Stories of Podgora

Sheep breeding was one of the most important economic branches in Podgora until the 1970s.

The shepherds of Podgora would annually spend ten months with their sheep on the scarce pastures of Biokovo, as sheep were important for survival, provided the wool for clothing, as well as milk, butter and cheese for food. In the settlement of Podglogovik on Biokovo, you can still see buildings of traditional architecture from the period when sheep breeders had their temporary dwellings there, which they used in the grazing season. Other than stone houses, one can see stone walls cascading down towards the sea, bordering the groves of olives, grapes, lemons, oranges, tangerines, almonds, walnuts, figs and carob.

It may sound a bit strange but in the Mediterranean area, to which Podgora belongs to, a new economic branch developed at the beginning of the 20th century: ice picking. With the development of tourism, the offer expanded and the first hotels and restaurants had to be supplied with ice, but there were still no electricity and refrigerators at the time. The demand encouraged a corresponding offer of ice, which was luckily available on Biokovo at an altitude of over 1300 meters, permanently frozen in deep pits and sinks. It was a rather dangerous undertaking that primarily required strength, speed and skill, because the ice was melting rapidly and the donkeys used for ice transport were known to display whimsical behaviour.

St. Vincent is the patron saint of Podgora. Not many details of his life are known, other than that he was a Roman soldier and chose to sacrifice his own life rather than betray his conscience, character and loyalty to Christ the Saviour. The story begins in 1790, when Pope Pius VI donated the bones of St. Vincent  to Ivan Josip Pavlović, the Canon of Makarska. Following his death, his brother Canon Don Grgur Pavlović gave the bones to his colleague Don Lovro Pavlinović from Podgora, seated in the church of All Saints. This occurred in 1831 and the place has been the final resting place of St. Vincent ever since.

Shortly thereafter, the locals of Podgora accepted him as their patron saint and began to hold religious celebrations on the day dedicated to him, the first Sunday after the Feast of the Assumption. Pilgrims from Primorje, the Biokovo hinterland and Herzegovina soon began arriving, and the feast grew larger. In 1900, Bishop Nakić decided that the Feast of St. Vincent would last for three days and the custom has survived ever since.Today, the church of All Saints is culturally and historically the most valuable church in Podgora, and is one of the most monumental late baroque churches in Dalmatia.

Each woman in Podgora had an everyday gown and another one for the feasts. Despite poverty, the women of Podgora had expensive jewellery made from gold and coral, which was a form of savings for the most difficult times, wars or natural disasters since jewellery can be easily and quickly carried in cases of emergency. The costumes were layered, so that they could be adapted to various occasions and ages. Both men and women wore leather peasant shoes, a pair for the cold and windy weather and another one for the summertime.

Until the earthquake in 1962, a rocky arch covered with earth and trees stretched across the road in the area of Sutikla, which the locals called the “Passage of luck”. Unfortunately, this popular and recognisable symbol of Podgora collapsed in the earthquake, but the “lucky road” that ran below it remained in place. It is still possible to walk along it and get that piece of luck. Old photographs of Podgora show what this passage looked like, testifying to the unique natural configuration that inspired the legend.

In addition to the Passage of luck and the lucky road, there is an ancient tombstone or stella in Podgora, quite devastated by the weather, depicting a Roman couple, with a still visible man's name written on it: Felex, which means Lucky in English.

Before the 1962 earthquake and prior to the migration of the Podgora population to the coastal area, in the afternoon hours people would gather around the guvno (threshing floor) and recount current events after a hard, laborious day in the field or at the sea. The guvno is a popular term for a place that was present in more or less all the villages of Dalmatia and the Imotski region. It is the central part of a village, round in shape, walled and paved with stone. The locals would sit in a circle and talk, ganga was often sung, the youngsters would dance and the children jumped around, while the elderly made important decisions for the village. Each village had at least one guvno – or more depending on the village’s size and population. Until the earthquake, the most important meeting place for the whole of Podgora had been the Batoševo Guvno or just Guvno, a small plateau with stone benches and a fountain in the middle of the village, which offered a magnificent view of the open sea. 

Legend has it that Tekla was a girl who died on a sailing ship, and her sad father did not want to consign the body of his only daughter into the sea, as was supposed to be done according to the custom of sailors. Sailing near Podgora, he saw a protruding cape whose shape reminded him of a ship, and its fir trees looked like spars. He decided that this would be the final resting place of his daughter and the grave of St. Tekla is considered first grave on the cape, which was named after her, the Cape of St. Tekla.

Podgora abounds in springs of water that is clear, cold and excellent for drinking. The exact number of springs and streams is not known, but it is known that in the first half of the 20th century they ran as many as 24 water mills. According to some sources, Podgora had more than 77 springs. The springs of Smokvica and Kržanići are only part of a series of taps or sources of public water in Podgora, built in 1898 and restored in 2015.

There are many reminders of the Venetian rule in Dalmatia, the prevailing ones being copper coins with the inscription Dalma et Alba (used for Dalmatia and Albania). They were forged by the Venetians in the 17th and 18th century for the area of Dalmatia and today’s Bay of Kotor. Coins of one and two soldi (gazzetta) can be found even nowadays while digging the earth or renovating houses. The name soldi has remained common among people to this day as the local name for money. 

The reason why it is still possible to find such coins in the ground lies in the belief, which was preserved until the middle of the 20th century, that a house being built would be durable, and its occupiers lucky, if several copper coins were buried under the threshold. Thanks to this custom, many Venetian soldi and gazzette have been preserved to this day.