Places

Venice

In the High Middle Ages, Venice became wealthy through its control of trade between Europe and the Levant, and began to expand into the Adriatic Sea and beyond. It was involved in the Crusades almost from the very beginning. In the 12th century, the Republic built a large national shipyard that is now known as the Venetian Arsenal. Building new and powerful fleets, it took control over the eastern Mediterranean.

From the mid-sixteenth century and into the following century, the Venetian Republic was no longer the leading Mediterranean power due to the powerful French and Dutch rivalry, which threatened Venetian primacy on the Adriatic. During this time Venice was also threatened by Spain’s growing strength, while its position between its Habsburg and Ottoman neighbours brought it into a sensitive and – in terms of economic development – far from auspicious situation. The threat of pirates should also not be overlooked, among whom there were even those of English origin.

Despite Venetian attempts to maintain good relations with the Ottoman Empire, a series of Ottoman moves, among them the bold incursion into the territory of Zadar and Nin in early 1570, led to the outbreak of the Ottoman-Venetian War, which largely benefited the Ottomans. The great victory of the Holy League (the Papal states, Spain, Venice, Naples, Sicily, Genoa, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Savoy, Parma, Urbino and the Maltese Knights) over the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto, which took place on 7 October 1571 at the city of Lepanto (Gr. Nafpaktos), located in the strait between the Gulf of Patras and the Corinthian Gulf, did not greatly influence the course of events. The victory was unexploited, and the Venetian Republic was compelled to sue for peace in 1573, forsaking Cyprus and the conquered portion of Dalmatia.

The ship Lezza, Moceniga and Basadonna was built in Venice, and launched in 1569. During the last voyage, she was named Gagliana Grossa, and transported various cargo from Venice to Constantinople. At the time of the shipwreck, the doge was Nicolò da Ponte (1578 – 1585).

Constantinople

Constantinople became the capital of the Roman Empire in 330, during the reign of Constantine the Great. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Constantinople remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (330–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). During the 16th century, it was divided in the old city of Constantinople, Galata, Pera, Eyüp and Üsküdar. Each of them developed a distinct urban and social character. The old city of Constantinople had twenty-seven gates. Galata and Pera, on the opposite side of the Golden Horn, were the hub of Western European trade and the centre of diplomacy, finance, entertainment, and European residence in the early modern period. The walled town of Galata was a former Genoese colony, part of the Italian trading settlement on the Black Sea during Byzantine times. On the Asian side of the Bosphorus, the district of Üsküdar was a smaller settlement of five subdistricts known for its cypress groves and peaceful villages.

In the old city of Constantinople, there was the Topkapi Palace, the Hippodrome, Hagia Sophia, and the Grand Bazaar. The Topkapi Palace complex, the private residence of the Ottoman dynasty and the center of government, was built over parts of the Great Palace of Constantinople. Enclosed by walls and divided into four courts, it contained public buildings where government business was conducted. It was populated by over 6,000 people.  

In the time when the ship Lezza, Moceniga and Basadonna, later Gagliana Grossa, sailed the Mediterranean, the sultans were Selim II (1566–1574) and his son Murad III (1574–1595). Following the example of his father Selim II, Murad III was the second Ottoman sultan who never left Constantinople, i.e., never went on campaign during his reign.

Tuscany

In the Renaissance period, Tuscany helped lead Europe back to civilization. It soon became a grand duchy, that is, a country or territory whose official head of state or ruler is a monarch, bearing the title of grand duke or grand duchess. Prior to the early 1800s, the only Grand duchies in Europe were located in what is now Italy: Tuscany and later Savoy. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (It.: Granducato di Toscana) existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1860, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence.

For most of the 16th century the Medici ruled Florence and Tuscany quite successfully, expanding greatly the state's territory. While not as internationally renowned as the old republic, the grand duchy thrived under the Medici and it bore witness to unprecedented economic and military success under Cosimo I (1569–1574) and his sons, until the reign of Ferdinando II (1621 – 1670), which saw the beginning of the state's long economic decline. The Medici were patrons of science and the arts, and, under their rule, Tuscany became a more coh

Corfu

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the north-western frontier of Greece. The principal city of the island is also named Corfu. It is approximately 64 km long, with greatest breadth at around 32 km.

