EASTER 2026

“Kornjača i drugi predjeli” (The Turtle and Other Landscapes) is the title of a poetry book by Danijel Dragojević, and the turtle, in a very precise visual metaphor, represents the town of Korčula. Rounded on its island–peninsula and crisscrossed by a grid of streets truly resembling a turtle, it protects with the shell of its rooftops not only tangible but also intangible heritage from fading: tradition, faith, customs. Thus its ancient Easter rites of Vela Setemana (Holy Week) rank among the most impressive events and scenes in the Mediterranean breviary and calendar of our Adriatic towns. Among all the days of the Week, Good Friday stands out in particular, when confraternities, in a nighttime procession, carrying torci and “veli vosak”, that is, large hand-painted wax candles, with their reflections on ancient liturgical objects, singing the Passion, carry through the town the light of repentance and hope. Confraternities are associations of citizens established to promote devotion, strengthen social solidarity, advance economic life, preserve heritage and enrich the town with new works of art. By their social and class composition they are entirely democratic, yet strictly structured by statutes. The office of the head of a confraternity is so honorable that in the hierarchy of the community it occupies third place, after the bishop and the duke. With their wide range of social engagements, confraternities differ from guilds, which were framed primarily by belonging to the same profession. It is believed that confraternities appeared as early as between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, at the time of the first affirmation of Christianity, in the fourth and fifth centuries. Their emergence is often linked to major catastrophes such as plagues, famine, wars, floods, fires and other calamities that required collective responses. A special impetus was given by the founding of the Franciscan and Dominican orders, deeply connected with the people. Over the centuries, the priorities and fortunes of confraternities changed: they were suppressed by the Reformation and revived by the Counter-Reformation, abolished by the Enlightenment and renewed by Romanticism. They have survived to the present day, with various emphases, so that Pope Francis, bearing a telling name, while affirming their purpose, called on them to orient themselves toward the original values of the Gospel, adapted to the contemporary world. Confraternities played a particularly important role in the development and preservation of the vernacular language. The earliest domestic literature emerged within them and the first forms of theater developed from their popular festivities. The oldest Croatian church songbook belonged precisely to the Korčula Confraternity of All Saints; it is still used today during Vela Setemana. Confraternities in our lands are mentioned from the eleventh century onward, first in Zadar and then in other Adriatic towns, as well as in northern Croatia. In the fourteenth century in Zagreb, one of two bore the fine name Od Dobre Smrti (“Of a Good Death”). The Croatian Pontifical College of St. Jerome in Rome also originated from a confraternity that maintained a hospice for Croatian and, more generally, eastern Adriatic pilgrims. Also significant is the Boka Kotorska confraternity of Saints George and Tryphon in Venice, in the church of which the renowned Renaissance painter Carpaccio painted one of his most beautiful cycles of frescoes. In Korčula itself, three ancient confraternities have survived to this day. The oldest is that of All Saints, with its founding date recorded as 8 October 1301; then St. Roch, from 1575; and the Blessed Virgin Mary of Consolation — of the Belt, from 1603. They continue to fulfill their centuries-old duties even today, safeguarding reserves of civic virtues and reminding us of the values of community and equality. This year’s Easter stamp of Croatian Post depicts a procession of confraternity brothers in traditional attire (tonige), carrying torci, wax candles that can weigh up to eighty-five kilograms and reach heights of up to two and a half meters. The procession moves beneath stone vaults, under the turtle’s shell, just as it has moved for seven hundred and twenty-five years. This ancient heritage has been proclaimed by the Ministry of Culture as our intangible cultural heritage and Croatian Post has presented it to the world. Academician Željka Čorak