Albania Veneta (English: Venetian Albania) was the name for the possessions of the Republic of Venice in southern Dalmatia from 1420 to 1797. It originally covered the coastal area of what is now northern Albania and the coast of Montenegro, but the Albanian and southern Montenegrin parts were lost to the Ottomans in 1571 [1].
Contents |
Name
The word "Veneta" in Albania Veneta was used to differentiate the area from the Muslim Albania (called Albania Ottomana in those centuries), an area stretching from Kosovo to southern Albania [2].
Geography
These Venetian possessions stretched from the southern borders of the Republic of Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik) to Durazzo (Durres) in coastal Albania. The Venetian territories never reached more than 20 km from the Adriatic Sea. After 1573 the southern limit was moved to the village of Confin (Kufin) near Budua (Budva), because of the Ottoman conquests of Antivari (Bar), and Dulcigno (Ulcinj) in the Balkans. The Dominions of Venice were centered around the Bocche di Cattaro (Bay of Kotor) and included the small cities of Cattaro (Kotor), Risano (Risan), Perasto (Perast), Teodo (Tivat), Castelnuovo (Herceg Novi), Budua (Budva) and Spizza (Sutomore).
History
Venice started to take control of the small southern Dalmatian villages around the 10th century, assimilating quickly the Dalmatian language into the Venetian language. But only in the 14th century was the Republic of Venice able to create a territorial continuity around the Bay of Kotor. These Venetian dominions around Kotor lasted from 1420 to 1797 and were called Albania Veneta, a historical province of the Republic of Venice [3].
When the Turks started to conquer the Balkans in 15th century, many Christian Slavs took refuge inside Venetian Dalmatia and so even the Albania Veneta started to have a huge Serb and Albanian population. By the end of 17th century the Romance speaking population of the historical Albania Veneta was already a minority, according to Oscar Randi in his book ''Dalmazia etnica, incontri e fusioni [4]. After the Napoleonic armies conquered and put an end to the Republic of Venice in 1797, the area of the Albania veneta changed control many times: in 1805 was annexed to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy [5], then in 1809 was part of French Illyrian Provinces and finally in 1815 was put under Habsburg control in the Dalmatia of theAustrian Empire. Under the Habsburg domination, Albania Veneta was part of "Austrian Dalmatia" and in 1878 (at the Congress of Berlin) were added to this territory another 40 km² around Sutomore were added to this territory. The borders of the former Venetian province of Albania Veneta changed again in 1918, but were reinstated from 1941 to 1943 during WWII, when Mussolini annexed the territories around Cattaro to the Kingdom of Italy. The area was part of the italian Governatorato di Dalmazia and was called Provincia di Cattaro [6]. After WWII any political entity related to the historical presence of Venice in southern Dalmatia ceased to exist and the area was definitely incorporated into Yugoslavia. Actually the old Albania Veneta is a coastal region of the newly independent Montenegro.
History of the Venetian speaking population of Albania Veneta
According to the Dalmatian historian Luigi Paulucci (in his book "Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810") the population of the Albania Veneta, during the centuries of the Republic of Venice, was mainly Venetian speaking (approximately 66%) in the urban areas (Cattaro, Perasto, Budua, ecc..) around the "Bocche di Cattaro" (Bay of Kotor).
But in the inland areas more than half of the population was serbocroatian speaking, after the first years of the eighteenth century. Paulucci wrote even that near the border with Albania there were big communities of albanian speaking people: Dulcigno (Ulcinj) was half albanian, one quarter Venetian and one quarter slav speaking [7]. During the French rule of the area of Cattaro the schools were in Italian, when the former Albania Veneta was part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy [8]. 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" [9]. During the nineteenth century, according to the historian Scaglioni Marzio, the wars of independence of Italy from the Austro-Hungarian empire created a situation of harassment against the Italian (or Venetian speaking) communities in the Austrian southern Dalmatia [10]. The result was that in 1880 there were in Cattaro, according to the Austrian census, only 930 ethnic Italians (or only 32% of a total population of 2910 people).
Furthermore, in the Austrian census of 1910, the Italians were reduced to only 13.6% in that city, according to Diego De Castro in his book Dalmazia, popolazione e composizione etnica. Cenno storico sul rapporto etnico tra Italiani e Slavi nella Dalmazia [11]. Actually there are 500 Italian speaking in Montenegro, mainly in the area of Cattaro (Kotor) and Perasto (Perast), who constitute the "Comunitá Nazionale Italiana del Montenegro". The "disappearance" of the Italian speaking populations in Dalmatia was nearly complete after WWII. The linguist Matteo Bartoli calculated that the Italians were 33% of the Dalmatian population during the Napoleonic wars, while currently there are only 300 Italians in Croatian Dalmatia and 500 Italians in coastal Montenegro. [12].
Population
Albanians lived in the south of the Albania veneta around Ulcinj (Venetian Dulcigno) and Durres (Durazzo). The area around Kotor (Venetian Cattaro) was populated by Slavs and Latins and was fully Catholic [13].
Perasto: an enduring example
An enduring example of the Italian presence in coastal Montenegro is the small town of Perast (Perasto in Italian) in the Bay of Kotor.
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 (Perasto), full of typical venetian architecture[14]. Perasto had the privilege to keep war-flag of the Venitian Navy in the peace time (it was called "La fedelissma Gonfaloniera")[1].
The sailormen of Perasto were involved in the last battle of the Venitian navy, fought in Venice in 1797[2].