From medieval times and into the 17th century, the island was recognised as a bulwark of the European States against the Ottoman Empire, and became one of the most fortified places in Europe. The fortifications of the island were used by the Venetians to prevent Ottoman intrusion into the Adriatic. During the Napoleonic Wars, at the beginning of the 19^th century, it passed under the British rule.

The island was considered the "Door of Venice", and remained in Venetian hands from 1401 until 1797, though several times assailed by Ottoman naval and land forces and subjected to four notable sieges. Two of them happened in 1571 and 1573, in the lifetime of the ship Lezza, Moceniga e Basadonna, i.e., Gagliana Grossa. The effectiveness of the powerful Venetian fortifications, as well as the strength of some old Byzantine castles, were additional factors that enabled Corfu to remain free. It was one of the few parts of Greece never conquered by the Ottomans.

Crete

In the partition of the Byzantine empire after the capture of Constantinople by the armies of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, Crete was acquired by Venice, which held it for more than four centuries. The Realm or Kingdom of Candia (Venetian: Regno de Càndia) or Duchy of Candia (Venetian: Dogado de Càndia) was the official name for the overseas colony of the Republic of Venice, until its fall to the Ottoman Empire during the Cretan War (1645–1669). The island was commonly known as Candia after its capital, Candia (modern Heraklion).

Crete had always been of particular importance among Venice's colonies, but its importance increased as the Ottomans, after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, started taking away Venice's overseas possessions. By the middle of the 16th century, Crete was the only major Venetian possession left in the Aegean, and following the loss of Cyprus in 1571, in the entire Eastern Mediterranean. The emergence of the Ottoman threat coincided with a period of economic decline for the Venetian Republic. The Republic's relative military weakness, coupled with the island's wealth and its strategic location controlling the waterways of the Eastern Mediterranean attracted the attention of the Ottoman Empire. In the long and devastating Cretan War (1645–1669), the two states fought over the possession of Crete. In 1669, Venice was pushed out of island. The last Venetian outpost, Spinalonga, fell in 1718, and the whole Crete became a part of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1571, the ship Lezza, Moceniga e Basadonna, serving the Republic of Venice, sailed to Crete, transporting the military troops and provisions.

Cyprus

The large and wealthy island of Cyprus had been under Venetian rule since 1489. Together with Crete, it was one of the major overseas possessions of the Republic of Venice, allowing the control of the Levantine trade, and possessing a profitable production of cotton and sugar. The island's strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean, between the Ottoman heartland of Anatolia and the newly acquired provinces of the Levant and Egypt, made it a tempting target for future Ottoman expansion. 

When, at the beginning of 1570, loading of goods for the western market began, a command came from the Minor Council ordering the ship Lezza, Moceniga e Basadonna to be unloaded and made available to transport troops and supplies to Cyprus. Even though the ship owners had impatiently awaited the voyage, given their compulsory fealty to the Venetian Republic, they certainly could not oppose such an order at a time of great danger.

The War of Cyprus (1570–1573) generally benefitted the Ottomans. Republic of Venice was compelled to sign a peace treaty in 1573 whereby it relinquished Cyprus and the conquered portion of Dalmatia, and also paid reparations of 300,000 ducats.

Vlorë

Today, Vlorë is the third most populous city of the Republic of Albania, located in southwestern Albania. Vlorë is situated in the Bay of Vlorë, and is surrounded by the foothills of the Ceraunian Mountains along the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea Coasts.

