In accordance with its mission and goals, association UHBDR “Dalmatinski kamen”, in cooperation with ethno village Kokorići and tourism and catering entrepreneurs, prepares a unique cultural-educational and tourist arrangement as a memorial to Italian travel writer Alberto Fortis who, at the end of the 18th century, visited and described experiences in a masterpiece work “Put po Dalmaciji“ (VIAGGIO AND DALMATIA) published in 1774 in Venice.
Alongside the travelogue “artifacts” in this book, Hasanaginica has been published for the first time. Till then it has been held and complemented for more than a century in the Morlachs Community of the Dalmatian Hinterland – then the bordering area between Venice and Turkey, and today Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the slopes of the mountain Biokovo and cultivated hummocas of the land in the Dinaric mountains.
As the popular ballad soon “conquered” pre-romantic Europe too, it was translated and adjusted to languages by then the most popular literary names, from Norval and Mickiewic to Puskin and Goethe, who was especially fascinated to that extend that in front of his friends he admitted that he would give all his songs if he could sign Hasanaginica. Therefore, today, all of us, the inheritors of the Dinaric (Morlachs) culture, must be aware of the significance of the work when incorporating it in our own cultures into the European civilization flows, and the tourist arrangements inspired by this work are a guideline for the definition of identity and the creation of one’s own image.
The tour is intended for all who have heard or through education have been taught about this timeless work and the path through the geographical trails; from the Neretva River valley, from which the “unfortunate” families Arapović and Pintorović originate, through the Trebižat River valley, the sinking river Buna, restless Cetina, to the blue Adriatic Sea and the coast near the Zaostrog Monastery, where A. Fortis debarked, and on horseback reached the court of the Duke Prvan-Prža, today the ethno village Kokorići (where the ballad was written for the first time). Historical flows are very interesting, so potential “adventurous curious people” will have the opportunity to see the traces of the most important euro civilizations. Ancient Greece and Rome, the Illyrian tribes, to medieval self-governing creations and powerful conquerors, then dominant Venice and Turkey.
All this with the artistic impressions and gastronomic delicacies of indigenous landowners of the country and culture that was alongside the then developed euro civilizations. Therefore, with the invitation to all interested visitors and the fans of this ballad, and families who, due to unhappy psycho-social opportunities, left a deep trace in our heritage, to make the pilgrimage to these traces and enrich their personal and collective culture by an unforgettable experience and a permanent inspiration of “misfortunate“ Hasanaginica.
Welcome to the original traces of our heritage. So mysterious, yet so attractive.