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Local Legends, Myths and Beliefs
Paul and the Martyrs
There is a legend that "When Paul was
patriarch of Aquileia the priest Geminianus was told in a vision to go
to the destroyed city of Trieste to find the bodies of 42 martyrs buried
between the wall of the church dedicated to them and the city wall.
Going thither with many other Venetians he found the holy bodies in the
specified place, covered over with marble slabs, and, taking them, went
to the destroyed city of Aquileia, where he added to the relics the
bodies of Cantius, Cantianus, Cantianilla, and the virgins Euphemia,
Dorothea, Thecla, and Erasma, and then took them all to Grado.'' Paul is
Paulinus I. (557-569), and the occurrence took place after the Lombards
had gone by in 568. The forty-two martyrs were laid side by side in the
church of S. Vitale, and Paul died the next year.
Source:
- The Shores of the Adriatic, The
Austrian Side - The Küstenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia by Frederick
H. Jackson (London, 1908), Chapter 4, Grado.
The Beautiful Countess of Veprinac
 Once upon a time,
Countess Anna Stell dwelled in Veprinac castle, on the very spot where
the church lies today. There was a small chapel in front of the castle.
This noble lady had a very good nature and was also very beautiful. She
gladly offered help, but preferred praise of her beauty to a usual
thanksgiving. If someone told her ' thanks for your good heart', she
would give him a coin, but if one - enchanted with her beauty - told
her, instead of thanking - 'your beauty equals that of Madonnà, she
would give him two coins. Countess Anna was very vain about her looks,
so she didn't even want to bear children, in fear of loosing her
appearance. She feared even to think of the fact that when she grows old
and ugly, no-one would remember her beauty.
And what did she think of? From Venice,
she summoned the best sculptor of the time and commissioned a statue of
Our Lady sculpted to her very own appearance. The sculptor said, 'All
right milady, but after whom will I carve Jesus Christ? Maybe after your
son?'
The Countess answered to the artists:
'No, I will be Madonna without a child'. And so, the sculptor created a
statue without a child. No-one saw such a statue before and everyone
thought it was a sinful act.
When the statue was finished, Countess
Anna set it on the shrine of the small chapel, thinking that everyone
who comes to adore Madonna will in fact admire her own figure. She knew
it was a sin, but since she did lots of good deeds and helped the poor,
she believed God would forgive her.
When the Countess was on her deathbed,
she composed a will, assigning all of her possessions to the project of
building a great church, much more beautiful than the already existing
chapel. It was understood that the main altar of the future church would
have Madonnàs statue on it with the Countess's appearance.
After many years, when the castle finally
collapsed and when people could start building the new church on the
very same spot, workers went ahead with taking off the statue of Madonna
from the chapel alter and at that very moment, ropes holding the statue
snapped. The statue fell down and broke into thousands of pieces.
Thus, even today people remember the good
Countess Stell that willed her money for the church, but no-one can
remember how she looked. Someonès goodness always counts more than his
or her outward appearance, because beauty is transitory, while goodness
performs great deeds.
Source:
- Dragan Ogurlic, Littoral Fairy
Tales and Stories - https://www.ogurlic.com/work/fairy_tales.shtml
(no longer online)
The Story
of Moro
[also known as the legend of the Moretti]
 Long
ago, in the battle of Grobnik Plain in 1242, Tatars were destroyed,
loosing an entire army of 30,000 people lead by the notorious army
leader Buchuk Batukan, grandson of the legendary Genghis Khan. They were
beaten by units from all the corners of Croatia, and so natives could be
at peace, until the new danger from the east started advancing. From the
end of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century, people were in
constant terror of the Turkish force.
During the last advances by the Turkish
army towards the Croatian Littoral around 1600, Uskok pirates of Senj
often used to tell inhabitants of Rijeka about their fierce battles with
Osmanli soldiers. News spread of what the Turks did in Lika, and fear
began to reign when it leaked out that they raided the county of Gorski
Kotar, the mountainous district at the back of Rijeka. Panic caught hold
of Rijeka and its' environs when the powerful Turkish Army raised camp
in the nearby Grobnik Plain. During the siege, inhabitants of Rijeka
looked toward Heaven and prayed St Michael to release rain of stone on
the Turks.
In these fatal days in 1601, the Croatian
nobleman Zrinski stood on his Gradina Castle near Jelenje, above Grobnik
Field and observed the Turkish army preparing for the final onslaught.
He looked and was upset, because he knew his handful of brave men would
be obliterated, when the swift Muslim Cavalry comes at them. In the
meantime, the Turks raided the whole of Grobnik Plain, its churches and
villages. Barbarians drunk wine from the sacred chalices, and held their
horses inside the churches. In the middle of the camp, sat a Turkish
pasha and smoked his giant pipe, which was steaming like a factory
chimney. The poor people escaped in all directions and the Grobnik
mountains were full of them. People had no arms except for slingshots
and catapults at the best. On the top of the Grobnik mountain Obruc, two
brothers sat, both with their slingshots. Looking on the Plain, where
Turks and pasha dwelled, one brother said to the other:
- Brother, where shall I shoot him? -
thinking of pasha.
