Background
Korčula was once covered with dense pine forest, leading the ancient Greeks to call it Kerkyra Melaina (Black Corfu). In fact, it had been inhabited in Neolithic times, as early as 6500 BC, as finds from Vela Spilja (Big Cave) in Vela Luka prove. The first Greeks to arrive were from Cnidos (on the Aegean coast in present-day southwest Turkey), and it seems they lived in relative peace with the local Illyrian tribes, neither attempting to conquer nor assimilate them, but sharing land rights with them, as recorded by a stone inscription from the fourth century BC found in Lumbarda.
Between the 10th and 18th centuries the island came under Venice several times, and with arch-rivals the Republic of Dubrovnik and the Ottoman Empire in close proximity, La Serenissima did all it could to fortify and defend its main base here, the tiny yet culturally advanced Korčula Town. During the 13th century, the legendary Venetian explorer, Marco Polo, made history with his epic journeys through the Orient. Historians are undecided as to where he originated from, but many believe he was born in Korčula Town, and an old stone building open to the public is said to have been his family home. Other attractions include a medieval sword dance (known as the Moreška in Korčula Town and the Kumpanjija in Blato), which is performed regularly through summer for tourists, plus a selection of excellent local white wines, Grk from Lumbarda and Pošip from the inland villages of Smokvica and Čara.
Finally, there is an interesting British connection. Fitzroy Maclean of Dunconnel (1911-1996), the Scottish politician, soldier, adventurer and writer, had a house in Korčula Town, the only property owned by a foreigner in former Yugoslavia. During the Second World War, as a member of the SAS, Maclean was parachuted into various parts of Dalmatia and Bosnia, and acted as Churchill’s personal envoy at meetings between Tito (then head of the partisan movement) and representatives of the royalist Yugoslav government in exile, which took place on the island of Vis , in summer 1944. Later he served as the key link between Tito and the British and American governments, levering support for the Yugoslav state. Maclean and his adventures are said to have inspired Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.
