trip. 

The main reason why I wanted to travel there was to find and record the locals who speak the local idioms. For those of you who've been following me for the last couple of years and especially my YouTube channel you know that this was a super exciting trip for me. These native speakers represent a national and cultural treasure in terms of lingusitic heritage and a history of the litoral and maritime people living here for centuries, with some of them being isolated or with little touch to the land (terraferma). Thus the excitement to hear the living past and a nice blend of the Croatian Slavic culture and the Mediterranean Latin influence.

Apart from finding the native speakers I was excited to find out more about being and living as an islander. So I had to chance to record, hear and take photos of stories and experiences of the local people from several villages including both youth and seniors.

How it all started

I was super lucky to be given the opportunity to stay for four days on the island and meet many people whose help I never expected. I got the accommodation for free at the local monastery of St Michael in Zaglav which was thrilling enough and especially valuable since they allowed me to stay during the festive days around Easter. As soon as I got the confirmation that it's not a hallutination but a reality I looked for help among friends and acquaintaes who could aide me in getting to know the island and the locals. Without them this trip would have looked totally different as I knew practically nobody there. In the end I made lots of friends and had plenty of fun while doing my mission. I spent literally days and hourse right before the trip to get the additional camera equipment, gather as much as valuable information about the locals as possible, creating my own map of the potential people for the intervju and preparing the daily routes.

But before we dive into the adventures here's a some info about the island.

About Dugi otok

What do you need to know about this paradise? Dugi otok is the largest of the North-Dalmatian islands situated in the central part of the Croatian Adriatic. Iti s also the last island before the open sea and Italy on the other side of the Adriatic bay. Just like the majoritiy of our islands it has many hills and small bays with its highest peak of Vela Straža at 338m. The island is around 45 km long (hence the name) but at some points its width ranges between 1 and 4 km. This contrast was especially visible when I was driving a car from the south and at one point I stopped and looked to my right – there you see the islands towards Zadar and Velebit mountain. Then you turn to the left and see the nothing except for the blue sky, horizon and the deep blue Adriatic sea. However, during the crystal day and with a good eye sight one can see the eastern Italian coast, more precisely – the Apenine mountains. After all, Italy is less than 200 km away across the sea.

Its western coastline bordering the open sea characterize the sharp contrasts: the southern part around the Nature Park Telašćica is surrounded with impressive cliffs that go up to 80m in height. Telašćica is one of the most beautiful place sin Zadar county and frequently visited by numerous tourists each year.

On contrary, on the other side of the island you can find more peaceful bays. The two most notable beaches are Sakarun and Veli Žal where Sakarun is the most famous one. However, last years due to growing number of visitors and greediness it no longer looks and is as it was 10 years ago. I also never went there but visited Veli Žal instead. All in all, the nature on this island is incredible and as the locals say – you hardly notice any seasonal change. It always looks as if the time had stopped between spring and early autumn. Always green and no leafs falling. In terms of nature this island will be a perfect place to escape the reality and the stress of the modern lifestyle spent in larger urban areas. Clean sea, peaceful nature and the welcoming locals.

People, customs and history

Speaking of locals the island has a population of roughly 1500 inhabitants spread in around 12 local villages. The largest of them is Sali in the southeastern part of Dugi otok with the population of around 800. On contrary, places such as Dragove or Veli Rat in the north have between 40-70 inhabitants statistically. However, accoridng to the stories, there's far less people who actually live for the whole year. The sad truth and reality is that these places will become ghost towns within 10-20 years as the majority of these locals are seniors over 80 years old. The thing is – apart from them most of the visitors are so called „weekenders“ – the islanders who live on the land (e.g. in Zadar) who come there over the weekend…or the other part that's present during the summer are the diaspora. These are the people whose parents, grandparents or further ancestors emmigrated to the United States, Southern America or Australia and New Zealand at the beginning of the 20th century or around the years of the WW2 in search for better opportunities and life across the sea. There are even some remains left of the WW2 bunkers and ship tunnels that I am going to describe you later (I couldn't resists visiting some of them). And even today one can find near the central part of the island a restricted zone which belongs to the military whose base is on top of the hill. It's said it used to watch over the potential threat that comes from the south or across the Adriatic sea.

The population of the island was thus much larger, actually surprisingly larger. However, the Great War in 1918 and the Second World War had taken the toll with great consequences. Many of the islanders died or were killed during those time, especially the young people, men, who were meant to start new families. Those who survived either stayed or moved to new places. Some places used to have a lot of children attending the schools. Now some say it's „a success“ when they managed to gather up to 10 children of the elementary school in total. And they come from different villages.

