Croatia Sailing Trip | Part 4 | Mljet Island - National Park

Sailing Croatia Islands and visiting its major large cities, Our third stop was in Mljet Island and its national park where Saint Mary's island exist inside the national park with awesome pure beauty of all the neat surroundings, more info:

Mljet is the southernmost and easternmost of the larger Adriatic islands of the Dalmatia region of Croatia. The National Park includes the western part of the island, Veliko jezero, Malo jezero, Soline Bay and a sea belt 500 m wide from the most prominent cape of Mljet covering an area of 54 km2. The central parts of the park are Veliko jezero with the Isle of St. Mary, Malo jezero and the villages of Goveđari, Polače and Pomena.

Mljet was discovered by ancient Greco-Roman geographers, who wrote the first records and descriptions. The island was first described by Scylax of Caryanda in the 6th century BC, it is named Melite and supported by Apollonius of Rhodes. Agathemerus and Pliny the Elder call the island Melita.
Agesilaus of Anaxarba in Cilicia, the father of Oppian, was banished to Mljet by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus


Monastery of Saint Mary
Mljet is mentioned around 950 by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos in his Of Ruling an Empire as one of the islands held by the Narentines. The island was often a controversy of ownership between them and Zachlumia until the stronger unifications of the Serbian realm in the 12th century. Ancient Greeks called the island "Melita" or "honey" which over the centuries evolved to become the Slavic name, Mljet.
Mljet has been regarded as the "Melita" on which Saint Paul was shipwrecked, this view being first expounded in the 10th century, by Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Saint Paul's shipwreck is generally placed on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Mljet and Malta had the same name in the Greek and Roman sources; the mention of a viper in was thought to be in favour of Mljet (but there are snakes on both Mljet and Malta). A harbour named after the Saint exists on both islands.
The Benedictines from Pulsano in Apulia became the feudal lords of the island in 1151, having come from Monte Gargano in Italy. They came ashore in the Sutmiholjska cove and in 1187–1198 the Serbian Prince Desa of the House of Vojislavljević built and donated to them the Church and Monastery of Saint Mary on the islet in the Big Lake (Veliko Jezero) towards the north-west end of the island. Pope Innocent III issued a document consecrating the church in 1198.
In the 16th century, the monastery was the center of the Mljet Congregation (Congregatio Melitensis or Melitana), gathering all the monasteries of Benedictine monks in the area of the Republic of Ragusa. The first president of the Congregation was Mavro Vetranović, the abbot of the Mljet monastery and the famous poet. Another great poet was abbot there—Ignjat Đurđević in the 18th century. As time went by, the Benedictine monastery on Mljet lost its importance, while the seat of the Mljet Congregation moved to Sveti Jakov near Ragusa.
In 1809, during the rule of Napoleon, the Mljet monastery was disbanded. When Austria took over the island, it placed the forestry office in the building. Between the world wars, the building was owned by the Ragusa (Dubrovnik) Bishopric. In 1960 it became a hotel, and in 1998 it was returned to the bishopric. The island has a long history of eco-damage. In order to ease their transport problems, the monks dug a channel to the south coast, from the lake Veliko Jezero, thus turning both fresh-water lakes into seawater-based ones.

Thanks for watching, stay tuned for more !

Any copying or downloading and republishing of our video’s or part of any of them on any social media or other broadcast platform, will be reported and removed, only sharing the video link is allowed. Thanks for understanding

Be the first to know about future uploads and other interesting announcements from us by joining our mailing list here https://cnk-hobbies.mailchimpsites.com/


#mljet
#croatia