Photos: Boris Kačan / TZO Lumbarda
Indigenous white grape variety from Lumbarda on the island of Korčula is several thousand years old, and the best place for it to grow are the sandy vineyards in the Lumbarda plain. In the last several years Grk has become the new Croatian wine star, presented with many international wine awards
Throughout its history, Lumbarda on the island of Korčula was a meeting point of different nations and cultures. Research that has been done to date indicates that its first inhabitants were the Illyrians, who ruled the island in the Bronze and Iron ages, leaving us a number of stone tumuli as well as stone heaps marking strategic points, which are mainly located in the western part of Lumbarda.
The Greek incursions into the Adriatic Sea have brought the island of Korčula out of the historical anonymity, and it became known as Korkyra Melaina (‘Black Korkyra’). The area must have been of great significance to the ancient Greeks since they established as many as two settlements on the island. The later one was established in Lumbarda in the early 3rd century BCE. A testament to this historical event is the most well-known and significant stone inscription from antiquity that has been found in the Republic of Croatia up to the present day. It is the Lumbarda Psephisma, displayed in the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb.
The inscription is a decree detailing the establishment of the colony. From it, we know, among other things, that the Lumbarda settlement was established by the Greeks from the island of Issa, today’s Vis, on the basis of a previous agreement with the representatives of the local Illyrians, Pyllos and his son Dazos. The Lumbarda Psephisma was found on the top of the Koludrt hill, where, most likely, there once had been an Issian town. This valuable historical document revealing the origins of today’s Lumbarda is just as important for the story of the beginnings of viticulture and winemaking, which have been practiced here for several millennia.