- In the eye! - came the answer.
Upon hearing this, the brother who was
the more skilled shooter, shot his rock from a slingshot and pasha fell
down dead, in the midst of Grobnik plain. When Turkish soldiers lost
their leader, they fled, without thought of return. During their escape,
heaven granted prayers of the local people and showered rain of burning
stones, that buried the Turks on that very Grobnik plain, leaving only
their turbans above.
As a memory of this event, the goldsmiths
of Rijeka, called moorettists, created earrings with a figure of the
Negro with a Muslim turban on his head. These earrings represented
Turks, and were named Moorettes or Moros (coming from the word Maurus,
meaning Arabs). These earrings were widely accepted among Rijeka ladies
and also by women from the city's environs. The goldsmiths made only
earrings at first, but later they started to produce other jewellery;
rings, bracelets and necklaces, brooches and hairpins, all adorned with
the figure of either female or male Moro.
This is the story of MORO that became a part of the traditional
jewellery of this region, reminding everyone of that fatal day when
'rain of stone showered from Heaven'.
Also see:
Crafts and Trades -
Personal
Ornaments and Jewelry
Source:
- Dragan Ogurlic, Littoral Fairy
Tales and Stories - https://www.ogurlic.com/work/fairy_tales.shtml
(no longer online)
Why the Bora is Healthy
 In
the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Kraljevica near Rijeka,
invested all its efforts in order to become a renowned climatic
sanatorium. At that time, Mika Kosic, M.D., published a booklet
describing all the benefits of the Kraljevica climate. There was nothing
strange with such a fact, because lots of our towns and cities of that
time were proud of different tourist publications, if Doctor Kosic did
not attempt to foist on tourist our most unpleasant wind, Bora.
This physician, born in the continental
town of Samobor near Zagreb says that the
Bora has a
healing effect on our bodies. Inhabitants of the littoral area consider
the Bora to be a real benefaction to their health. This wind's influence
disables the gathering of carbonic acid between our body and our
clothes. Further on, when we fight against it, walking outside, almost
all of our body's muscles are engaged, which produces significant heat.
Dr Kosic claims that this effort strengthens muscles and toughens skin.
After a walk in the Bora, we excrete the mucus from our respiratory
system with a certain unusual ease. And the heart is bound to perform
more vigorously after each walk in such a wind.
Exposure to the Bora is also obvious,
says Kosic, in activities of the stomach, because previously unperceived
hunger demands a make up of the lost energy. Summit of the Boràs
benefits is certainly a long and peaceful sleep.
Lots of wind prevents the gathering and
multiplying of micro-organisms. And what to tell about men and women of
this region? Kosic thinks of them as the symbol of longevity, especially
when it comes to women. The littoral area does not have many diseases,
because the Bora carries them away before they even start 'plundering'.
This sanatorium physician concludes that, no doubt, in the near future
we will witness the Bora becoming acknowledged as a medicinal means,
despite those who wanted to defame the littoral area on the same basis.
See also:
Source:
- Dragan Ogurlic, Littoral Fairy
Tales and Stories - https://www.ogurlic.com/work/fairy_tales.shtml
(no longer online)
La corona dei re d'Istria
[C'è una parte del testo
del Almanacco regional Benforad di Vittorio Furlani, Venezia Giulia
(1920) che riguarda una escursione a Porto Badò, che fu il porto
dell'antica Nesazio, la leggendaria capitale di re Epulo. Si fa
riferimento a presunti tesori trovati sul posto da contadini, prima
degli scavi ufficiali. Viene riportato il seguente racconto tratto da un
libro di G. Stadner e A. Stefani:
Novi schizzi dall'Adria*. Pietro Valente]*
"Nella seconda metà del secolo
decimottavo, a quattro chilometri a ponente della Valle dell'Arsa,
viveva il contadino Bellavich, padrone di una masseria. Era ricco, e la
gente andava sussurrando che egli doveva la sua fortuna a un tesoro
trovato sotterra. Il Bellavich aveva certa generosità che manifestava
con banchetti in onore del suo amico, il notaio Capponi di Barbana. Una
volta non pago del solo convito, uscì brillo dalla sua stanza, avvolto
in mantello regale, cinto il capo d'una corona e con lo scettro in mano,
rivelando così al suo ospite una parte della ricchezze scoperte.
Interrogato d'onde provenisse tanto tesoro, gli sfuggì di bocca: dal
Mulino di Valle Blas presso il canale dell'Arsa. Indi, ritiratosi in una
stanza attigua, depose quegli indumenti; da allora in poi nessuno più
vide le insegne regali dell'Istria. Non s'ha difficoltà a spiegare come
il Bellavich non lasciasse più vedere il tesoro, quando si rifletta che
allora le leggi venete confiscavano a favore dello Stato gli oggetti di
valore trovati e punivano severamente chi li nascondesse. L'astuto
villico aveva, quindi, ogni ragione per eludere le incalzanti domande
del notaio, per negare tutto, e far credere che il suo ospite avesse
visto la corona e il resto tra i fumi del vino."
