80
homonymous bridge, the horrible news of its sinking
near the Dalmatian town of Biograd (Biograd na moru;
Ital.
Zara Vecchia
= Old Zadar).
Biograd experienced its zenith in the eleventh century,
and it owes its Italian name to the Zadar natives who sou-
ght refuge in it when Zadar was besieged at the beginning
of the Fourth Crusade in 1202. At the time they referred
to it as a new Zadar, although upon their return to their
liberated city, they called the ‘new’ Zadar old. The name
Zara Vecchia
was regularly used thereafter in documents
and onmaps until the end of the SecondWorldWar, whi-
le in the Italian language this name has been retained to
this day.
The relevant literaturementions thedestructionwhich the
town experienced at Venetian hands in 1125. There may
have been other such episodes in its past. In 1486, a Ger-
man pilgrim to the Holy Land, Konrad von Grünenberg,
depicted Biograd as a set of ruins, and until recently it was
not known when it was rebuilt again. As chance would
have it, during a search for documents on the shipwreck
at Gnalić, a document was also foundmentioning that on
25 September 1574, the governor general of Dalmatia and
Albania, Alvise Grimani, charged Captain Juraj Matković
with the reconstruction of Biograd’s defensive walls and
houses, and the resettlement of the city. With the help of
his relatives and friends, Matković managed to complete
this task and settle 700 people in the town, and on 27May
1589 he was appointed its
guvernadur
. The reconstructi-
on of Biograd therefore occurred within ten years of the
Gagliana grossa
sinking at the islet of Gnalić.
Near the end of the sixteenth century, life in the Zadar
area was not easy. Dalmatia had fallen into Venetian han-
ds already in the first decades of the fifteenth century, and
the natural, economic and strategic advantages of Zadar
were hampered by numerous restrictions and the curta-
ilment of the city’s autonomy by the Venetian authorities.
In the subsequent decades, Ottoman pressure on the Za-
dar hinterland intensified, which had its own consequen-
ces by the end of the century. The threat continued over
the following century, and the border with the Ottoman
Empire came dangerously close to the city. Over time,
Nadin, Zemunik and Vrana fell under Ottoman rule,
which meant that Zadar had been left without its ferti-
le hinterland, and that the border was only ten to fifteen
kilometres away. The narrow coastal belt under Venetian
authority bordered the HabsburgMonarchy on the Novi-
grad and Karin Bays in the north, and the Ottoman Em-
pire on Cape Ploča south of Rogoznica.
From the mid-sixteenth century and into the following
century, the Venetian Republic was no longer the leading
Mediterranean power due to the powerful French and
Dutch rivalry, which threatened Venetian primacy on the
Adriatic. During this time Venice was also threatened by
Spain’s growing strength, while its position between its
Habsburg and Ottoman neighbours brought it into a sen-
sitive and – in terms of economic development – far from
zabranjene zimske sezone u dalmatinskim vodama. Ne
znamo također ni što je zaprijetilo teško natovarenom
brodu na njegovom prekomorskom putovanju, no sigur-
no je da su već 9. studenoga glasnici Mletačke Republike
s Trga Rialto, u neposrednoj blizini čuvenog istoimenog
mosta, izvikivali strašnu vijest o njegovompotonuću u bli-
zini dalmatinskog grada Biograda (Biograd na moru; tal.
Zara Vecchia
= Stari Zadar).
Biograd je najveći uspon doživio u 11. stoljeću, a svoje ta-
lijansko ime duguje Zadranima koji su se u njega sklonili
tijekom opsade Zadra početkom Četvrte križarske vojne
1202. godine. Držali su ga tada novim Zadrom, no po
povratku u oslobođeni grad novi su Zadar nazvali starim.
Ime
Zara Vecchia
redovito se nakon toga koristilo u ispra-
vama i na geografskim kartama sve do završetka II. svjet-
skog rata, a u talijanskomse jeziku zadržalo do naših dana.
U literaturi se najčešće spominje rušenje koje je grad do-
živio od strane Mlečana 1125. Takvih je epizoda u nje-
govoj prošlosti moralo biti i više. Godine 1486. njemački
je hodočasnik u Svetu zemlju, Konrad von Grünenberg,
prikazao Biograd kao skup ruševina, a donedavno se nije
znalo kad je ponovo obnovljen. Slučaj je htio da se prili-
kom potrage za dokumentima o brodolomu kod Gnali-
ća pronađe i onaj iz kojeg saznajemo kako je generalni
providur Dalmacije i Albanije, Alvise Grimani, dana 25.
rujna 1574. godine zadužio kapetana Jurja Matkovića za
obnovu biogradskih zidina i kuća, te ponovno naselja-
vanje grada. Uz pomoć rodbine i prijatelja Matković je
uspješno obavio zadatak i u obnovljeni grad naselio 700
stanovnika, a dana 27. svibnja 1589. imenovan je njego-
vim guvernadurom. Obnova Biograda dogodila se, dakle,
tek desetak godina prije nego li je
Gagliana grossa
poto-
nula kod otočića Gnalića.
Krajem 16. st. život na zadarskom prostoru nije bio nima-
lo lak. Veći dio Dalmacije došao je u mletačke ruke još u
prvim desetljećima 15. stoljeća, a prirodne, ekonomske i
strateške prednosti Zadra nisu se mogle razviti radi broj-
nih ograničenja i sužavanja gradske autonomije od strane
mletačkih vlasti. U idućim su desetljećima osmanski pri-
tisci na zadarsko zaleđe bivali sve jači, a krajem stoljeća
imali su već i ozbiljnije posljedice. Opasnost se nastavila
tijekom narednog stoljeća, a granica s Osmanskim Car-
stvom opasno se primaknula gradu. Pod osmanskom su
se vlašću tijekom vremena našli Nadin, Zemunik i Vrana,
što je značilo da je Zadar ostao bez svoga plodnog zaleđa, a
da je granica bila udaljena svega deset do petnaest kilome-
tara. Uski obalni pojas podmletačkomvlašću na sjeveru je
graničio s HabsburškomMonarhijom na Novigradskom i
Karinskom moru, a na jugu s Osmanskim Carstvom na
rtu Ploči južno od Rogoznice.
Od druge polovice 16. i tijekomnarednog stoljećaMletač-
ka Republika više nije bila vodeća sredozemna sila uslijed
snažnog francuskog i nizozemskog suparništva koje je
ugrožavalo čak i njezino neprikosnoveno prvenstvo na
Jadranu. U to vrijeme zaprijetila joj je i sve moćnija Špa-
njolska, a položaj između habsburškog i osmanlijskog