Being on the island many of the locals have traditionally been turned towards the sea and what it offers. It's not unusal to find people who have spent their lives sailing around the world. Some have been fishermen. Some are into agricultulre and what it offers. Unlike us who live on the mainland here you can't have super large fields but smaller ones where you take care of goods and cultures such as figs, oranges, lemomns, tomatoes, potatoes, salad and olives. In Sali there is a fish factory which provides employment for good amount of the locals. There is another important factor in the lives of the islanders and that is the Church and religion. It's not unusual to find many of them to be (kinda) devoted Catholics who go to the church every Sunday. After all, as some explained me, it's also a social thing or event, when you think about it. And living there for centuries, relatively isolated and surrounded by nature and vast sea surface, one shouldn't be surprised to see faith and religion rooted deeply in the locals. And being an islander does not mean living an easy life, as you are going to find out. Speaking of religion there is this Franciscan monastery of St Michael in Zaglav with a church that was built in mid-15th century. That's the place I stayed at.

The places on the island are connected with one main road from which you have amazing views over the surrounding islands and area. The island has also got quiet good connection with the mainland via trajects and speedboats (catamaran). There are four catamaran lines that go daily from Zadar to Dugi otok. If you are planning a trip on Dugi otok by car you will arrive by traject to Brbinj in the northern part of the island. The same goes if you want to leave the island by car. Speaking of cars the only gas station on the whole island is located in Zaglav in the south. That's also the place I arrived to and stayed at for four days.

What else to add? During the summer season many are some festivals related to religious events, local music and traditional kitchen. Those who prefer to spend their time actively they can go exploring the area, follow many hiking roads, visit the caves, Park Telašćica or National Park Kornati. If you are more into sports then I suggest finding some diving locations or courses, try running, trekking, biking, trail, sailing etc. At the northernmost point of the island at Veli Rat there is another landmark of Dugi otok - the lighthouse of Veli Rat.

I forgot to mention some of the older history of the island. Here are a few interesting things to know. The island was already inhabited with settlers in the early ages in paleolithic and mesolythic. Several years ago scients discovered the human skelleton that date back to 11 000 years BC. This discovered male Dalmatian known as „Šime“ died unnatural death at the peak of his retirement age of 40. 

One can find the remains of the settlements and stuff of the ancient Illryians. There are also several caves on the island and around Telašćica park one can find tomb hills dating back to Iron age 800-400 BC. The last thing I'd add here is the Grpašćak Fortress on the western coast above the cliffs of Telašćica. It was built in 1911 by the Austro Hungarian Monarchy which served as a military patrol base. I came close by my first evening on the island but more about it in the next post..

Time for a break

(from: http://www.ibiblio.org/lighthouse/hrv1.htm)

Zaglav (Hrid Zaglav)

1876. Active; focal plane 20 m (66 ft); three white flashes every 15 s. 15 m (49 ft) square tower with lantern and gallery, centered on the roof of a 2-story masonry keeper's house. The lighthouse is unpainted white stone with a red tile roof; light tower and lantern are painted white. Trabas has a photo by Ulrich Knapp, a view from the sea is available, Marinas.com has aerial photos, and Google has a satellite view. Located on a small island off the west coast of Cres near Pernat. Accessible only by boat. Site and tower closed. ARLHS CRO-020; Admiralty E2764; NGA 12152.

Zadar’s archipelago. The trip started in Zadar and ended up in Zaglav on the first day.

I took the bus **from Zagreb to Zadar **at 6am and planned to get on the first boat that goes for **Zaglav **afterwards. While almost missing the bus in the morning I managed to get there in time and bought the ticket for my catamaran. The ticket for the non-islanders was about 20 -25 HRK (around 3 Euros) for one direction. Soon enough I was aboard the catamaran whose trip to Zaglav took around an hour and 15 minutes. During the trip I had the pleasure to talk to one of the locals from Sali who shared some tips on the DOs and DON'Ts on the island.

On it’s way to Zaglav we went beneath the bridge that connects the islands Ugljan and Pašman passing by the town of **Kali **(another place on the list to visit). Then you find yourself surrounded with multiple islands I couldn’t remember the names yet the last one to the west had numerous hills, so long you couldn’t see its end. Of course it was Dugi otok (the Long island). I’ve never been so far to the west in this area and the inner Indiana Jones for exploring and adventures was waking up.

