News

Dear guests/visitors/lovers of Colentum and Murter, its culture and history,

At this time, with the start of the preseason in 2020, we planned to start a “Tastes from the Amphora” competition, in which participants popped up amphora replicas in the underwater Murter beaches and could thus win a prize dinner at one of the many Murter restaurants.

As a worldwide pandemic has prevented us from doing so, we have decided to release an online edition of this prize game on social networks, in a way to reward participants for creativity and loyalty to Murter!

How to participate?

On our Facebook profile, write your text about Murter / Colentum in the comment section below the contest post. This can be a description of your island memories, impressions, rhymes or the like. We are particularly interested in rewarding those records where you will mention the Colentum archaeological site and/or Murter’s gastronomic offer. Then share the post publicly on your profile.

Remember, the text must be your author’s work, be creative and imaginative!

Find out more about the prize game and its rules at

https://www.facebook.com/UdrugaArgonauta/photos/a.440465128468/10158368086153469/?type=3&theater

The Tastes from Amphorae Award is part of the ABC8 project implemented by the Argonauta association in cooperation with the Murter-Kornati municipality, Murter restaurants and in partnership with KUU Zaokret and the Turčinović family, with the faithful support of the Šibenik City Museum. PROJECT “ARCHAEOLOGICAL GOODS COLENTUM 8” FINANCES BY THE MINISTRY OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNDS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (MRRFEU).

Udruga Argonauta, as part of the project “Colentum’s Archaeological Treasure 7”, is implementing various activities aimed at promoting and valorizing archaeological site Colentum, enhancing the existing contents and developing new informal methods of education inspired by them
The project started in October 2018, and one of the activities, the production of amphorae for “Flavours from the amphora”, has just been completed. The replicas of the amphorae were created by the Turčinović family, members of Zaokret, one of Argonauta’s partner organizations in this project. In a few days the replicas, made of clay, will be thrown into the sea in front of Murter’s beaches, waiting for the summer and the first swimmers and divers. Who will find an amphora with a medallion that carries the name of one of Murter’s restaurants will win a dinner for two!
We remind you the rules of the game: you need to bring the amphora with its medallion to the office of Murter-Kornati Tourist Board, where the staff will give you instructions about the dinner. The amphora itself remains property of the finder as a souvenir. The amphorae without medallion can also be retained.
This project is carried out by Argonauta in partnership with the association Zaokret and in cooperation with the Municipality of Murter-Kornati.

Argonauta is realizing a large number of activities within the Erasmus+ program, an EU program for education, training and sport. Between 2014 and 2020, a budget of 14.7 billion euros is enabling more than four million Europeans to study, train and volunteer abroad.

Our association has successfully implemented some twenty Erasmus+ projects, and on the 7^th December 2018 a special acknowledgment for a well-executed work arrived directly from the European Union offices: Argonauta’s short EVS “Dry Stone Wall Extravaganza 3” was among the most successful projects under the Erasmus+ program for 2018 and its summary was published in the brochure “Enriching our cultural heritage“.

The goals of DSWE3 were promoting archaeological site Colentum on Gradina hill in Murter as a valuable part of European cultural heritage; enhancing knowledge and raising awareness about the value of cultural-archaeological heritage and its potential for sustainable rural development; encouraging young people to civic activism; and creating opportunities within the Erasmus+ program.

The brochure presents some inspirational examples of what can be achieved in education, training, and youth work centered on cultural heritage. It was written to encourage cultural heritage experts to develop their activities with the help of Erasmus+. This EU program, which was also importan in the unification of Europe, has a vital role to play in sharing and preserving our diverse and common European heritage. 2018 is also the European Year of Cultural Heritage, and part of Argonauta’s activities, such as “Dry Stone Wall Extravaganza 4” and the “Night of Colentum”, were focused on this topic.

We thank all our co-workers for the cooperation in the preparation and implementation of “Dry Stone Wall Extravaganza 3”, especially our volunteers, who have contributed to the valorisation of Colentum.

