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Dubrovnik Coast Tourist board
Slano, Croatia
Slano, Croatia

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Supposed remains from the Neolithic period have not yet been found within the municipal boundaries of the Dubrovnik Coast. The possible Neolithic locationof Špilja, to the west of the village of Đonta Doli will probably determine the ancient history of the area.

The transitional period from the Stone Age (Neolithic) to the Bronze Age covers the two mil-lennia B.C. This was the period of the great movement of the Indo- European peoples. Tomb mounds (tumuli) are characteristic of sepulchral rituals in the Bronze and Iron Ages. There are many of them around the Dubrovnik Coast. The dead were buried in a ‘squeezed’ position. The tomb was formed by stone slabs set vertically “knifelike”, with a lid closure.Lack of research of the Iron Age and of previous periods produces inconclusive results. The Illyrian tribal way of life does not differ from that of the Bronze Age: from the choice of habitat, architecture (hill-forts – gradine) to the construction of tumuli.

A great number of the hillfort locations have been registered around the Dubrovnik Coast: Veliki Lukovac, to the northwest of the village of Topolo; Gradac above Omišalj; Sutvid, to the northwest of Smokovljani; Stara straža, to the north of the hamlet Gornji Zaton; Gradina, to the south of the village of Trnovo; Oštri Gradac above Slano; Gradina, Slano; Đuraševa gomila; the hamlet of Prdenići; Gornji Majkovi. A multitude of tumuli have been registered in the immediate vicinity of these hill-fort locations: Gomile-Imotica; Sokolova gruda-Topolo; Gomile-Ošlje; Mjenovići-Topolo; Rudine-Lisac; Gomile-Mravinca; Kuk-Majkovi.

The inhabitants of the region belong to the Illyrian ethnic community, divided into several tribes; the area was inhabited by the Plereii (the region from Boka Kotorska to the Neretva). In the 3rd century B.C., they came under the rule of the Ardieii who established their own Illyrian state from Vojuša in Albania as far as the River Neretva.

When they were at the peak of their power in the 3rd century B.C., they came into confl ict with the Romans, and experienced fi nal defeat in 135 B.C.

The Coast underwent complete Romanization and became the rural region of the province of Dalmatia; in the administrative sense, it belonged to the ager of the colony of Narona (Vid near Metković). During Roman rule, which lasted for more than half a millennium, many important buildings and monuments of the advanced Roman civilization, were erected on what was Illyrian territory. Material remains of this ancient period can be found in tourist and commercial buildings: villae rusticae (Neljet grad – Imotica, Topolo, Slano).

The economic crisis of the Roman Empire began in the 3rd century A.D. and was aggravated by Barbarian incursions at the end of the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. This caused frequent administrative change, leading to the fi nal decline of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D. After a short Goth reign, Dalmatia came under the rule of the Eastern Roman Emperor, Justinian (535/536). These historic developments shaped the formation of the late ancient heritage, strongly infl uenced by Christianity. The most signifi - cant late-ancient location in the region of the Dubrovnik Coast is an area around the Franciscan monastery in Slano. The apse of the church of St Martin at Čepikuće has recently been interpreted as a late ancient sacred building. The 7th century was a time of great social and political change whose consequences resonated in this area. In the great tribal movements in the fi rst half of the 7th century, most of the late ancient towns in Dalmatia were destroyed (Salona, Narona and Epidaurus). The newly-arrived Croats co-existed with the indigenous Roman inhabitants. The municipalities under the patronage of Byzantium were established, whilst new states were formed in their hinterland. One of them was the Princedom of Zahumlje, with Ston as its capital from the 9th century.