This was my printed map of the island. I removed the names of the wanted locals for the interview and where to find them in each place due to privacy.

Soon we reached Sali and headed then few minutes to the north to Zaglav. I took all the stuff I had and I had several bags and a luggage. Just before we reached Zaglav I had two phone calls from my local saviours. One was from friar Izak, the monk from the monastery, who was waiting for me and my stuff with his squad in his car. The other one was Goran, the guy responsible for delivering the bakery products across the island throughout the year in his van. He was the one who helped me with the vehicles by lending me his old car to use for four days. Just when I stepped on the island he was there at the gas station tanking it up fully. Yes, full till the end. I gave friar Izak and his fellas my stuff and met with Goran and his family to take me up to the monastery.

Here it was where I earned the name „The Baker“ in the next couple of days. It started with his wife asking me „So, are you a baker?“ and later on several locals who’d see me coming by car (as Goran does) would frequently ask me „Are you a baker?“. In the end I gave up and said „Yes, I am a baker“. The second name that followed me was “The Journalist guy”.

We went uphills. Now here is a thing with the most places on Dugi otok. The core of these villages is mostly on the hill, not next to the sea. People went down to the coast much later. The monastery was at the end of the road on the hill. Also, the roads are only for one vehicle at the time which was interesting as you had to be careful if someone from the opposite direction was coming from behind the corner and then one of you two would have to somehow the way to step aside. That was done either by going backwards or finding a quick spot to move aside. Not to say that many of these roads or streets were pretty narrow and at some points you were surrounded with the stone fence wall. All of this makes it easy to damage your car. In the beginning I was more careful with it but then grew confidence because simply the things like that are just normal there and you gotta accept it. Again, you can’t do this in Zagreb without bad consequences.

**The monastery of St Michael **

The entrance as seen from the center of the yard

Voila, there we are at the monastery. Somehow typical Dalmatian look or actually Mediterranean. Bell tower, local graveyard and the monastery with its yard and garden just at the end of the street. Soon arrived friar Izak and the other dudes. Passed through the gates in the middle of the wall and entered the yard. It was guarded by two cats.

The Franciscan monastery and the church of St Michael were built back in the mid-15th century by the Franciscan order of the Glagolitic monks. Glagolitic is one of the old Slavic scripts, somewhat similar to Cyrillic, that was preserved in Croatia mostly on the islands and some northern areas within the religious context and local or folk language. The monastery today is of course an expanded version of the original one.

The monastery and the church as seen from the bell tower

When seeing all these stuff inside the yard and this whole idea of being in the monastery I quickly returned in my head to Robin Hood games where you had to sneak and climb around monastery’s walls and hallways. It would have been awesome if I had visited it with my friends back in the childhood though even now it could serve as a cool film location. But the best impression of the monastery and its surroundings is surely early in the morning when it’s fresh and enjoyable to be outside, the shadows are soft, relatively quiet, you can hear the animals and prepare for the day with pleasure. I tried doing some exercise in the morning but failed.

The look from the entrance into the yard. My window is on the second floor in the middle.

When you say „a monastery“ you might think of the medieval buildings where they still use the candles but man, I got 5-stars room with my own bathroom. So there were now three of us residing in the building and each of us had our own room upstairs. Once you enter the monastery you are in the hallway where to your right is a small library. Straightforward you got one SOS restroom and then the stairs to our rooms. The hallway there was filled with some large paintings of religious content and Glagolitic engravings. Back downstairs, to the left, one enters the „living room“ where they can watch TV and turn on the oven when necessary. Few steps behind and you enter a modest kitchen with plenty of food. Oh yes, they said I just pick up whatever I want and they had lots of stuff. Even better, behind the kitchen in the basement they had a pantry. It felt like Goku being on King Kai’s small planet with whatever you want.

Some hallway paintings of…well… someone

The look from the windows on the other side towards the north. What you probably see are the islands of Krkata (the closest one), then Iž and maybe far away Ugljan or Sestrunj..or something else, who knows, so many islands…

One part of my room…the rest is in the mess but there’s a table behind me, the window and to the left is the small hallway with the wardrobe and separated bathroom

The view from my room taken in the evening

Soon enough I was welcomed with the lunch. They have a lady who cooks and cleans for them every day and this was also covered so that I don’t have to spend money aside. As you can see this all was really way more than I expected.