The three-day workshop “Veseli obluci” (“Happy Pebbles”), held within the 7^th archaeological camp in Colentum, ended on Thursday. Its main activity was to paint on little stones the names of all previous volunteers who worked in Colentum and of the project partners and their flags. In doing so, we wish to express our gratitude to all the volunteers for each hour and each day of work at Colentum, and to show that their small contribution meant a lot for this area.

At the end of the workshop, representatives of the Museum of the City of Šibenik, employees and pupils of the Education Centre Šubićevac, and employees and volunteers of the Argonauta association walked to Colentum and placed the first pebbles on the drywall along the archaeological beach. Every tiny stone has a big story behind it: a story about voluntarism, about ideas, partnerships, co-operation, and friendship. All these stories have a common goal – to contribute to the development of the site.

The story is carried on by the European Voluntary Service “Dry Stone Wall Extravaganza 4”, and fifteen new stones with the names of the volunteers and the flags of Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain and Poland will soon join the other “Happy Pebbles”. We hope this story will have a lot of sequels that will bring new activities and projects to Colentum.

These days, in collaboration with the Šubićevac Education Center, the first workshop with young people with developmental difficulties was held in the premises of association Argonauta, in the framework of the International Archeological Camp organized by Argonauta in cooperation with the Museum of the City of Šibenik, the Murter-Kornati Municipality and the Šubićevac Education Centre.

The workshop, called “Veseli obluci” (“Happy pebbles”), has an interesting story, a story about archaeological site Colentum and its relationship with volunteers. Colentum, although not fully explored, is one of the most significant archeological sites of the Šibenik-Knin County. Its significance for many years has been neglected, research has been suspended for a long time, and then with Argonauta’s initiative the story of the sleeping town of Colentum began. A new archaeological research has been launched in cooperation with the Museum of the City of Šibenik, and numerous smaller and larger projects have begun its valorization. Through various activities, Colentum has been visited by many volunteers who have contributed to its image as it is today – going step by step towards an archaeological and recreational park. The construction of the access road, the cleaning of the vegetation, the help in the archaeological excavations, the transfer of stone, the construction and reconstruction of the dry stone walls, the cleaning of the beach and the marking of the paths are just some of many volunteers’ activities.

The main goal of today’s workshop is to remember the names of all former volunteers and partners in the implementation of the project by displaying the volunteers’ flags on small pebbles to be placed on the archaeological beach Colentum. In this way, we would like to thank all the volunteers for each hour and each day of work at Colentum, and show them how their small contribution meant a lot to this place.

The workshop includes the youngsters of Šubićevac Education Centre, with the help and supervision of the teacher Ivana Miškić, the defectologist Vedrana Četković and Argonauta’s staff and volunteers. It will be held until Friday, and the setting of the pebbles will be organized in cooperation with the partners of the project.

It is well known that Colentum, a Roman settlement, was also a port city, as is evidenced by the remains of port facilities. The port of ancient Colentum, once of great importance to maritime traffic due to its position, extended to the northwest side of the Gradina peninsula, near today’s church. It was located in a very secluded cove enclosed by Gradina peninsula and on the islets Mali, Veli Vinik and Tegina. Its time of maximum activity is considered to be the 1^st century b.C.

Last year, the Murter-Kornati Municipality inaugurated the first archaeological beach in Croatia. More and more swimmers come to this place, some of them attracted by the peace and silence of this beach, some others by the curiosity of exploring the remains of a Roman city under the sea. If you dive just a few meters, you will find the remains of ballast stones, amphorae… And the remains of these amphorae were the spark that started the story of Amphorarium, the first amphora home, which will provide an attractive presentation of the purpose and origin of amphorae, the underwater archaeological sites, and Murter’s gastronomy and tourist attractions, through the support of interactive multimedia contents.

The project was presented by Architect Damir Lasinović and his associates from Study Arx d.o.o., together with the Mayor of Murter-Kornati Toni Turčinov, the head of the Department of Finance, Development and Economy Luka Ježin, Jure Knežević and Iva Petrov, Jelena Devičić and Marko Barišić from the Šibenik company Kocka d.o.o., and the director of the Šibenik Museum of Art Željko Krnčević. Prof. Irena Radić Rossi from the University of Zadar is also a partner in the project.

