Lastovo
Lastovo is an archipelago municipality in Dubrovnik-Neretva County in Croatia. The municipality consists of 46 islands with a total population of 792 people, of which 94.7% are ethnic Croats, and a land area of approximately. The biggest island in the archipelago is also named Lastovo, as is the largest town. The majority of the population lives on the island of Lastovo.
Lastovo, like the rest of the Roman province of Dalmatia, was settled by Illyrians. Ancient Rome conquered and settled the entire area, retaining control until the Avar invasions and Slavic migrations in the 7th century. The Croats and their subject fellow Slavic tribes secured most of the Dalmatian seaboard, but some cities and islands of the romanised Dalmatians remained independent under the nominal rule of the Byzantine Empire. In 1000 AD the Venetians attacked and destroyed the settlement due to the island's participation in piracy along the Adriatic coast. After the Venetian domination, in the 13th century Lagosta joined the Republic of Ragusa where for several centuries it enjoyed a certain level of autonomy until the republic's conquest by the French under Napoleon. Austria then ruled the island for the next century, then Italy for 30 years following World War I, and finally Yugoslavia until it became a part of the independent Republic of Croatia.
The island is noted for its 15th- and 16th-century Venetian Renaissance architecture. There is a large number of churches of relatively small size, a testament to the island's long-standing Roman Catholic tradition. The major cultural event is the Poklade, or carnival. The island largely relies on its natural environment to attract tourists each season. In 2006 the Croatian Government designated the island and its archipelago a nature park. Some conservancy groups have demanded the island receive heritage status.
Geography
The island of Lastovo belongs to the central Dalmatian archipelago. Thirteen kilometres south of Korčula, the island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the Adriatic Sea. Other islands in this group include Vis, Brač, Hvar, Korčula and Mljet. The dimensions of the island are approximately long by up to wide.The Lastovo archipelago contains a total of 46 islands, including the larger islands Sušac, Prežba, Mrčara and an island group called Lastovnjaci on the eastern side. Prežba is connected to the main island by a bridge at the village of Pasadur. The island has a daily hydrofoil service and ferry service linking it to the mainland at Split and stopping along the way at Korčula and Hvar.
The town of Lastovo is spread over the steep banks of a natural amphitheatre overlooking a fertile field, facing away from the sea. This is unusual compared to other Adriatic islands, which are normally harbour side. Other settlements on the island include the villages of Ubli, Zaklopatica, Skrivena Luka, and Pasadur.
Despite major fires in 1971, 1998 and 2003, about 60% of Lastovo is covered with forest, mostly Holm Oaks and Aleppo Pines and Mediterranean underbrush. There are rich communities of falcon and hawk nests. These used to be exploited by the Dubrovnik Republic for falconry and traded to other kingdoms, especially to Kingdom of Naples in the Middle Ages. The underwater life is the richest in the entire Adriatic, featuring lobsters, crayfish, octopus and many high prized fish such as John Dory and Groupers. There are no venomous snakes on the island.
Landscape and coastline
Lastovo has a dynamic landscape consisting of 46 hills and 46 karstic fields that often contain layers of red soil and quartz sand. The highest points are on Mount Hum, the eponymous Hum and Plešivo Brdo, both at.There are several other peaks higher than, including the scenic Sozanj at. Its dolomitic valleys are located between limy hills and mild calcareous slopes rich in caves. There are five caves on the island — Rača, Puzavica, Pozalica, Grapčeva and Medvidina.
The coastline is mainly steep and the surrounding sea is deep. On the southern coast is a large, deep bay at Skrivena Luka which offers protection from the bura and westerly winds. The other main deep port is located on the western side at Ubli which is where the main ferry port for the island is located.
Climate
Lastovo possesses all the basic characteristics of the Mediterranean climate, dominated by mild, moist winters and warm, long, and dry summers. The island receives around 2,700 sun hours per year, ranking it one of the sunniest in the Adriatic and pleasant for tourists. This produces a water temperature around in summer. Annual rainfall is. Since there are no permanent surface water streams, residents rely on bores, dams and wells.Since records began in 1949, the highest temperature recorded at the local weather station at an elevation of was, on 3 August 1998. The coldest temperature was, on 23 January 1963.
