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1st meeting of the traditional Dalmatian vessels – The feast of Forska Pulena

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Hvar: metropolis of the sea

A city that proudly carries the title of one of the earliest centers of organized tourism, together with Opatija and Kaštela, does not live on the old fame – it is moving on to new challenges – in October it hosted a meeting of old ships, and starts building a galley of Hvar.

Hvar Metropolis of the Sea Association and Hvar Town Sailing Club Zvir embarked together on a new project.

In addition to the 1st meeting of the traditional Dalmatian vessels – The feast of Forska Pulena held in October, they are at the beginning of realization of yet another great idea, all in order to promote tourism on Hvar.
Namely, they want to renew a legendary St. Jerome galleon, with world’s only preserved figurehead from this era (the bow ornament from the ship of a dragon name, Zvir).

For many years, the Lepant battle and its participants, including Hvar galleon, are the subject of the research of Ph. D. Tonči Tadić. According to his design, we collect documents to build a real galley, the 16th century wooden one. It’s a boat, very shallow, 42 meters long and 5 meters wide, with 26 seats where there were three rowers, which means that 138 rowers acted as a galley drive, with soldiers and cannon armament which was at the time necessary for the battle. Our idea, with the support of the town of Hvar and the Mayor Pjerino Bebić, is a galley for tourist purposes, but also a real attraction in our Adriatic sea – we find out the details of a dream from the Secretary of the Association Tonči Buzolić Lojko.
Because a city that is proud of the title of one of the earliest centers of organized tourism together with Opatija and Kaštela, does not live on the old fame – it is moving on to new challenges and one of them was certainly meeting of traditional boats.

Hvar’s locals took on crewmembers of those wooden beauties that each have at least fifty years in their life calendar, and thus Hvar’s dock made room for leuts, gajetas, trabakuls, batanas, pasaras, braceras…
By this return to the past, we preserve our rich maritime heritage, and next year we are expecting the arrival of the falkusa and all wooden sailing ships, for which applies only one rule – to be as faithful to the original, without many upgrades – Darko Šoša, the president of the Hvar Metropolis of the Sea Association.

Festival for a moment brought back to the past both Hvar’s residents and their guests, who love to dwell on the sunniest island in the Adriatic, but new programs, new challenges that can be offered to tourists, certainly did not amiss as the reaction to this event where everyone had nothing but praise was immediately seen.

Festival, in fact, delighted everyone – a real hit was the presentation of the wooden beauties, who, according to the years in the calendar are not exactly in the flower of youth, but their beauty woven into the hands of our diligent shipbuilders, sailors and fishermen, will never fade.

Source: TZ grada Hvara
Photo: Boris Kragić

This post is also available in: Croatian