While doing reconstruction works in a church in Silba, workers found a time capsule from 1922, along with a mysterious message…
The discover was found at the church of Our Lady of the Rocks in Silba, more precisely in the window of the northern side of the chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua. The bottle which contained the message is of the ‘Diana’ brand, and it was sealed with a cork and a vax. The whole story was made public by the Association for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Island of Silba on their Facebook page.
The bottle contained three objects – a hand-written note, so-called Spomenica, a paper note from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, printed in 1921 (worth 25 para), and one cigarette. Eugen Motušić, the archaeologist and art historian, found the bottle, and Sven Moro opened the bottle on the spot, without damaging it or its contents.
The most exciting item in the bottle is the note, written by Frano Gašpić. It explains the circumstances of the previous reconstruction of the church, including who paid for it (an Argentinian diaspora member, called Juraj Barbić), who performed the work (Viktor Spinelli was the manager, while Ante Gašparov and Marijan Vukasović were the masons).
The note also states that Italy still occupied Silba at that time, but that they expected to be added to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians, and Slovenes soon. The note is signed by Špiro Lazarin, Zamarija Marinić, and Frano Gaspić, who were at the time the board members of the Savings Cooperative in Silba, the only civil association on the island at the time. Špiro Lazanin went on to become a local administrator.
One of the most exciting parts of the note is the post-scriptum, in which the writer, F. Gaspić asks that whoever finds the letter, to let them know, either by “radiograph” or by an airplane. Their descendants now know that the message has been found. Nobody smoked the cigarette found, and it’s not clear how much money that would be in today’s money, but it was the smallest note then.
The new time capsule is planned to be put in the same spot after the works on the chapel are finished, which should happen in 2022!
