A different kind of tourist attraction

Published in Highlights

On Tuesday 16th July, the Ultra festival descended on Hvar, whose long-suffering citizens braced themselves for the event.

Further east on the island there was unfolding a very different kind of attraction for visitors, which could show the way towards safeguarding peaceful tourism on the island. A Catholic Mass celebrated in the Polish language is probably the antithesis of the drug-and-alcohol-fuelled riotous antics of a large number of Hvar's party tourists, known locally as 'partijaneri'. Hvar Town's more moderate citizens have long been battling against the summer influx of uninhibited revellers, citing unacceptable mess and noise and indecent dress and behaviour among their complaints. The Ultra Europe event held in the 'Park Mladeži' in Split over three days and nights from the 14th of July 2019 was, by some accounts, a success with very few adverse incidents, welcomed and praised by politicians and tourist directors. However, another side to the picture also received attention in the Croatian press: public places blighted by drug- or alcohol-fuelled licentious behaviour, urination and defecation even before the Festival had begun (Slobodna Dalmacija, 12.07.2019.); horrendous mess after Ultra's first day in Split (IndexHR, 13.07.2019); and the drugs which were, it seemed, the partygoers' mainstay during the Split leg of the Festival (Slobodna Dalmacija 15.07.2019.). The event certainly draws in large numbers of visitors (Slobodna Dalmacija 13.07.2019.), but how much (if any) benefit it brings to a city whose centre is listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List is debatable.

Don Robert conducted Sara Pirč's wedding to Roman Radonić in October 2018. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

Dalmatian tourism has traditionally been based on warm hospitality and long-term friendships nurtured between private renters and their guests. The difficulties created by the 1991-95 Homeland War caused a break in these relationships. While some regular visitors came back after the war, many didn't. Many changes have taken place since then, and Dalmatian tourism has of necessity developed in different directions, including offering large-scale music festivals aimed at young adults. Dalmatia has an incredibly wide range of tourist attractions, and depends on tourism for its economic wellbeing. It is perhaps surprising how little is advertised specifically for foreign guests. So a Mass in Polish is a great departure, and very welcome.

Don Robert blessing the Pitve graveyard, All Saints 2018. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

It is the inspired brainchild of Don Robert Bartoszek, who is conducting the Mass every Sunday throughout July and August in the Vrisnik Parish Church, at 12:15. All credit to him, as he and his colleagues are under tremendous pressures of work, due to an acute shortage of priests on the island because of relocation, illness and retirement. Don Robert was brought in to be parish priest for Vrisnik and Pitve last year, and quickly settled in, gaining an admiring appreciation from his parishioners for his ability to fit into local customs. He has also introduced some charming customs from his home country to Hvar, most notably the distribution of small gifts from the 'Easter bunny' to the local children after the Easter Sunday Mass.

Don Robert and Roman Radonić with the Pasqual Candle, April 2019. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

Don Robert's duties have recently been expanded, so his dedication is all the more admirable. The Polish residents and visitors on Hvar have responded enthusiastically, with some 54 of them attending their first special Mass, over 100 a couple of weeks later, then some 150, so many they couldn't all fit into the church! It is probably not surprising, as Poland is a very Catholic country, also a very close-knit community, and Don Robert has been unstinting in his pastoral care for those of his compatriots in need of help.

Distributing gifts to the children, Easter Sunday 2019. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

So, quietly and discreetly, a small but invaluable new element has been added to Hvar's tourist attractions, one which shows a special kind of care and consideration towards a group of the island's guests. Don Robert's appointment on Hvar was supposed to be temporary, lasting for just one year. Let's hope his stay is extended, and equally that his initiative in providing spiritual support for his fellow-Poles becomes a lasting tradition - and maybe 'tourist Masses' in other languages might just come into being?

Eye-catching, fully informative posters were distributed by Don Robert personally

© Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon) July 2019.

You are here: Home highlights A different kind of tourist attraction

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Revealed: Edelman worked for Brazilian trade group accused of pushing for environmental rollbacks in Amazon

    Edelman, the world’s largest public relations agency, is in talks to work with the Cop30 team organising the UN climate summit in the Amazon later this year despite its prior connections to a major trade group accused of lobbying to roll back measures to protect the area from deforestation, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.

    The summit is set to take place in November in the city of Belém on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, which has been ravaged by deforestation linked to Brazil’s powerful agriculture industry. For the first time, the talks will be “at the epicenter of the climate crisis”, the summit’s president wrote last week. “As the Cop comes to the Amazon, forests will naturally be a central topic,” he added.

    Continue reading...

  • Energy security and net zero secretary travels to Beijing for countries’ first formal climate meetings since 2017

    Ed Miliband has accused the previous Conservative government of negligence for failing to engage with China on climate issues, as he travelled to Beijing for the countries’ first formal climate meetings since 2017.

    The secretary of state for energy security and net zero was in Beijing to announce a new annual UK-China climate dialogue. The first summit will take place in London later this year. China’s minister of ecology and environment, Huang Runqiu, is expected to attend.

    Continue reading...

