Drasnice

Drašnice (pronounced: drashnitze) is a tourist locality in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, located between Makarska and Ploče. It is first mentioned in a Turkish document of 1477.

‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’ is situated some ten kilometers to the south of Makarska in the direction of Dubrovnik. It has a resident population of some three hundred people, but at the end of the nineteenth century it had a population of more than 900.

The toponym ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’ comes from the name of a thorny grass sort called "dracha zhesticza", which has appeared in great quantities in the wider land area of Dalmatia. The place itself was first mentioned in some Turkish documents dating from the end of the 15th century. Apart from these written documents we have proof that life has existed in this area since ancient times.

The remains of material culture in the area of ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’ have existed since 8000 years, when along our coast and in the whole Mediterranean area the culture of the New Stone Age or the Neolithic expanded.

Hill forts and tumuli are remains of the Illyrians, the ancient population of the Balkan Peninsula. The hill forts were built for residential and defensive purposes, and the tumuli are in fact mounds of stones over ancient Illyrian burial sites. Besides their sepulchral purpose, the tumuli also served for reconnaissance.A minority of tumuli are situated in the coastal area, but most of them are situated behind the mountain of Biokovo where you can also find many hill forts.

Life was going on in two zones; the mountainous in the summer and the coastal in winter. Life at the seaside was not as intensive as today, because these were troubled times. This alternating way of life survived until the 19th century!

The island of Hvar is situated in front of ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’. A couple of centuries B.C., the Greeks colonized some of our islands Hvar being among them. So, the name Hvar comes from the Greek name Pharos. The Romans, who took the Greek colonies and colonized the eastern coast of the Adriatic, caused the weakening of Greek predominance.

Having taken possession of the eastern coast they established their rule over this area and stayed here for about five hundred years! Life under Roman rule became less turbulent and was more or less peaceful so many new settlements developed in the area of the Makarskan coast land among them this real pearl of ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’. The remains of such a settlement are still possible to see not far from ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’ in the direction of Dubrovnik.

On a rather large land area covered by olive trees today, there used to be a settlement dating from the Roman times.

In this area you can trace the continuity of life and settlements dating back to prehistory. Not far from a rather big reconnaissance tumulus there was an antique settlement. In this area you can gather with your hands either building or kitchen pottery material quite readily.

As the legend says, this settlement was ruined by unknown barbarians, who just rushed through this area to the regions of Italy and France after the fall of the Roman empire.

Historical events on the Makarskan coast are not particularly well documented from the early middle ages, i.e. the period from the eighth to the eleventh century. Therein we find only sporadic references to historical events. Not far from the area mentioned above where life and settlements were developing rapidly in the Roman period, more precisely above the neighboring place of lgrane, St. Michael's church was built at the beginning of the 12th century.

Towards the end of the 15th century the Turks invaded Bosnia and caused migrations of the Bosnian population that mostly took refuge in the coastal area. Among them were the Franciscans, who found it quite suitable to build a little church and a monastery in Drashnitze. As they were not used to a strong wind (called the bora), which sometimes blows very violently under the mountain of Biokovo, they went ten kilometers further to the south, to the village of Živogošće.

From the 17th century there is a little church called St. Stephen's which was probably built on the older church site. Among others, let's mention the existing church buildings: St.George's, the patron saint of ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’, St.Catherine's, St George's in the middle of the village, St. Roch's on the part called lzbitac, and a small chapel of St.Nicholas in the hamlet of Urlichs.

That which is characteristic of ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’, is life until the great earthquake of 1962. In the same year the building of the coastal road called ˝Jadranska magistrala˝ commenced, and this change caused many people to move to the coastal part of ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’. At the same time the tourist industry became the main source of living for the native population and they moved to the coast "overnight". ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’ can be regarded as a Croatian Pompeii on a small scale, because you can feel the Zeitgeist prevailing for centuries in this area.

Here you can see old stone houses, replete with the old olive mills, with authentic interiors.

In ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’, there is a cave called "Medvidine" which comes from the monk seals (sea-bears) /medvjedica/ (pronounced: medvieditza) that used to come there. It is known that they are a big problem for fishermen because they destroy their fishing nets. This was the reason why fishermen pitilessly exterminated them. Nowadays, in the coastal area of Makarska there are no Mediterranean monk seals, but the last ones were seen in the area of ‘‘‘Drashnitze’’’.

External links

* [http://www.drasnice.com Info,accommodation, galleries and history of Drasnice]
* [http://www.drasnice.hr Official website of Tourist Board of Drasnice]
* [http://www.adriastar.com/drasnice/ Info and accommodation in Drasnice]