Organizer

Co-organizers

City Komiza

Sponzors

Contact

Boats

Rota Palagruzona 2010.

THE POPE'S DINNER, Thursday, 24 June

 According to the Pope's biographer Boson, on 9th March 1177, when the papal fleet consisting of 12 galleys landed on Palagruža Island forced by the stormy north-eastern wind called bura, the fishermen of Komiža prepared a delicious meal for the Pope and his entourage. Organizers of Rota palagruzona have decided to prepare a fisherman's dinner during every regatta for all the participants and their guests, in memory of the great event when the Pope Alexander III found shelter from stormy gale in safety of Palagruža on his way from port Vasto to Venice where he set off to negotiate with Friedrich Barbarossa.

Diligent Komižan activists, Komižan fishermen as well as numerous friends of Rota palaguzona have prepared the Pope's dinner on Palagruža beach; this time not for the Pope, but for the captains and boat crews, fishermen, musicians, scientists, actors, journalists and other guests of the first and most memorable Rota palagruzona.

(Photo Miro Cvitković)

Pope's dinner lasted long into the night. The brodetto made of conger eel, black-bellied angler, crabs and lobsters was cooked in large pots. Tuna and pilchards, donated to Rota Palagruzona by Dalmacijavino from Split and Podšpilje cooperative from Vis, were also prepared.

(Photo Joško Bonaći) 

(Photo Jozo Vitaljić)

 (Photo Jozo Vitaljic) 

(Photo Jozo Vitaljić)

(Photo Boris Kragić)

(Photo Boris Kragić)

(Photo Boris Kragić)

A stage was improvised for the speakers and singers, and people were dancing despite beach pebbles. Several young men from Komiža on a pasara kept a constant connection between the beach and anchored boats. It was a demanding job which required sailors' endurance and skill.

This is the way that the Round Table participant, Professor Roko Markovina, summed up his thoughts on Rota Palagruzona:

We can say that all of us who have participated in this historic Rota Palagruzona 2010 are true winners. (...) But what is much more important than the competition itself is its consequence - a pure and onest re-establishing of those ancient ethics, which for centuries adorned each local island community, being the only guarantee of their survival. In fact, when we set sail on M/B "Palagruža" and when we found ourselves on the open sea, surrounded only by the waves and sky thus becoming a floating island populated by male and female souls of all categories and professions, suddenly we began to feel an unbreakable spirit of unity. A remarkable mutual bonding, although many of us met for the first time. And there were the academics and university professors, producers, photographers and journalists, opera singers, actors and writers, engineers, sailors and fishermen, housewives, cooks and farmers, students ... and all kinds of other professions ...

(Photo klapa Gusarica)

The strange community assembled for this famous occasion was perfectly synchronised, it shared everything and nothing was difficult for any of the participants. Everyone knew perfectly their own (self-imposed) tasks, even the smallest ones,  and performed it in the best possible way, giving the whole self. And nobody, really nobody was in a position to seek any help because it always came alone at the right time and in the right way. It was this ancient ethics, characteristic of the old island communities, which kept the islanders alive through this and all the past millennia.

Sponsors

President of Croatia dr.sci. Ivo Josipović

Ministry of the Sea,Transport and Infrastructure

 Split-Dalmata County

Sponsors 2009.

Administrator

Copyright 2010 by Ars Halieutica