Košljun is a relatively small island in Puntarska Draga bay off the coast of

Krk Krk (; ; ; ; archaic German: ''Vegl'', ; ) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of Primorje-Gorski Kotar county. Krk is tied with Cres as the largest Adriatic island, depending o ...

, facing

Punat Punat is a municipality in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in western Croatia on the island of Krk. The municipality has a population of 1,900, with 90% Croats (2021 Croatian census, 2021). With Stara Baška being the only other settlement in th ...

, in the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. It is approximately 300 meters in diameter and covers an area of 6.5 hectares and is rich in vegetation. The only inhabitants are a group of

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

friars living in St. Mary's Monastery.

History

The earliest known settlement on Košljun was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

rustica belonging to a landowner of the Roman settlement on Curicum (). The next solid evidence of inhabitation is a written record from 1186 implying the existence of a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

built on its foundations. This was abandoned in 1447, and the

Frankopans The House of Frankopan (, , , ) was a Croats, Croatian Nobility, noble family, whose members were among the great landowner magnates and high officers of the Croatia in union with Hungary, Kingdom of Croatia in union with Hungary. The Frankopan ...

moved in Franciscans in their place. The present church was built by the Franciscans in 1480.Radovan Radovinovič, ''The Croatian Adriatic'', pg. 118, Zagreb (1999), The Benedictines remained on the island until the 15th century. After the death of the abbot Dominik, a Venetian priest held the title of

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of Košljun, and the island was abandoned. A pair of Franciscan friars complained to the

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

that the monastery was sitting empty. At their request, the Benedictine monastery was abolished and the island of Košljun given to the Franciscans, whose monastery remains today.

The collections

Near the jetty, one can find a statue of St. Francis with a wolf, a common iconographic motif for this saint. In addition to the statue, there is a text written in

Glagolitic The Glagolitic script ( , , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed that it was created in the 9th century for the purpose of translating liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic by Saints Cyril and Methodi ...

, located over the main entrance to the monastery, called, ''"Mir i Dobro"'' (peace and well-being), which is also dedicated to St. Francis. In the monastery, there is an ethnographic collection, including articles used by farmers and fishermen on Krk from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. There is also a permanent exhibition of church artifacts housed in the old Benedictine church from the 12th century. As well as old masters ( G. da Santacroce, F. Ughetto, Medulić and E. Jurič), the collection also includes works by more recent Croatian artists and sculptors such as: Dulčić, Bulić, Radauš,

Orlić Orlić is a Serbo-Croatian surname, derived from the word ''orao'', meaning "eagle". It may refer to: * Mila Orlić, Croatian historian and co-author of Boris PahorKršinić. The monastery owns a rich library of some 15,000 books, which contains a Jewish Bible from the 11th century, Glagolitic sermons, and Ptolemy's Atlas, printed in Venice in 1511.

Notes

*''Košljun: Spirituality, Culture, Nature'' by Cedomir Miler, trans. Janet Tuškan.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosljun Islets of Croatia Islands of the Adriatic Sea Landforms of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Krk

History

The collections

Notes

References

Further reading

External links