Pelješac (;

Chakavian Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , sh-Latn, čakavski proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmat ...

: ; it, Sabbioncello) is a peninsula in southern Dalmatia in

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. The peninsula is part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and is the second largest peninsula in Croatia. From the isthmus that begins at

Ston Ston () is a settlement and a municipality in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia, located at the south of isthmus of the Pelješac peninsula. History Because of its geopolitical and strategic position, Ston has had a rich history since ant ...

, to the top of Cape Lovišta, it is long.

Etymology

The name ''Pelješac'' is most likely derived from the name of a hill above town of Orebić, which is Pelisac. This is a relatively new name for the peninsula. Throughout history other names have been used, such as ''Stonski Rat'', ''Puncta Stagni'', ''Ponta di Stagno''. and ''Sabbioncello''.

Geography

The Bay of Mali Ston separates the peninsula from the Klek peninsula of

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

and from the Croatian "mainland". The Strait of Pelješac is located at its far western end, and it divides the peninsula from the island of

Korčula Korčula (, it, Curzola) is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea. It has an area of , is long and on average wide, and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 15,522 inhabitants (2011) make it the second most populous Adriatic island after ...

. In the western part of the peninsula is the highest summit of Pelješac, the Zmijino brdo mountain (lit. Snake's Hill) with the peak Sveti Ilija at .

Municipalities

Administratively the peninsula is divided into the municipalities of: * Orebić in the western part, with 4,165 inhabitants (2001) * Trpanj in the northwest, with 871 people * Janjina in the center, 593 people *

in the east, with 2,605 residents

History

Prehistory

The best known archeological site on the peninsula is

Nakovana Nakovanj or Nakovana () is a village located in the west of the Pelješac peninsula in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, on the inland part of the peninsula, by the road connecting Viganj and Lovište Lovište or Lovišće is small seaside town located i ...

, which has preserved artifacts indicating continuous human settlement over several millennia. The earliest known historic records of Pelješac are from

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...

. The area became part of the

Roman province of Dalmatia Dalmatia was a Roman province. Its name is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae, which lived in the central area of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It encompassed the northern part of present-day Albania, much of C ...

after the

Illyrian Wars The Illyro-Roman Wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Ardiaei kingdom. In the ''First Illyrian War'', which lasted from 229 BC to 228 BC, Rome's concern was that the trade across the Adriatic Sea increased after the ...

(220 BC to 219 BC.). Roman migration soon followed.

Medieval history

In the 6th century Pelješac came under

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

rule. Upon the arrival of the Slavs, the area from the Neretva river to Rijeka Dubrovačka, and from the northern Herzegovina mountains to the Adriatic coast, new socio-political entities had been established, namely ''Neretva'', ''Primorje, Travunija'' and ''Zahumlje'', and ruled by newly risen local nobility.

with ''Rat'' (then the name for the Pelješac peninsula) and

Mljet Mljet (; la, Melita, it, Meleda) 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 be ...

were under the rule of one of these

principalities A principality (or sometimes princedom) can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under ...

, namely under the knyazs of ''Zahumlje''. These local rulers acknowledged the supremacy of Byzantium. After Mihajlo Višević, who acknowledged the authority of Bulgarian emperor

Simeon Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, so ...

, Zahumlje was ruled over by different dynasties. Around 950, it was briefly ruled by Duke Časlav. At the end of the 10th century, Samuilo was the Lord of Zahumlje, and the dukedom belonged to king Ivan Vladimir. In 1168, the Dukedom and Zahumlje were conquered by Raški major prefect Stevan Nemanja. Thirty years later, Zahumlje was invaded by Andrija, the Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. In 1254,

Béla IV of Hungary Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group of influential noblemen in his fath ...

invaded Bosnia and Zahumlje. From 1304, Zahumlje was ruled by Mladen Šubić, then again for a short period by local

župan Župan is a noble and administrative title used in several states in Central and Southeastern Europe between the 7th century and the 21st century. It was (and in Croatia still is) the leader of the administrative unit župa (or zhupa, županij ...

, and from 1325 by Stjepan II Kotromanić.

Republic of Ragusa hr, Sloboda se ne prodaje za sve zlato svijeta it, La libertà non si vende nemmeno per tutto l'oro del mondo"Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world" , population_estimate = 90 000 in the XVI Century , currency = ...