As stated by the Municipality of Murter-Kornati, the Amphorarium will make history revive in an innovative and sustainable way, presenting the existing cultural heritage and the specificity of this locality by linking the cultural and gastronomic dimensions to a unique tourist attraction. We believe that this project will contribute greatly to the economic and social development of the island of Murter and we are happy that association Argonauta is part of this project.

Take a look at the pictures of the design project at this link.

The Colentum 6 Archaeological Treasure (ABC6) has contributed to the valorisation of the cultural and natural heritage of the Colentum archaeological site through the animation and education of the owners of the land on the hill of Gradina, in the premises of the National Library and the
reading rooms Murter yesterday at the 18th meeting , fostering volunteerism in the local community, and networking stakeholders from a private, public and non-profit sector. The project is implemented by the association Argonauta in cooperation with Murter – Kornati Municipality, with the financial support of the Ministry of Regional Development and European Union funds.

The meeting brought together the owners of the land on the hill of Gradina, representatives of the non-profit, public and private sector. At the beginning of the meeting, Ivona Jadriæ, Executive Director of the Argonauta Association, presented the Archaeological Treasure Colentum 6 project and recalled the results of the successfully implemented Archaeological Treasure Colentum 1-5.

The participants of the meeting had the opportunity to hear about the project Colentum Archaeological Park designed by architect Vinko Peraèiæ. The architect presented the conceptual design of the hill of Gradina hill in Murter, with a special emphasis on creating an arboretum on
Colentum. Following the presentation of the architect's conceptual design, Eupolis Group's Ranko Milic consultant, he presented the model of public-private partnership for the management of the Gradina hill in favor of the local community, landowners, visitors and all involved stakeholders.

The open discussion at the end of the meeting showed that landowners on Gradina Hill had positive reactions to the proposed projects and they would be happy to be involved in future projects. He also joined Port Isaac in the name of the Murter-Kornati Municipality, which with the Colentum Archaeological Park project applied for funds. This meeting is the first official contact with the owners of the land on the hill Gradina and as such we consider it very important to continue cooperation and activities in the field of archaeological site Colentum.

The meeting also announced the next activity concerning the construction of one of the plots on Mount Gradina as a pilot project for the future arboretum on Gradina. Also, the record of plant species on the hill Gradina is underway, which will also be an important contribution to the valorization of this site.

As part of the Archaeological Treasure Colentum 6 project, last Saturday at the Colentum site a landfill cleaning action was held. The main goal of the Archaeological Treasure Colentum 6 is to contribute to the valorisation of the cultural and natural heritage of the Colentum archaeological site through the animation and education of the landowners of the hill of Gradina, the promotion of volunteerism in the local community and the networking of stakeholders from the private, public and non-profit sector. The project is implemented by the association Argonauta in cooperation with the Murter-Kornati Municipality, Murtela Utility Company, the Sibenik Museum and LAG 249, all with the financial support of the Ministry of Regional Development and European Union Funds.
The action brought at Colentum 20 participants, members of the Argonauta association, employees of the utility company Murtel, volunteers and owners of land parcels. Volunteer activities were directed at the Colentum archaeological site with a new drywall that divides the archaeological beach from land parcels. In just a few hours of action, a large part of the land parcels had been cleaned from vegetation and then arranged.

This voluntary action was of paramount importance for the landowners to gain awareness of the potential of this site and the possibility of their participation in the development of the Colentum archaeological site, all in the conceptual project of Architect Coltum Vinko Peračić Archaeological Park. The Argonaut Association is grateful to all participants of the volunteer action for active participation and assistance in valorizing Colentum archaeological site.

As part of the Archaeological Treasure Colentum 6 project, the last two activities, the translation of the Colentum.info website into English and the inventory of plant species at Colentum will be presented soon. The last mentioned activity is carried out in cooperation with LAG 249 Vodice and Professor Marija Pandža.