Tratto da:
- Vittorio Furlani, Venezia Giulia
(1920). Almanacchi regionali Benforad per i ragazzi.
The Legend of Baredine Cave
BAREDINE cave, near Poreč-Parenzo has a
love story going back to the 13th century. If one should believe a
legend, a Poreč nobleman named Gabriel fell in love with a beautiful
milkmaid from Nova Vas called Milka. Gabriel's mother tried, in every
way, to diminish his love for her, but she couldn't, so she gave three
gold pieces to highway robbers to secretly kill Milka.
The robbers did not kill the milkmaid but
instead threw her into the cave. When Gabriel found out of his lovès ill
fortune, he got on a horse and disappeared. Only his horse was found but
near another cave. The story has it that the stone body of the milkmaid
is slowly skidding, from century to century, down to the bottom of the
cave where we can see it now as it is seeking her lover. Today's cavers
claim that one could pass through to the next cave by digging. So as our
legend has it, we can assume that one day the bodies of our Romeo and
Juliet will meet in the underworld and stay together forever.
Source:
-
https://istra.com/baredine/index.html
La leggenda da San
Lorenzo del Pasenatico
A San Lorenzo iera un veceto de nome Barba Piereto e lu al contava (a lu
ghe iera sta contà de suo nono) che, nel' antichità, al Canal de Leme al iera
'sai più curto. Un giorno, però, l'aqua del mar, che xe in sto canal, la ga
scuminzià alzarse sempre più e cussì, vegnuda avanti, la coverseva la «Draga»:
una tera 'sai bona, dove cresseva patate, fasioi, formenton e capuzi, anca se
pioveva poco.
San Martin, che 'l stava sul monte, al vedeva vegnir sempre più avanti al
mar, ma al se rassegnava al dano chè l fazeva, parché al pensava che iera
destin de Dio che fussi cussì. Ma pò, co 'l se ga visto al mar soto al
monte, tutintun ghe xe vegnù al pensier che bisognava far qualcossa, che sto
mar no vadi 'vanti. Alora, con un gran desiderio de esser esaudido, al ga
rivolto a Dio una preghiera piena de fede, pò, cun tuta forza, al ga butà zo
'l baston, che al portava senpre cun sé, zigandoghe al mar: Fermite!
E giusto là, soto al monte, che par questo al se ciama de San Martin, al mar
se ga fermà e, ancora agi, al xe fermo là.
Tratto da:
- Giuseppe Radole, Folclore Istriano, MGS Press (Trieste, 1997), p.
152-3.
Sardelle, sgombri, lanzarde e...
nascituri
Una delle più belle leggende che riguarda i lauranesi
Si racconta che in un tardo pomeriggio due pescatori
scendessero al mare per andare a pescare. Arrivati in porto, prepararono la
barca e, una volta al largo, aspettarono il buio e poi accesero la lampara.
Ed ecco subito la luce intensa attirare le sardelle: una, due, dieci, cento,
un migliaio! Era tutto un luccichio. E, dietro alle sardelle, ecco arrivare
anche dei begli sgombri che guizzarono veloci. E poi delle lanzarde! Erano
già le dieci di sera. Soddisfatti i due pescatori stavano per gettare le
reti quando, lontano lontano, sulla riva, intesero degli acuti lamenti di
una donna:
- Aiuto, aiuto! Gente
sono sola, aiutatemi, vi prego aiutatemi!...
Uno di loro esclamò:
- Al diavolo anche le
sardelle, gli sgombri e le lanzarde! Dobbiamo accorrere, aiutare chi
ha bisogno!
Immediatamente si
misero a pigiare sui remi, giù e giù, la prua diretta verso il luogo
dal quale arrivavano le grida. Così dopo un po’ arrivarono in una
piccola insenatura quasi sotto Moschiena. Nel buio, sulla riva,
videro una casetta, un lumicino a una finestra. Pronti approdarono,
legarono la barca a uno scoglio, staccarono la lampara e con quella
luce in mano accorsero. Erano le grida di una povera donna che stava
partorendo.
I due, voglia o non
voglia, dovettero improvvisarsi levatrici. Veramente uno reggeva la
lampara e l’altro aiutava la donna. Ed ecco, senza tante difficoltà,
nascere un bel bimbetto. Ma non finì qui! Altri lamenti della donna
e sotto la luce della lampara ecco nascere un secondo bambino. Poi
ancora lamenti e, incredibile a dirsi, ne spunta un terzo!
A questo punto il
pescatore che aiutava la donna, rivolto a quello che reggeva la
lampara disse:
- Spegni, spegni
quella luce, perché qui vengono avanti come se fossero lanzarde,
sgombri e sardelle!
Tratto da:
- © La Voce del Popolo, 27
ottobre 2007 -
https://www.edit.hr/lavoce/2007/071027/speciale.htm
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