(For English, scroll).
Umjesto podizanja štekatâ, izgradnje bazenâ i ostalih čuda apartmanizacije, u prošlosti su proljeća u jadranskom priobalju, a posebice u njegovoj unutrašnjosti, bila obilježena pripremama za zdig. Kao što mu i ime kaže, riječ je tjeranju stoke (ovaca) „u visine“, na ljetnu ispašu u planine.
U proljeće 1848., dok revolucija trese pola Europe, Danica hrvatska piše o tisućljetnom načinu života u podvelebitskom kraju (Podgorju). Zbog toga što se ovdje na vrlo uskom prostoru sudaraju tri klime – mediteranska, umjerena i planinska – ovdašnje se stanovništvo neprekidno seli: “’Podgorci provode svoje zime dolje, u podnožju Velebita, uz more, a u proljeće se uz planinu do sriedine penju, da ljeti poberu marvu, te se pod varhove Velebita na tretje stanove presele, gdje obilnu pašu i barst za marvu, a led po gudurah za rastapanje i napajanje marve nalaze. Početkom jeseni vraćaju se natrag, najprije u sriednje stanove, a pred zimu sasvim dolje, u podnožje Velebita, uza samo more.’” (prenosi: Šime Balen).
Slično je i južnije, na području južnog Velebita i Dinare. U vrijeme u kojem se glavnina komunikacija i ekonomskog života odvijala na lokalnoj i regionalnoj razini, ove planine nisu prepreka, nego ekonomski resurs i dio uhodanih sezonskih ciklusa. Bilo da je riječ o Ličanima, Podgoranima ili Dalmatincima, planina je jamac preživljavanja. Ovo je naročito važilo za stanovništvo s dalmatinske strane. Drevna praksa polunomadskog života između nizine (zimski period) i dizanja u planine (ljeto) na prostoru Bukovice i Ravnih kotara preživjela je do 1970-ih (tzv. ciklus Đurđevdan/Jurjevo – Mitrovdan/Miholje).[1]
Planinu se dijelilo učinkovito. Pravo na najviše velebitske pašnjake imali su Ličani, budući da je granica Like (Vojne krajine) i Dalmacije, koja je postojala do 1881., išla vršnim dijelovima. Ipak, Ličani se nisu dizali do te visine, zato što su dovoljno ispaše nalazili i oko stanova iznad ličke zavale. Vršne su pašnjake radije ustupali dalmatinskim stočarima kojima je u suhom kršu tijekom ljeta manjkalo ispaše. Svake godine tokom proljeća s područja bi se Knina, Kistanja, Skradina, Benkovca, Obrovca, Novigrada i Nina put Velebita otisnulo do 60.000 ovaca (inače je oko 1800. Dalmacija brojala 1,1 mil ovaca, po glavi stanovnika najviše u Europi).[2] Ličani bi se “naplatili” tijekom zime, za koju u njihovoj gorskoj postojbini nije bilo moguće osigurati dostatne količine stočne hrane. Stoga bi ih tijekom zimskih mjeseci, zajedno sa stokom, na svojim pašnjacima ugostili Dalmatinci.
Možemo samo nagađati koliki je izazov bio nadzirati taj surovi i nepristupačni prostor, odnosno njegovo stanovništvo. Pa ipak, upravo se ovdje 1699. godine zbio niz događaja neobično važnih za povijest stvaranja modernih granica i sustava njihove kontrole. Ne bi čovjek vjerovao, ali surovo područje između Velebita i Dinare, odnosno Like, Bosne i Dalmacije vjerojatno je prvo u svijetu (prvi sljedeći spomen bilježi se u Flandriji 1718.) u kojem je primijenjen koncept državne granice u modernom smislu, kao jasno povučene i kartirane linije. Godine 1699. Medveđa glavica (Medveđak) na vrhu Debelog brda sjeverozapadno od Knina, postala je ishodišna točka granice, a ujedno i tromeđa između tri imperija: Austrije, Turske i Venecije. Zvali su je Triplex Confinium. “GPS trag” snimio je austrijski carski topograf Johann Christoph Müller, tj. 200 šljakera iz komisije za razgraničenje koji su osim kartiranja, podigli i granične humke duž kopnenog dijela, inače preko 1.000 km duge granice (od Jadrana do Panonije).