History
Prehistory and antiquity
The island was first mentioned by 6th century lexicographer Stephanus of Byzantium who called it Ladesta and Ladeston. His source was Theopompus, a 4th-century BC Greek historian. The names of numerous other Illyric settlements along the coast had the same suffix -est which indicates its Illyric origins. When the Romans conquered Dalmatia they gave the island the Latin name Augusta Insula meaning "Emperor's Island". During the Middle Ages, the name would be transcribed as Augusta, Lagusta or Lagosta. The Slavic suffix -ovo combined with the Roman form of Lasta gives the islands present name of Lastovo.The first traces of human presence on the island were found in the Rača cave where continuous evidence of habitation reaches as far as the late Neolithic Age. In prehistoric times the island was inhabited by the Illyrians. However finds of Greek ceramics show that the island was on one of the Greek trade routes on the Adriatic and probably a part of the state of Issa.
When the Romans conquered the province of Dalmatia they too settled Lastovo. The Romans named the island Augusta Insula. The Romans left traces of their long rule on the island, in the form of the so-called villa rustica estates and the water catchment areas known as the lokve. The Romans established a settlement on location of today's village of Ubli that flourished during first centuries AD, only to become completely abandoned in later centuries after being destroyed by the barbarians.
Middle Ages
With the arrival of the Croats to Adriatic in the 7th century, Croats eventually settled most of Dalmatia which included Lastovo. Around 950, the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos mentions Lastovo in his De Administrando Imperio by its Croatian name Lastobon. In 998 the Venetian Doge Pietro Orseolo II launched large military operations against Croatian and Neretvian pirates along the Adriatic and its islands, which culminated in 1000 with the destruction of the town of Lastovo. After that the residents decided to build a city on the internal hill away from the coast which made the city more defendable. During the next two centuries, inhabitants dedicated themselves more to agriculture and neglected their earlier naval tradition. Scarcity of accurate historical documents and an almost complete silence covering the events on the island in the early Middle Ages are trustworthy signs of a great autonomy of Lastovo in that period. Lastovo may have at times come briefly under various rulers from the 7th to 13th centuries, whether Byzantine, Dukljan or Narentine, however, it is accepted that Lastovo generally recognised the Croatian kings as its nominal and natural rulers. In 1185 the Hvar diocese is formed of which Lastovo is mentioned as having been part. A church synod held in Split that same year decreed that the diocese of Hvar should fall under the authority of the Archbishop of Split.Republic of Ragusa
Later in the 13th century the people of Lastovo voluntarily joined the Republic of Ragusa in 1252 after the republic promised that it would honour Lastovo's internal autonomy. This agreement was codified in the Ragusa Statute written in 1272. However, Ragusa purchased Lastovo from Stefan Uroš I king of Serbia who had rights over the island as ruler of parts of Hum. In 1310 Lastovo got its first written legislation, the Statute of Lastovo, which had all the characteristics of law. The supreme authority on the island had a council consisting of 20 members who held office for life. In 1486 the authority of the Council was transferred to the Parliament of the Republic and the island lost much of its autonomy. Continuous limitation of the island's autonomy and higher taxes led to a short lived rebellion in 1602. On the appeal of islanders, Venice occupied the island the following year and held it until 1606, when it was returned to Ragusa. The next attempt at rebellion was in 1652, which resulted in the loss of the island's autonomy.During the Ottoman conquests, Lastovo was very often a target of pirates from Ulcinj, leading to the introduction of mandatory guard service. Guard service was abolished in the 18th century when pirates from Ulcinj became merchant sailors. The last reported outbreak of vampirism in Croatia was 'recorded' on Lastovo. The trial in Ragusa in 1737 took testimony from visitors to the island during an outbreak of severe diarrhoea which killed many locals. The islanders blamed this epidemic on vampires. This case included from Lastovo the defendants who formed a band or group of vigilante style vampire hunters. Such cases were reported throughout all of Croatia and indeed Europe in the Middle Ages.