Friar Izak taking care of the stuff in the kitchen

This was probably the only lunch I had with them as I spent every next day somewhere else waddling around. We made some rules about breakfast around 7am and had dinner together in the evening. Even though they usually go to sleep by 10pm we used to talk about different topics until midnight.

The first photo is of the monastery’s yard. The second one from the Church’s interior

And what about friar Izak? He definitely is a guy with lots of energy and ideas. Born in Zaglav in 1936 but spent most of the time away from the island he is a a big church musician, conductor and a researcher of the Glagolitic heritage. He is also one of the founders of the mixed choir “Bašćina” (Heritage) and several years ago revived the real Renaissance Zaglav liturgical singing. He is fun to talk to and throws the jokes all the time. More about the conversations and his stories in the upcoming posts.

Zaglav: An afternoon in the bay of Triluke (Three ports). Meet the first locals.

After lunch I decided to go down to the village on the coast. Grabbing my camera and other stuff I took the path that goes to the bay. I had it in plan to meet with Zvonko – the young gas station owner whom I reached few days earlier. He knew I’d come and so he helped me to find the potential candidates for the interview. But what about Zaglav?

The road down to the bay of Triluke

It’s a village in the southern part of Dugi otok between Sali and Žman. The records say it was inhabited in 15th century and many of the locals are the descendants of people who flew before the Ottomans. The population of Zaglav is around 174 people though there used to be 300-500 people just few decades ago. I’d say today it’s even less than 170 but we will find out more in 2-3 years. People there mostly live from tourism, sailing and fishing with some small agriculture part. Some work in Sali or move to Zadar or other places on the mainland. Zaglav has a relatively good boat connection with other places and the mainland. Here used to be a ferry port before they moved it to Brbinj. I didn’t go around the whole village on the bay but down there you can find a few restaurants and the gas station also serves as a small store. **This gas station for the cars and the boats is the only one on the island. **

So while walking through this street downstairs I met Zvonko and his dog at the gas station and soon was introduced to the other local dudes who gathered nearby and enjoyed some drink. There I met my future companion and help for the upcoming days - Mirel. After receiving a welcoming drink and introducing myself Zvonko took me to our first star - his father who was repairing the fishermen’s net. Here comes the summary of the interview I had.

Mr Špralja the Sailor

As I approached hime while repairing the net he started explaining me the type of the net he uses and what kind of fish it can catch. He learned the skill from his father and grandfather. Being in pension for many years and not being able to move a lot his main hobbies are repairing and maintaining the nets plus doing some work with agriculture. Right now he had problems with the holes made by the dolphins but as he said - it’s gonna take him around a week to finishing repairing this net around 100 meters long.

His family came from Bakar to Zaglav and** Kornat island** which is the story many other locals shared.

He had spent over 30 years sailing around the world going twice around the equator and visiting all the continents and ports except for Australia and New Zealand. He told me the only experience he remembers most that scared him was during their trip aboard the Jordan Nikolov ship on the Atlantic ocean during the stormy weather where he had to go down inside the ship and make sure to have the gas ventilation closed. As he added “There are no good things on the sea, only the bad ones.”. Also, he believes the young sailors nowadays have it much easier as they don’t have to spend a whole year on the boat and vehicles (technology) is much faster and precise.

Speaking of the food and how it used to be back then he started with the meals they got on the ship. As there used to be 30-50 crew members they had two cooks and one assistant adding that the food was “solid”. On the island, back in his youth days, the main food was fish. The meat as we eat it today was not available and couldn’t be bought easily. You would use what you had of your livestock which included lamb, goats and mutton. In winter they used to fish for the smaller fish, 30-50 of them weighing around a kilogram. In spring there was more of the bluefish such as mackerel or chub. Cuttlefish or an octopus were also options. Dried octopus, he added. They didn’t have much of the potato and people mostly ate collard greens. Berries and beans were also popular. The problem was that the fields on the island were not as rich and potent for the agricultures as it is on the mainland and there has never been much of the freshwater. Those families who had some livestock such as goats or sheep would make milk and cheese. For breakfast you had milk and cheese, fish or some other meat for lunch and for dinner different types of greens.

Repairing the net where two bigger holes were made by the dolphins

What about games and how they used to play as children? The hide and seek obviously never gets out of fashion, no matter the generation. Among other games football was popular, played in the “Old village” upon the hill. However, there weren’t balls like today so they used the the ones made from rags. During the carnival and masquerade there is a custom of setting a fire etc.

