Čara

History

The Greeks established two colonies on Korčula in the 6th century BC and the 3rd century BC (Lumbarda Psephisma). There were Greek villas on the island and it is believed that the field below Čara, called Čarsko Polje (Croatian/pronounced Charsko), its name is of ancient Greek origins. The Great Migrations of the 6th and 7th centuries brought the Slavic tribes invasions into the old Roman province of Dalmatia, which then was under Byzantine rule. The Croatians arrived along with other Slavic tribes and the Avars. They settled in the region. It is believed that the islands off the coast were settled by the Croatians at a later stage. Korčula was settled by Croatians in the 8th century. Čara is one of the oldest villages on the island of Korčula and as a settlement was established in the 8th and 9th century. Christianization of the Croatian rural inhabitants of the island Korčula begun in the 11th century (Chapel of Saints Cosmas and Damian/Kuzma i Damjan). According to recent studies by the University of Zadar, Croats accepted Christianity fully in the 14th and 15th centuries. The small church of Our Lady in Čarsko Polje is mentioned in a manuscript of 1329. Tradition holds that in 1686 Our Lady appeared to a shepherd girl on the south side of Čara and since then pilgrims have come to this site every year, especially on 25 July. In the church there is a painted relief of alabaster, of English origin, from the 14th or 15th century, with four scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary (the Annunciation, the birth of Jesus, the gift of the Three Kings, and the Coronation). Korčula is mentioned during Republic of Venice's eastern expansion of Dalmatia. In the late 10th century Pietro II Orseolo the Doge of Venice attacked the Neretvian pirates and in the process secured…