Jesu li ovi “bjelosvjetski” geopolitički izumi i dogovori za zelenim stolom poremetili ustaljeni lifestyle dinarskih stočara? U teoriji, jesu. U praksi, 300 godina prije Led Zeppelinâ, krajem je i dalje odzvanjao vlajski Immigrant Song:
Oj, Podgorje, moje purgatorje,
ne znan pute, al’ ću doći u te…[3]
*
Rather than preparing coffee-shop terraces, building pools and other leisure & construction “miracles” for the summer season, throughout the past the springs in the Adriatic and its hinterland were characterized by the preparations for the „zdig“ (meaning: rise, going up). As the name suggests it is an activity of moving cattle (sheep) to “higher altitudes“ for summer pasture in the mountains.
In the spring of 1848, while the revolution was shaking half the Europe, Danica hrvatska (the first Croatian literary journal) writes about this thousand-years-long way of life in littoral area beneath the Velebit mountain (so called Podgorje).[4] Due to constant encounters of three climates – Mediterranean, moderate and mountainous – the local population was constantly moving. People of Podgorje spent their winters at the foot of Velebit, by the sea, in the spring they went up to the middle parts of the mountain, while during the summer they took the cattle to Velebit peaks where they settled while enjoying both the abundant grazing and the water from melting ice at the same time. At the beginning of autumn, they were returning home, first in the mountain’s middle parts, and then in the winter down below at the foot of Velebit, just by the sea.[5]
The customs were similar further south as well, in southern Velebit and Dinara. At a time when most of the communication and economic life took place at the local and regional level, these mountains were not considered an obstacle but rather an economic resource and part of seasonal cycles that everyone was accustomed to. Whether they were from Lika, Podgora or Dalmatia, the mountain guaranteed a survival. This was especially true for people on the Dalmatian side. The ancient practice of semi-nomadic life between the lowlands (winter period) and the rise to the mountain (summer) in Bukovica and Ravni Kotari was maintained until the 1970s (the so-called St. George’s – St. Michael’s cycle, between end of April and September).
The mountain was shared efficiently. Right to the highest Velebit pastures had people from Lika, since the border of Lika and Dalmatia, which existed until 1881, followed the mountain peaks. However, people from Lika did not rise to these heights, because there were enough pastures even above the Lika basin. Pastures on the mountain peaks were left for Dalmatian cattle farmers who lacked grassland during the hot summers in karst. Each year, during the spring, from Knin, Kistanje, Skradin, Benkovac, Obrovac, Novigrad and Nin up to 60,000 sheep climbed the Velebit mountain (around the year 1800 Dalmatia had 1.1 million sheep, the most per capita in the entire Europe)[6]. For their favour, residents of Lika were paid back during the winter, because in their mountainous homeland wasn’t possible to provide sufficient amounts of forage. Therefore, during the winter months, along with their cattle, they had enjoyed Dalmatian hospitality.
We can only guess what a challenge it was to control that vast and inaccessible space or its population. Yet, in 1699 it was here that happened a series of events of unusual importance for the history of modern borders. Although it’s hard to believe, the vicious area between Velebit and Dinara, or Lika, Bosnia and Dalmatia is probably the first in the world where the concept of state border as clearly drawn and mapped line was applied in the modern sense. In 1699, the peak of a heights Debelo brdo (“Fat Hill”), called Medveđa glavica or Medveđak (“The Bear’s Peak”), northwest of Knin, became the starting point of the border between the three empires: Austrian, Turkish and Venetian. They named it Triplex Confinium. A “GPS track” was recorded by Austrian imperial topographer Johann Christoph Müller, that is by 200 workers from the demarcation commission. Besides mapping, they erected border mounds along more than 1.000 km of land (from the Adriatic Sea to Pannonia).
Have these worldly geopolitical inventions and border arrangements disrupted the established lifestyle of Dinaric cattlemen? In theory, they had. In practice, 300 years before Led Zeppelin, shepherd’s Immigrant Song continued to echo:
Oh, Podgorje, you’re my purgatory,
Don’t know how, but I’ll reach you somehow…
[1] Vidi zanimljivi dokumentarac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xctwXJ8XeFI
[2] Danas ih cijela Hrvatska broji manje od 500.000.
[3] Prema: Šime Balen, Velebit se nadvio nad more, 1985., 10.
[4] “Podgorje” literally means “beneath the mountain”.
[5] Transmitted by: Šime Balen
[6] Today in the entire Croatia there are 500.000.
Translated by: Anica Šimunec, Photo: Srećko Vukov