The Ottoman Empire captured the city in 1417, while in 1432, Albanian rebels freed Vlorë and expelled the Ottomans from the area. Later it become a Venetian possession in 1690 and the city was restored to the Ottomans in 1691. In 1426, the Ottomans supported the settlement of a Jewish community involved in mercantile activities. The community underwent population growth in subsequent decades with Jews migrating from Corfu, Venetian ruled lands, Naples, France, and the Iberian Peninsula. The Jews of Vlorë were involved in trade. The city imported items from Europe and exported spices, leather, cotton fabrics, velvets, brocades, and mohair from the Ottoman cities of Istanbul and Bursa. After the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and the lack of security along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts controlled by the Ottomans, the numbers of Jews within Vlorë decreased.

On Saturday, 21 July 1571, the ship Lezza, Moceniga e Basadonna was captured by the Ottomans in front of the Bay of Vlorë.

Zadar

During these dynamic medieval events, Zadar changed hands between the Byzantine, French, Venetian and Croatian-Hungarian authorities. During the Fourth Crusade in 1202, the Venetians thoroughly pillaged and razed Zadar, but they only took control of it in 1409, ruling over it continually under the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797.

Most of Dalmatia had fallen into Venetian hands already in the first decades of the 15^th century, and the natural, economic and strategic advantages of Zadar made the city the primary Venetian administrative, economic and military hub in the eastern Adriatic. Over the coming decades, however, Ottoman pressure in Zadar’s hinterland intensified, and by the end of the century this already had serious repercussions. The danger continued during the subsequent century, and the Ottoman Empire’s border came dangerously close to the city.

Due to constant conflicts with the Ottomans and the need for a high-quality and comprehensive defence system, during the first half of the 16^th century the city walls were thoroughly reconstructed based on designs drawn up by the famed Michele Sanmichell, the Venetian Republic’s premier architect, who was charged with the construction of many fortifications in this period. On this occasion, new bastions and the Maritime and Mainland Gates were constructed, as well as public buildings such as the City Loggia and City Watchtower.

The city was governed by a rector (Cro. knez, Ven. conte) who was appointed by Venice but subordinate to the Grand Council. He had jurisdiction over the islet of Gnalić and thus all that transpired around it at the end of 1583 and early 1584.

Islet of Gnalić

The island of Pašman extends adjacent to the northern Dalmatia coast in the so-called Dinaric orientation, from north-west to south-east. It is in the Zadar area of the northern Dalmatian archipelago, and it was once a single land formation with the island of Ugljan. Today the islands are divided by the artificially excavated and expanded strait Mali Ždrelac, over which a roadway bridge was constructed in 1971.

The islet of Gnalić is one of twelve small islands in the territory of the Tkon Municipality, which encompasses the southern section of the island of Pašman. It is rocky, and its upper portion is covered with low Mediterranean vegetation. The total length of its shoreline is only 270 m. The name Gnalić, which is today registered in navigational charts, was given to it by sailors who approached the Pašman Channel from the south, such as natives of the islands of Vrgada and Murter, based on the promontory called Punta Gnala. The residents of Pašman and the mainland shore call it Kamenčić (‘pebble’).

The location at which the islet of Gnalić lies, on the boundary between the Pašman and Vrgada Channels, has a reputation among local people for unpredictable weather which can put vessels in rather precarious situations. It is therefore sometimes even called the ‘little ocean’, and many modern sailors have almost wrecked their own vessels at precisely this spot. Even though we still do not know what caused the tragic shipwreck in 1583, we may assume that it sunk due to a turn of harsh weather with which not even the most experienced sailors could cope.

Bay of Zaklopica on the island of Pašman

When several survivors returned to Venice, did it become known for certain that the tragic event played out near Zaklopica Cove (Ital. Porto Chiave) on the southern end of the island of Pašman, situated less than one nautical mile from the actual site of the shipwreck near the islet of Gnalić (Fig. 183).

Fortunately, the crew had managed to save themselves with the help of two lifeboats and reach the eastern shore of nearby Punta Gnala by oar and sail, and then to the sheltered cove of Zaklopica near Tkon. How many people died in the wreck remains unknown, but the fact that two human bones were found during explorations in 1973 point to the conclusion that some of those on board did not survive.