Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31953/sz.44.1.9
FRAGMENTS FROM THE ECCLESIAL AND LAY HISTORY OF PODGORJE IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES
ŽELJKO HOLJEVAC
Abstract
On the basis of available sources and selected literature, the author presents some information
and insights about the insufficiently researched ecclesial and lay past of Podgorje in the modern and
contemporary period. Until demilitarisation in 1873 and the return of the Military Frontier under
the administration of the ban in 1881 Podgorje was divided between the Smiljan company in the
Lika and the Sveti Juraj company in the Otok regiment. Only Karlobag was a military community,
a ‘castellanat’ and free port. From 1809 to 1813 Podgorje was under French rule within Military
Croatia as part of the Illyrian Provinces, and then again under Austrian (Habsburg) rule. The local
people were Croats, mostly Catholics and speakers of Štokavian. They were poor peasants who
during the Military Frontier period also served military service. They cultivated the poor land, bred
cattle on the slopes of Velebit, made clothes and simple footwear, cut trees for masts, fished, begged
and were rarely involved in any small business. Inhabitants along the sea dressed "po gradsku" ("in
the town style"), whilst those in the hills "po bunjevačku" ("like the Bunjevci"), as Podgorje priests
wrote in 1850. Between the two world wars, the majority of the people of Podgorje still lived the
established pastoral life according to the ways that were passed from generation to generation.
Always in need, more hungry than full, they lacked drinking water, e.g. in Cesarica in 1937 there
was one well for the one thousand inhabitants. The developmental lagging behind of Podgorje
during the time of the monarchical Yugoslavia continued after the ordeals of the Second World War
through the stagnation of the place during socialist Yugoslavia. The completion of the construction
of the Adriatic highway – the magistrale – in 1965 helped the development of tourism, particularly
in Karlobag which gained a motel and ferry dock, however the lack of drinking water, the dumping
of rubbish into the sea, the illegal construction of buildings and other problems hindered this
development. At the same time political life was under the monopoly of the party, the Catholic
Church was separate from the state and socially marginalised, and the emigration of people and
the fall in the birth rate took on cataclysmic dimensions. Under such conditions Podgorje faced the
Homeland War and the state independence of the Republic of Croatia.
Keywords
Podgorje; Catholic Church; people’s life; 19th century; 20th century
Hrčak ID:
191638
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2017.
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