And schools? He told me there was around 10 of them in the generation that went to school in Zaglav and Sali that had up to 7-8 grades. Those who wanted to learn a foreign language would have to go to Sali. There he learned a bit of German and his knowledge of English came through navigation around the world. In the end, he forgot almost everything since he returned to the island.

Finally, he believe young people will have an easier life as there are much more opportunities than in his days. Tourism is the number one industry. The problem with the agriculture he sees is that it’s not enough today to earn for a living and many fields were divided into plenty of smaller parcels and those who own them stopped carrying for the land. He concluded again that only with the tourism he can see the youth prosper.

Afterwards we visited three more people whom I asked similar questions. However, I will share the story of the last ones – an old couple living alone in their home. The story of Marjan and Vera Špralja is one of the sad ones you are going to hear.

Life story of Marjan and Vera Špralja

I met them upstairs on their terrace enjoying the snacks and soft sunlight. Though at first a bit reserved and silent soon they warmed and opened up. Quiet simple and modest people who had experienced a lot. Both over 80 years old.

We started with the family background. They came to Zaglav from Kornat island though their ancestors came to these areas from the mainland around Bakar town. Marjan was the eight out of ten siblings and probably the only one who stayed on the island whereas the other went to different places and countries looking for the better opportunities. One of his brothers is living in Australia. They stayed here on the island as the simple shepherds and fishermen. They spent 20-30 years living in the Old Zaglav upon the hill before moving to the bay. They also spent most of their lives on Kornat island. Further on, they explained me the name of the bay – Triluke (Three ports) and the division between the village „up there“ and „down here“. Up in the Old Zaglav (S_taro selo_) there are mostly seniors living, not many of them…while the bay is filled with younger members of the community, families with children.

Speaking of the past they reminded me that once there lived around 400 people in Zaglav while today there might be not more than 50-60, he guessed. The school that used to be open is now closed. This also comes from the fact that families in the past were much bigger with 5-8 siblings. The same case was with my grandmother.

I wondered how the two of them had met. They happen to meet each other back in the elementary school. They said they finished only 3-4 grades and have the essentials skills for living – writing, reading, driving the car and the boat…and some knowledge about the agriculture. There were no teachers, they said. The one teacher used to come twice per week to teach the locals.

We moved to the stories of being on the sea. Marjan is an experienced fisherman and we would have needed an extra day to listen to all of it. The biggest enemy he’s always encountered was the stormy weather at the sea and the wind. One time, during such occasion, he was forced to jump from the boat into the sea in order to push it to the shore otherwise the boat would have been lost.

However, the biggest tragedy they have encountered is with their children. Their son died at the age of 19 losing battle to illness and their daughter (50) is fighting the similar battle laying immobile in the hospital. “Misery and sorrow, that’s our story.” Vera told me.

She moved on saying “We had the sheep on Kornat island, we were fishing, we had a vineyard…and I had been working at Mardešić Fish Factory in Sali for 26 years. And ill children. Nowadays people complain they have no time for anything. They have one child and still busy all the time.” - “Yeah, they waste their whole day trying to put on the make-up”, added Marjan. “We also got up earlier than people today.”

The house they live in was built by Marjan himself. They sold one house to a cousin who took care of them since they won’t have any heirs - otherwise they would keep it for their children. Vera is today suffering from several pains and the similar goes with Marjan. Apart from the cousin who visits them sometimes they have no one else on the island who can help them. The hard life and problems took toll on their health.

We came back to childhood they also described as a misery and famine. Marjan explained there was no such luxury as today to have smoked ham and cheese on your table along with other food we throw away recklessly…but dried figs mostly. Vera carried on pointing me the oranges, olives and lemons they have in their garden. They are happy as they get the fruits from those trees three times in a year.

We ended up our conversation with them asking me about my background and how come I ended up on Dugi otok. They thanked me for visiting them and I was thankful them having shared their time with me.

We are done with the interviews in Zaglav. I came back to the gas station where I met Mirel leaving in his car. He gave me a book about Dugi otok and NP Kornati. As I found out Zvonko had told him to watch over me and help me getting around. Sounds like Sam and Frodo thing. We made a deal to visit Sali in the evening and go for some pizza.

I returned back to the monastery and spent some time talking to the monk-dudes.

Dinner with cheese, bread and wine with my fellas from da monastery

More about the upoming evening in Sali and visiting the cliffs of Telašćica near Fort Grpašćak in the next post!