(Dubrovnik), acquired it from Bosnian rulers in several purchases over several decades, first in 1333 and then on 15 January 1399. King Tvrtko II confirmed purchase of the '' Bosansko Primorje'' to Dubrovnik on 24 June 1405. The old Ston was located on the slopes of the hills of Gorica and St. Michael, south of the Ston field. There were several early Christian churches there, the largest of which was St. Stephen's Church. The bishopric church of Mary Magdalene stood until it was bombed by the Allies in 1944. The only church that still remains is the church of St. Michael, built in the middle of the late antique castrum. The original old town was demolished in the earthquake of 1252. With the arrival of the Republic, a new city was built on today's location. When renovations were made at the church of St. Michael at the top of the hill, fragments of Roman decorative plaster, Roman tombstones and antique ceramics were found, confirming this assumption. According to some sources, Ston experienced a destructive civil war in 1250, and in these conflicts the city suffered a great deal of destruction. The turbulent times at the beginning of the 14th century spread across the entire country of Zahumlje. The usurpation by the Branivojević brothers, forced the people of Dubrovnik to fight them in 1326 with the help of Stjepan II Kotromanić. That year, people from Dubrovnik settled Ston, and immediately began to invest and rebuild, and established a new Ston to defend the Pelješac and protect the slaves from which they had earned big revenue. Since the conflict between the Ban in Bosnia and Serbian king, the Dubrovniks purchased Pelješac with Ston from both rulers in 1333.

Modern history

At the end of the 12th century Orthodoxy appeared in the Peljesac area, at the same time Catholic bishop is expelled from

. Since the end of the 14th century Orthodox priests are no longer on Pelješac. When the Pelješac peninsula came under rule of Dubrovnik, since 1333 Catholic population predominantly live in this area, with Orthodox Christians and

Bogomils Bogomilism ( Bulgarian and Macedonian: ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", bogumilstvo, богумилство) was a Christian neo-Gnostic or dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar P ...

present. The

Walls of Ston The Walls of Ston ( hr, Stonske zidine) are a series of defensive stone walls, originally more than long, that surrounded and protected the city of Ston, in Dalmatia, part of the Republic of Ragusa, in what is now southern Croatia. Their constru ...

are large fortifications built by the

. They are the second longest walls in Europe. Ston also has one of the oldest salt planes in this part of the world. The French Empire occupied the region in 1806, abolishing the old Republic, and in 1808 turned it into the Illyrian Provinces. In 1815 it was given to the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

and since 1867 became part of the Cisleithania of the Dual Monarchy of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. Between 1918 and 1941 it was a part Kingdom of Yugoslavia and from 1945 it was part of Socialistic Republic of Croatia within Socialistic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. From 1991 it is part of Republic of Croatia.

Transport

The D414 road is the longest state road on the peninsula, connecting all municipalities, together with D415 towards Trpanj and D416 towards Prapratno, with county roads in turn connecting

Lovište Lovište or Lovišće is small seaside town located in a cove near the western tip of the Pelješac peninsula in the Dubrovnik-Neretva county in Croatia. It has a population of 228. As it is situated at the very end of the peninsula, it was isol ...

, Žuljana and Hodilje, and a number of local roads to the more remote villages. The

Pelješac Bridge The Pelješac Bridge ( hr, Pelješki most, ) is a cable-stayed bridge in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Croatia. The bridge provides a fixed link from the southeastern Croatian semi-exclave to the rest of the country while bypassing Bosnia and Herzeg ...

located near Brijesta connects the peninsula to the mainland near

Komarna Komarna is a village in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, in the municipality of Slivno; population 167 (2011). It is located near the larger village of Klek. The village is south of the Neretva Delta, 70 km north of Dubrovnik on the coast of M ...

, and through it connects the southern semi-exclave of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County with the rest of the country via its territorial waters. It bypasses the narrow strip of coastline at

Neum Neum ( cyrl, Неум, ) is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the only town to be situated along the Bosnia and Herzegovina's coastline, m ...

that grants

sea access. There are car ferry routes connecting Trpanj to

Ploče Ploče (; it, Porto Tolero) is a town and seaport in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. Geography Ploče is located on the Adriatic coast in Dalmatia just north of the Neretva Delta and is the natural seaside endpoint of most north-south ...

on the mainland, Orebić to

on the eponymous island, and Prapratno to Sobra on Mljet.

References

External links

*http://www.peljesac.info/indexhr.htm *http://www.peljesac.org/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Peljesac Peninsulas of Croatia Landforms of Dubrovnik-Neretva County Adriatic Sea