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The Bay of Kvarner. It is said that the Argonauts,
forerunners of the nomadism that graces most
sailors, put into its straits in search of the Golden
Fleece. Somewhere here, in the Kvarner, in the
outer reaches of the legend, a not over-well-known
hero called Apsyrtus was sacrificed. From the
chopped-up parts of his body that his sister Medea
threw into the sea the Kvarner islands arose.
Legend, always in sympathy with victims, says that
it was called after him, becoming the Apsyrtean
Archipelago.
Though people are fond of telling over legends that
link them with their most distant and famous
forefathers, perhaps because of its cruelty, this story
never became part of the heritage of the people that
inhabit the coast of the Kvarner mainland or its
islands.
A hundred miles to the south, another story, free of
the cruelty of Greek myth, talks of the origin of the
Kornati islands.
God, not knowing what to do with the handful of
stones that were left over after the world had been
created, simply threw them down without caring
where or how. When he looked down, for God too is
curious, he said to himself that nothing more
should be touched.
Drawing on this story, George Bernard Shawwrote:
On the last day of the Creation, God wanted to put
the finishing touches on his work, and from tears,
stars and breath created the Kornati.
Let us not compare these two legends. Instead,
returning to the present, we are faced with the
question: how is it possible that of all those famous
and talented people who have visited the Kvarner,
none of them have taken the trouble to describe its
beauty? For to be quite frank, we cannot find any
serious traces in art pointing to the Kvarner as
inspiration.
Looking for reasons for this ingratitude, for the
moment we can acquit only Mahler, who used his
stay in Opatija to reorchestrate several moments of
his 4 Symphony.
Opatija! Is that not the answer to the question? In its
hundred years of existence, Opatija has become
synonymous with the Kvarner. But the appearance
of it, the manner of its building, known to almost
everyone, is void of any mysteries, the mysteries that
stand at the base of all legends.
Comparing it with Dubrovnik at the south of the
Croatian Adriatic, it is hard to find why Opatija
should cast a shadow over the whole of the Kvarner.
Dubrovnik, it goes without saying, in its thousand-
year existence, deals out its pride to everything in its
surrounds. But what about Opatija?
Unlike many towns and cities that have had to fight
for their very existence for decades, for centuries
th
Opatija as a gift