The pre-Romanesque buildings and monuments have been preserved in Topolo, Ošlje and Slano. Two previous stone beams were used for the portal in the church of St Stephen at Topolo. The remains of an early-medieval sacred building “Rotonda” have been found above the village of Ošlje, on a location called Bijela lokva. The discovered capital and transenna (a screen of stone pro-tecting a shrine) of large dimensions in Slano, belonged to a larger church. This early Christian sacred building supposedly underwent a pre-Romanesque adaptation, as had some other churches in the Dubrovnik region. The last ruler of Zahumlje, Ljudevit was defeated by the Prince of Duklja, Vojislav, in 1042, who joined Zahumlje to Duklja. In the middle of the 12th century, Zahumlje came under the authority of Raška, and archival sources began to refer to it as Hum. The Croatian Herceg Andrija, later the Hungaro-Croatian King Andrija II, reigned here. Various princes and župans of Ston tried to steer an independent policy.

The Croatian Ban, Pavao Bribirski, reigned over Bosnia and Hum at the turn from the 14th century. After his son, Mladen II, had lost his title of ban in 1322, Bosnian and Dubrovnik troops conquered the area of Hum several years later. The Dubrovnikans, with the help of Ban Stjepan Kotromanjić and Raška, bought Ston together with the peninsula of Pelješac in 1333 and became very interested in acquiring the Dubrovnik Coast in order to protect their trade to Zavala and Gabela. After defeat in the confl ict with the Hungaro-Croatian King Ludovic I, Venice had to surrender the entire eastern coast of the Adriatic, according to the Treaty of Zadar of 1358. Dubrovnik then liberated itself permanently from Venetian domination. The year of 1358 was crucial in the history of Dubrovnik. By the Višegrad Treaty between Dubrovnik and Ludovic I, concluded on May 27, 1358, Dubrovnik obtained the protection of the Hungaro-Croatian crown and became the part of the Kingdom of Dalmatia and Croatia. Within the new state and legal framework, Dubrovnik acquired full political independence, which it continued to enjoy after the break-up of the Hungaro Croatian state in 1526. The Dubrovnik Community obtained all the trappings of statehood: territory, a coat-of-arms, a flag and its own monetary system, and began to call itself the Republic (Respublica Ragusina) from the middle of the 14th century. After the death of King Tvrtko I in 1391, the Bosnian state began to disintegrate. The Republic of Dubrovnik, through military and diplomatic means, bought the Dubrovnik Coast in 1399 from King Ostoja. This area has since been noted in archival sources as Terra nova.

The late medieval period is marked by necropolises with stećci (vertical tombs): Topolo, Bistrina Stupa, Čepikuće, etc. Among sacred buildings, there are the church of St Jerome and St Peter in Slano; St Ann at Podimoče; St Francis at Majkovi, etc. Some of these small churches underwent Baroque reconstruction, but many of them disappeared in earthquakes and the same misfortune occurred to others in the most recent earthquake. During the 19th century, the region of the Dubrovnik Coast experienced, together with other areas of the Republic of Dubrovnik, radical historic change.

The French, under the governorship of Marshal Marmont, occupied Dubrovnik in 1806, and two years later, they abolished the Republic of Dubrovnik and included it in the Illyrian Provinces. After the Russian and Montenegrin siege of the Dubrovnik area, and following Napoleon’s defeat, Dubrovnikans attempted to re-establish the Republic. However, at the Treaty of Vienna of 1815, Dubrovnik was assimilated into Austria. After the fall of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy in 1918, a new state which was later called Yugoslavia was established; it lasted in several variants until June 1991, when the independent Republic of Croatia was founded. Without reason, the Yugoslav Army, with the support of Serbian and Montenegrin volunteers attacked the Dubrovnik Coast on October 1 in the same year. The area was devastated, many people were killed and their houses destroyed, plundered and burnt down, together with vineyards and olive groves. However, nothing could destroy the pride and defi ance of these people, who returned to their homes, rebuilt them and continued to maintain their heritage and cultivate their land.

  • The History of the Dubrovnik Coast
    Supposed remains from the Neolithic period have not yet been found within the municipal boundaries of the Dubrovnik Coast. The possible Neolithic locationof Špilja, to the west of the village of Đonta Doli will probably determine the ancient history of the area.
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Slano, Dubrovnik
Slano, Dubrovnik kuca meda novakovo grebljenovakovo greblje