Abstract

This paper discusses Croatian maritime pilgrimages by searching for their sources in the prehistoric Mediterranean context. From the first search for the sacred, different and the other, from the prehistoric hierophanies and human being’s attempts to explain the mysterious Cosmos through their endeavour to respond to the unknown and give an order to the Chaos – we encounter a human being who travels searching for answers. The human being, as a part of the community, through cosmogonies, and then theophanies, explains the creation of the world and tries to give meaning to the reality surrounding him. This modus of travel and pilgrimage to the sacred and divine continues through the historical period in three great monotheistic religions that are born and spread in the Mediterranean: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Mediterranean is a space of travels and travellers, intersections of thoughts, philosophies and religions. From late antiquity through the Middle Ages to the Modern Ages, the Mediterranean is the intersection of pilgrims from all directions. This paper describes pilgrimages and pilgrims who travelled from the Croatian coast to Loreto and Assisi in the 18th century. Based on 16,000 documents of Croatian Maritime Regesta of the 18th century vol. I–III, a total of 303 pilgrimages to Loreto and Assisi have been found, attesting to 2,513 pilgrims travelling, mostly in large and organized groups of up to 80 people, from the east coast of the Adriatic – from Umag in the north to Boka Kotorska in the south – to these old and Croatian believers well-known sanctuaries. Croatian maritime pilgrimages, therefore, have undeniable Mediterranean roots and an incredible continuity of tens of thousands of years.