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Updated: June 4, 2025
Deep water inlets forming natural harbors, which at the present time are invaluable as harbors for warships or as submarine bases, are to be found all along the Dalmatian coast. Tajer, Zara, Lesina, Lissa, Curzola, Maleda, Sabbioncello, Grayosa, and Sebenico are almost in themselves sufficient to counterbalance any numerical disparity between the Austrian and Italian fleets.
As a rule, the surrounding hills are rugged, bleached yellow or pale russet, and destitute of verdure, but their monotony is relieved by the half-ruined castles and monasteries which, perched on the rocky heights, perpetually reminded me of Howard Pyle's paintings, and by the medieval charm of Zara, Sebenico, Spalato, Ragusa, Arbe, and Curzola, whose architecture, though predominantly Venetian, bears characteristic traces of the many races which have ruled them.
In the Bocche di Cattaro the depth near the mouth is 165 ft., but half a mile west of the Punta d'Ostro, 335 ft. North of the line from Monte Gargano to Pelagosa, Cazza, and Curzola it is never as much as 780 ft.; south-east of this line the bottom sinks so much that between Cattaro and Brindisi it reaches a depth of over 5,000 ft.
About three years after the return of these adventurous travellers, hostilities arose between the republics of Genoa and Venice. The Genoese admiral, Lampa Doria, came to the island of Curzola with a fleet of seventy gallies, to oppose whom, the Venetians fitted out a great naval force under Andrea Dandolo, under whom Marco Polo had the command of a galley.
Of these the first four have been described at length, and the others are mentioned briefly in the chapter dealing with Zara and its surroundings. The southern group lies south of the harbour of Spalato, and includes Solta, Brazza, Lesina, Curzola, Meleda, the more distant Lissa, Busi, and Lagosta, and a few small islands which belonged to the Republic of Ragusa.
Trau, with its splendid loggias and churches; Spalato, with the grandeur of Diocletian's palace, are denied to the traveller; Lesina, proudly calling itself the Nice of Austria; Curzola, whose mighty Venetian bastions stand out into the sea, and many another delightful little town and island, only show a twinkling light or two in the darkness as the steamer ploughs by.
The nuns' choir is above the main door on the level of the side galleries, shut off by a gilded grating inscribed: "Placida abbatissa fieri fecit anno MCCCVI." Within are the stalls made or altered by Giovanni da Curzola in 1495. The façade of the church, which faces on to a small courtyard, is of the period of the Lombardi.
In case you cannot recall its precise situation, I might remind you that the Curzolane Archipelago, consisting of several good-sized islands Brazza, Lésina, Lissa, Mélida, and Curzola and a great number of smaller ones, lies off the Dalmatian coast, almost opposite Ragusa.
The plague of 1558 smote Curzola very heavily, and as years went by it sank lower and lower. The convenience of the neighbouring pine-woods, the two ports between which the town lies, and the existence of Porto Pedocchio caused the Venetians to move their arsenal hither from Lesina in 1776; and during the last century it has recovered to some extent, but the population remains poor.
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