  • After years of helping Scottish criminal investigations and despite fearing for his life in India, Vishal Sharma’s asylum claim has been rejected

    When Vishal Sharma, an experienced merchant seaman, arrived in London from India in November 2017, he was looking forward to a good job on a Belgian tanker, the MT Waasmunster, assisting engineers. He had a 15-month contract and a transit visa, enabling him to travel to Milford Haven in Wales, where the 174-metre vessel was anchored.

    But in a last-minute change of plan, his Mumbai agent told him to head to Southwick in West Sussex, England, to board a scallop trawler, the Noordzee.

    Continue reading...

  • Village joins continental network alongside nearby Knepp estate, as birds previously extinct in Britain flourish

    The Saxons knew the West Sussex village of Storrington as Estorchestone, the “abode of the storks”.

    But the graceful white birds disappeared from its skies more than 600 years ago, when they became extinct in Britain.

    Continue reading...

  • In the 1960s, the Swiss had some of the dirtiest water in Europe. Now, their cities boast pristine rivers and lakes – and other countries are looking to follow their lead

    In the first days of spring, people flock to Lake Geneva’s broad, tree-lined promenade, their faces tilted towards the sun. Dior, Cartier and Rolex are among the high-end shopfronts overlooking the water. René Rottenberg, 75, has just finished his 400m swim through this upmarket urban jungle – a ritual he repeats up to five times a week, even in midwinter.

    For the retired gynaecologist, being able to swim in the crystal-clear water is the greatest luxury. “It’s just so fun,” he says. “The place is beautiful.”

    Continue reading...

  • Gulls are known for being ravenous – check out a selection of things they like

    • All images from the Gulls Eating Stuff project

    From profiteroles to moles: project uncovers gulls’ surprising diet

    Continue reading...

  • From the earthquake-defying joints that support a 13th-century temple to the delicacy of sashimono puzzle boxes, a new exhibition shows off the myriad possibilities of this centuries-old craft

    Do you know your ant’s head from your shell mouth? Or your cogged lap from your scarfed gooseneck? These are just some of the mind-boggling array of timber jointing techniques on display in a new exhibition spotlighting the meticulous craft of Japanese carpentry. The basement gallery of London’s Japan House has been transformed into a woody wonder world of chisels and saws, mortises and tenons, and brackets of infinite intricacy, alongside traditional clay plastering, shoji paper screen making and tatami mat weaving. It is a dazzling display of the phenomenal skills behind centuries of timber architecture and joinery, celebrating elite master carpenters with the spiritual reverence of a high priesthood.

    “In Japan we have a deep respect for our forests,” says curator Nishiyama Marcelo, who heads up the team at the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum in Kobe, a temple to the history of Japanese joinery. “If a carpenter uses a 1,000-year-old tree, they must be prepared to take on more than 1,000 years of responsibility for the building that they create.”

    It is a momentous duty, and one we should heed. As debates around the embodied carbon of the built environment dominate the construction industry, there could be no more timely exhibition to remind us of the importance of designing with longevity, care and repair in mind. Numerous specialist tools have been shipped over from the Kobe museum, along with a team of master carpenters who have built a remarkable series of structures in the gallery, replicating parts of buildings that have lasted for hundreds of years in the face of wind, rain, snow and earthquakes.

    Continue reading...

  • Three years ago, when I was stuck in a traffic jam, I decided to stop to visit a park I’d passed by many times. Now, I go there at least one morning a week

    I must have passed it 100 times. Until one day in 2022, stuck in Melbourne traffic, I glanced towards the park in Bayside and saw mist rising from the trees, as if they had just exhaled into the dawn sunlight. This sight cheered me, lifting the pall of the workday grind ahead. Right then I made a resolution to interrupt my commute at least once a week by visiting the park and I have kept to it ever since.

    The next day I left the stream of traffic, parked the car and walked into the park, skirting the cricket oval where dogs chase sassy swallows skimming the grass just out of reach. Past there is a quiet pond where you will find ducks and turtles, and beside it is one of those forgotten patches of land where nature gets to do her thing unhindered.

    Continue reading...

  • Hundreds of millions of pilgrims flocked to the Ganges for this year’s festival, housed in a sprawling temporary metropolis stretching across 4,000 hectares of the floodplains of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh

    For 45 days the floodplains of Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh known as Allahabad until 2018, were a churning sea of humanity. Millions waded into the freezing waters of the sangam – the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, plus a mythical one, the Saraswati – believing that a single dip could wash away a lifetime of sin.

    From dawn until well past midnight, the riverbanks teemed with saffron-clad sadhus, bare-chested pilgrims and families clutching brass urns, garlands and clay lamps, an unceasing tide of pilgrims.

    Pilgrims performing one of the rituals associated with the ‘holy water’ of the rivers at this year’s Kumbh Mela

    Continue reading...

  • Since Dutton became opposition leader, the billionaire mining magnate has cultivated their bond. We look back at their increasingly close relationship

    The buzz from Gina Rinehart’s 70th birthday party was reportedly “so spectacular” that it drifted across the Swan River from the mining magnate’s Perth home, catching the attention of people more than a kilometre away.

    Four hundred guests, mostly employees, had gathered to mark the milestone of the Hancock Prospecting head, who is deferentially referred to as “the Chairman” or “Mrs Rinehart”.

    Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds