In the summer of 1993, when I was last on Brač, I was hosted by Lepa and Miljenko Smoje in their bungalow in Supetar. It was two years before Miljenko's death, and I wrote about that meeting for "Vreme" in 2021. That year, the capital Dalmatia it was flooded with refugees, war was raging in Bosnia between Croats and Bosniaks. Except for a few of us strays, tourist It was barely there.
This summer, the Split ferry port was full of some other people.
While we are waiting for the ferry to Supetar on Brač, I am reading in "Slobodna Dalmacija" a great text by probably the best Croatian theater critic Tomislav Čadež. He writes about the play Stories from the ferry which in those days was premiered on the ferry "Oliver" named after Oliver Dragojević, the late singer who became a symbol of Dalmatia, and says that the main problem of the play is that it is played on - a ferry. A few days later, the performance of this show was interrupted, not because of the acoustics and heat mentioned by Čadež, but because of the tragedy that happened on Mali Lošinj when the ferry ramp fell on three sailors of "Jadrolinija" and killed them. Stories from the ferry they suddenly took on a completely different meaning.
Our story on the ferry did not last long, in less than an hour we arrived from the port of Split to Supetar. Although the Uber app shows you that this service exists and tells you the price, the transport will probably never come because there are only a few of their drivers on the island itself. In the end, however, in about fifteen minutes we arrive at the hotel in Postira, from whose beach you can see Split in the distance.
Today, Postira is a picturesque fishing village and port, known for its clear sea, sandy bay full of ruins and ancient finds, small stone houses and delicious local food prepared from fresh fish and horned cattle raised on pastures. It is interesting that Postira is one of the few places in Croatia, and probably in the entire region, which in the past hundred years has hardly changed at all in the number or national structure of its inhabitants. From 1910, when there were 1.402 of them, to the last census in 2021, which records 1.431 inhabitants of this place. Croats made up more than 90 percent of the population in that entire period.
We had dinner on the terrace of the "Gustirna" tavern, whose name actually means "water tank", which is logical since its interior once upon a time had exactly that purpose. Here we ate one of the tastiest meals this summer, which was far below the average Belgrade or Novi Sad restaurant prices.
photo: Robert ChobanNazor's house
Above the tavern is a staircase that leads to the entrance to Vladimir Nazor's birthplace. There is also a plaque with a simple inscription: "To the great poet, fighter and the first president of the Presidium of the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia Vladimir Nazor, born in this house in 1876, the inhabitants of Postira raised it in 1951 as a sign of recognition." As we eat pashticada made from domestic cattle raised in the surrounding pastures, at least that's what the friendly wife of the owner of Gospodnetić tells us, and we wash it down with strong local Dalmatian red wine, I read about the turbulent biography of a man who was born a few meters away.
Here is one of the most dramatic and perhaps less well-known episodes: "In 1942, with the poet Ivan Goran Kovačić, he went to the partisans via Kupa, which was even reported by Radio London. According to the claims of the writer Nedjeljko Mihanović, who recounts the testimony of the poet's sister, Nazor was, in fact, kidnapped. Namely, he did not announce his departure to her, and her neighbor told her that he had been 'circling' announcing that the partisans had kidnapped Nazor. The same Ustasha propaganda announced at the end of 1944 that Nazor had been shot. The veracity of Mihanović's claim that Nazor was tricked into the forest by the partisans is best denied by the writer himself in the text "Fleeing from Zagreb", where he writes about his and Goran's desire to immediately join the partisans: "I escaped from slavery and the shame of the so-called Independent State of Croatia, to I breathe freedom here and imbue myself with a sense of national honor and human dignity... May every Dalmatian mountain be transformed into a partisan fortress, every bay of ours into a pirate's nest against the hijackers of our sea, each of our islands in a gorge against which the predatory occupier's ship will crash!', reads Nazor's handwritten message titled 'We give birth to Croatia that was defiled by traitors and slackers' written somewhere in Herzegovina, in March 1943." This is why it seems unjustified to remove Nazor's name from the boards of many streets and schools in Serbia, especially in Vojvodina, from 1991 until today.
Another biography deviates even more from the atmosphere of a romantic seaside town. A plaque on the old stone house in Postire says that Juraj Gospodnetić (the most common surname in the place) was born there in 1910, who was appointed pastor of Bosanski Grahov in 1939. In the summer of 1941, after Glamoč belonged to the NDH, local Chetniks invaded the town, caught him, led him tied up through the streets and finally brutally killed him on July 27, 1941, and his grave is unknown. Six days later, on Ilindan, the Ustashas retake the place and massacre 80 local Serbs. In 2014, the Vatican initiated the beatification process of four priests of the Banja Luka diocese who were killed during World War II, among them Jurje Gospodnetić.
While we are returning from dinner, I receive a message from Ninoslav Pavić, an old friend, once also a fierce competitor in the magazine market of the region. Pavić, whose grandfather was a Greek-Catholic priest in Novi Sad, regularly follows my travelogues from various villages of Vojvodina, especially those concerning this small but harmonious religious community, to which mostly local Rusyns and Ukrainians belong. Nino and his wife Daniela spend their summers in a house not far from Milna where we joined them for lunch on the last day. I bring him the daily press that I bought that morning at the kiosk in Postire, he only takes "Večernji list" and "24 sata", he refuses to "touch" the newspapers that once belonged to him, and today are in the hands of the family of his former lawyer Marijan Hanžeković: "My hand would dry up!", he says with a smile.
Let's move on from difficult topics to what is regularly discussed at lunches and dinners in Dalmatia in the summer season, it is written in the newspaper: what is happening with Croatian tourism. In this year's season in Croatia, a worrying trend has come to the fore: although the number of tourists has decreased, the offer of accommodation has continued to increase and every year around 25.000 new beds are added in private accommodation as many house owners try to profit from tourism. It sounds familiar and we see an almost identical trend in Montenegro, on Kopaonik and Zlatibor, for example.
photo: Robert ChobanPetrified school of fish
During the 2024 season, the entire Croatian tourism sector, especially gastronomy along the Adriatic coast, experienced a significant drop in the number of visitors. Compared to July 2023, about 150.000 fewer tourists were counted, which was clearly felt by Croatian restaurants as well. Many restaurant owners report an average drop in sales of 20 percent, in Istria even up to 30 percent, and on islands like Brač up to 50 percent. In many restaurants on the coast that we regularly visit during the summer, from Rovinj in the north to Hvar and Dubrovnik in the south, we hear similar stories from the waiters: "Since I've been working here, it's never been a worse season!", a waiter from Novi Sad who nine years working in one of the most famous restaurants in Rovinj.
There are many reasons for this state of affairs: the high prices of accommodation and food in Croatia, which are increasingly being reported by the European media; European football championship, which diverted part of the guests from Germany but also from other countries; The Olympic Games in Paris, as well as very favorable last minute offers in many exotic destinations...
We'll see if Croatian hoteliers and restaurant owners will come to their senses by next summer - lower the prices and, like Mrs. Gospodnetić in the "Gustirna" tavern, spread a friendly smile when meeting guests.
