Skitača

Deceńt Niļ

The small village of Croatian: Deceņt Niļ, Italian: Schitazza is located on the mount by the same name on the Labinština peninsula in Istria County, Croatia. It is located at the highest point of the commune of Albona, about 2 km north-east of the hamlet of Brovinje and 3 km. from the Koromačno cement factory. Skitača overlooks the Sea of Kvarner and the island of Cres. During the re-population of Istria, settled people which were called Rumeni were brought with other Slavs from the southern provinces of Croatia to reclaim the land which was destroyed by the wars between the Venice Republic and Austria. In the village of Skitača north of Punta Nera there are some which still speak the Rumeni language, although it is now mixed with Croatian. Today all of the people are gone and new people have started to settle there in the summer months.^[1]

Rumeni

In a document of Count Giovanni Frangipani, 1465 and 1468, soldiers which were part of the count's army, were called Vlachi in Croatian and Morlacchi in Italian. They were also called Cici. These people spoke a language (Ciribiri) which was only spoken by them. They had two dialects, one was Daco-Rumeni which was spoken by people who lived in Malvaria, Vallachia, Transilvania, and the other was Macedi-Rumeni. They lived in the antique Traccia, Macedonia, and Tessaglia. The Greeks called them Black Vlachs. The Rumeni were descendents of Roman colonists from the colony of Dacia. In the First century, they were imported by Emperor Traiano and all the following emperors to the borders of various colonies held by the Roman Empire which bordered other Empires. They came from the lower Danube river and were brought to the east of Europe to protect the borders of the Roman Empire. In the county of Istria, the Rumeni lived in the following hamlets; Passert, Gradigne, Letaj, Grobnico, Sugnevizza, Berdo, Villanova and Jessenovizza in the superior Val d'arsa. In the peninsula Albonese (Labinština) they lived in Schitazza, and in the Val d'arsa they lived in Cherbune, Tupliaco, Scopliaco and Pedena. They mixed their language with the Croat language which was called the Istro-Romanian language.

Eventually they became integrated with the Slavs, thus speaking only the Croatian language. Skitača hamlet was named after people who braided their hair into a pigtail, Kita meaning pigtail in the local Croatian dialect. Another meaning is wanderer or vagabond. In Italian razza means race. Schitazza means the race of people with pigtails who lived in this village.^[1] Today Skitača is almost deserted, but since the area was discovered by tourists there are people who live in the village for most of the summer.

Hamlets in the Val d'Arsa where the Rumeni lived

St. Lucia delle lagrime (Saint Lucy of the tears)

In 1616 the people of Skitača built a chapel which they named St. Lucia delle lagrime, meaning St. Lucia of the tears. In 1632 the chapel became a Parish and the head of the Township of Cerovica, also called "Schitazza-St.Lucia" under the Venice Republic.

St Lucia church, in Skitaca001

During the Austrian-Hungary occupation 1799 to 1918 Skitača was also the head of the Township of Cerovica. There is a local legend of why the people built the chapel. The local children went to the local spring to get water and when they got there they saw a beautiful young woman sitting by the spring crying. The children asked the young woman why she was crying. She responded that in Skitača there was no church, so the children went to the towns people and told them the story. The people built the chapel and later upgraded it until it became a church with two bells on the roof tower. Because they saw the young woman crying they guessed that it was St.Lucia because there is still a spring on the spot where she was crying. The story is told that a very rich couple had a beautiful daughter. The couple brought this girl up as a Christian and when she was old enough she gave herself to God. The parents wanted her to marry a rich young man but she refused. She met another young man who was a Pagan and she taught him about God, and although she was told that she must not see him again she continued to meet him. Her eyes were taken out so she could not see him anymore. The empty eye sockets were filled with glass eyes which produced tears. She was killed because she refused to obey the law in Syracuse, Sicily. This is how she is known as St. Lucia of the tears. The Venice Republic ceased to exist in 1799, as Napoleon Bonaparte made his way through Europe. Later some of the territories conquered by the French were given to the Austria-Hungary Empire. These territories were called the Austrian Provinces of the Littoral and were divided into political sections known as: Province of the Littoral, Economic Circulatory #XII, Circle of Istria, and the local area called Labinstina was named Political District of Albona. The new government in the beginning of the 1800s started to divide the County into smaller fractions known as Sottocomuni or Townships. The Labinstina was divided into 12 fractions. Under the Venice Republic there were only 4 sottocomuni or townships in the Labinstina. Each Township had a headquarter where legal business was done away from the Istria County capital of Albona. The District Capocomune was Albona.^[2] The Township of Cerovica capital was Skitaca until 1918 when the Austrian-Hungary Empire ceased to exist.

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