It isn’t unusual to see Croatia’s stunning coast being talked about, the natural beauty and the sparkling Adriatic sea are enough of a winning combination for any wordsmith. But it’s somewhat different when someone outside of Croatia recognises and talks, or writes rather, about the success and the renaissance history of a city, especially in a publication with as much international respect as the Washington Post boasts.
As Morski writes on the 19th of January, 2019, this is exactly what the historic Dalmatian city of Šibenik has experienced on multiple occasions in recent years, and the city was written about once again on Friday in one of the world’s most highly respected daily journals, the Washington Post. The journalist who wrote about Šibenik is Anja Mutić, who has Croatian roots. She is the daughter of legendary sports journalist Boris Mutić and lives in New York, she has written for the likes of Lonely Planet, the Wall Street Journal and Conde Nast Traveler for a number of years.
Anja’s vivid description of Šibenik for the Washington Post begins with her gazing upon the Adriatic sea from St. Michael’s Fortress, describing how the late September bura has cleared the skies. Her comments about the scent of Cypress trees in the air is enough to fill the senses of anyone who has spent any time on the Dalmatian coast.
Anja continues, talking about how the fortress upon which she is standing as she takes in the views was all but an abandoned place not so long ago, and how Šibenik itself was much more of an industrial place, which saw the majority of tourists skip right over it in favour of the glitz and the glamour of the arguably more tourist-developed south of Dalmatia. Touching on the 1980’s, when tourism and leisure came a firm second to industry, she details how the war changed Šibenik’s industrial ”look”, altering its direction permanently. With that being said, as Anja correctly states, the city only really got its first city beach, Banj, in 2012.
Going back to Šibenik’s very roots, Anja takes the reader through a proverbial maze of time, detailing Šibenik’s glorious renaissance, the foundation of the city by King Petar Kresimir IV in 1066, the later Venetian era, Juraj Dalmatinac’s touch on the city, all the way to UNESCO recognition and the city which it has become today. Anja speaks in depth about how Šibenik, unlike southern Dalmatian cities, has adopted a culturally sensitive way of developing its tourism.
”Taking small measured steps, respectful of the ground it walks on, immersed in heritage and tradition, Šibenik is on the slow rise to Croatia’s hall of fame,” Anja concludes.
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Click here to read the Washington Post’s entire lowdown on Šibenik
