JURANDVOR, Sept 23 (Hina) - The northern Adriatic island of Krk on Saturday celebrated the 900th anniversary of the Baska Stone Tablet, the most important monument to Croatia's written word, inscribed in Glagolitic and considered the
Croats' birth certificate which for the first time ever mentioned the word 'Croatian' alongside the name of Croatian King Zvonimir. The celebration began with a mass at St. Lucia's Benedictine abbey in Jurandvor, and was followed by speeches delivered by Croatia's President Stipe Mesic and Culture Minister Antun Vujic.
JURANDVOR, Sept 23 (Hina) - The northern Adriatic island of Krk on
Saturday celebrated the 900th anniversary of the Baska Stone
Tablet, the most important monument to Croatia's written word,
inscribed in Glagolitic and considered the Croats' birth
certificate which for the first time ever mentioned the word
'Croatian' alongside the name of Croatian King Zvonimir.
The celebration began with a mass at St. Lucia's Benedictine abbey
in Jurandvor, and was followed by speeches delivered by Croatia's
President Stipe Mesic and Culture Minister Antun Vujic.#L#
"Only a few peoples in these areas can be proud of a 900-year-old
document on their cultural identity," said the President, the
patron of the celebration.
"The Baska Stone Tablet was the beginning of a rich cultural
creative process, which gave the island of Krk many values of
outstanding significance, promoting it into an original source of
all-round Glagolitic literacy and culture in a broader
civilisational context," Mesic said.
He stressed the residents of Croatia's biggest island should take
great pride, as should the entire national community, in the fact
that despite a barren soil, they had proved through the centuries
that cultural values did not acknowledge limits in material
differences.
According to Mesic, "we are living in a time when many cultural
values cannot achieve full affirmation and when cultural
production sometimes experiences crises. The difficult economic
situation, the suppression of the continuity of the national and
cultural tradition in the symbiosis of the former state, as well as
the dynamic technological processes represent a serious hurdle in
nurturing and developing traditional cultural values."
Mesic said this was not only Croatia's case and was the result of
"fighting for minimum material existence." He added this should not
discourage people because "better times are ahead... when our
economy will stand on firmer feet." Better economic results will
bring significant funds for culture as well, he said.
The President reminded the residents of Krk that other states,
especially those in transition, were sometimes going through
crises. It would be a bad idea to adhere to the anarchy of
individuals and groups, he said.
"Here, the rule of law will function and all citizens have to abide,
equal in rights and obligations, in the spirit of democratic
European rules of behaviour. The new authorities have promised and
promise a law-based state. We worked for it and it is the one we want
to leave to future generations," said the President.
He added the Baska Stone Tablet and the all-round cultural heritage
of this area were proof of the civilisational achievements of our
forefathers, and that the fact that Croatia belonged to those roots
and the long tradition of its existence within the culture of
Central Europe should be a "firm guarantee that by taking big steps,
we may return to that community of peoples fast and formally."
Mesic reminded this was a community "which accepts us without the
weight of our recent past, without xenophobic and ultra-
nationalist encumbrances which are steeped in mythology and the
consequence of isolation from the contemporary world."
(hina) ha