At the fall of the "Serenissima" (1797) Perasto 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: Perasto was the last place of the Repubblic 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 Perasto. 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".
Italian writers from "Albania Veneta"
Writers from XV century to the end of the XVIII century.
- Giovanni Bona Boliris
- Ludovico Pasquali
- Cristoforo Ivanovich
- Giovanni Polizza
- Giorgio Bisanti
- Girolamo Pima
- Timoteo Cisilla
- Giovanni Crussala
- Giuseppe Bronza
- Girolamo Panizzola
- Bernardo Pima
- Nicola Chiurlo
- Luca Bisanti
- Alberto de Gliricis
- Domenico and Vincenzo Bucchia
- Vincenzo Ceci
- Antonio Zimbella
- Francesco Moranti
Gallery
 Catholic Cathedral of Saint Tryphon in Cattaro (Kotor) |
 Church in Perasto (Perast) with typical Venetian bellfry |
 Postcard showing the Venetian architecture of Perasto in 1900 |
 Old Cattaro (Kotor) |
 Venetian walls of Cattaro (Kotor) |
 Old Perasto (Perast) |
 Roman mosaic in Risano (Risan) |
 Old Venetian church of Cattaro (Kotor) |
Notes
- ^ Cecchetti, Bartolomeo. Intorno agli stabilimenti politici della repubblica veneta nell'Albania. pag. 978-983
- ^ Paulucci, Luigi. Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810. pag. 24
- ^ Durant, Will. The Renaissance. pag. 121
- ^ Randi, Oscar. Dalmazia etnica, incontri e fusioni. pag. 37-38
- ^ Sumrada, Janez. Napoleon na Jadranu / Napoleon dans l'Adriatique.pag. 159
- ^ Scaglioni Marzio. La presenza italiana in Dalmazia 1866-1943. pag 86-87
- ^ Paulucci, Luigi. Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810. pag. 74-75
- ^ Sumrada, Janez. Napoleon na Jadranu / Napoleon dans l'Adriatique.pag.37
- ^ Sumrada, Janez. Napoleon na Jadranu / Napoleon dans l'Adriatique.pag 335
- ^ Scaglioni Marzio La presenza italiana in Dalmazia 1866-1943. pag. 69
- ^ De Castro, Diego. Dalmazia, popolazione e composizione etnica. Cenno storico sul rapporto etnico tra Italiani e Slavi nella Dalmazia. pag 104
- ^ Bartoli, Matteo. Le parlate italiane della Venezia Giulia e della Dalmazia. pag. 46
- ^ Durant, Will. The Renaissance.pag. 139
- ^ Citizens of the venetian Perasto (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 Perasto, 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 Perasto 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 Perasto 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 Cattaro area donated to the church, in order to avoid various human disasters.
Bibliography
- Bartl, Peter. Le picciole Indie dei Veneziani. Zur Stellung Albaniens in den Handelsbeziehungen zwischen der Balkan- und der Appenninenhalbinsel. In: Münchner Zeitschrift für Balkankunde 4 (1981-1982) 1-10.
- Bartl, Peter. Der venezianische Türkenkrieg im Jahre 1690 nach den Briefen des päpstlichen Offiziers Guido Bonaventura. In: Südost-Forschungen 26 (1967) 88-101.
- Bartoli, Matteo. Le parlate italiane della Venezia Giulia e della Dalmazia. Tipografia italo-orientale. Grottaferrata 1919.
- Cecchetti, Bartolomeo. Intorno agli stabilimenti politici della repubblica veneta nell'Albania. In: Atti del Regio Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti. Bd. 3, Seria 4, S. 978-998. 1874.
- De Brodmann, Giuseppe. Memorie politico-economiche della citta e territorio di Trieste, della penisola d’Istria, della Dalmazia fu Veneta, di Ragusi e dell’Albania, ora congiunti all’Austriaco Impero. Venezia 1821.
- De Castro, Diego. Dalmazia, popolazione e composizione etnica. Cenno storico sul rapporto etnico tra Italiani e Slavi nella Dalmazia. ISPI 1978.
- Durant, Will. The Renaissance. MJK Books. New York, 1981.
- Gelcich, Giuseppe. Memorie storiche sulle bocche di Cattaro. Zara 1880.
- 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.
- Paulucci, Luigi. Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810 Edizioni Italo Svevo.Trieste, 2005.
- Randi, Oscar. Dalmazia etnica, incontri e fusioni. Tipografie venete. Venezia 1990.
- Scaglioni Marzio. La presenza italiana in Dalmazia 1866-1943 Histria ed. Trieste,2000.
- Schmitt, Oliver. Das venezianische Albanien (1392 - 1479). (=Südosteuropäische Arbeiten. 110). München 2001.
- Sumrada, Janez. Napoleon na Jadranu / Napoleon dans l'Adriatique. Zalozba Annales. Koper, 2006.
- Tagliavini, Carlo. Le origini delle lingue neolatine. Patron Ed. Bologna 1982.
- Trogrli, Marko. Školstvo u Dalmaciji za francuske uprave/The french school system in French Dalmatia. Knjižnica Annales Majora. Koper, 2006.
References
- The struggle between Venice and the Ottoman empire for the "Albania veneta" in the sixteenth century (italian)
- Cattaro (Kotor) and the Montenegro's Venetian speaking area (italian)
- UNESCO: Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor (Cattaro)
- Historical review of the Italian traces in Montenegro (Italian)
- Dante Alighieri association in Kotor (Cattaro)
