Cara

This typical old village of vine growers with about 700 inhabitants lies on the main island road 25 km from the city of Korcula. Cara was built on the south slope of a hill under which spreads a large fertile polje covered with vineyards. A special species of grape grows here, called Posip. The village has a wine cellar where a widely known wine of that name is made.

In the village centre stands St Peter's parish church from the 15th century, reconstructed many times. Its bell tower was completed in the 1920s. The main altar has the painting Christ Revealing Himself to the Apostles by the outstanding Venetian Renaissance artist Jacopo Bassano from the end of the 16th century. A great cypress tree several centuries old grows on the small paved square in front of the church. Like in the other island settlements, Korcula landowners and patricians built fortified summer houses here and in the nearby bay of Zavalatica.

 

In the Polje in the midst of vineyards is the old and new graveyard with the votive church of Our Lady of Cara Field (Gospa od Carskog polja) from the 14th century, which got its present appearance in the Baroque period. On its altar is a predella with reliefs from the life of the Virgin. According to tradition, the sea washed these late-Gothic alabaster (earlier coloured) reliefs of English origin, from a 15th century Nottingham workshop, into the nearby Cavica luka bay, and there is also a legend about their miraculous arrival in Cara. The church is the main pilgrimage centre on the island of Korcula: on St James's Day, 25th of July, there is a great ceremony here when a church procession walks around the whole of Cara field carrying the figure of the Virgin from the altar, followed by many islanders.

 

The Braca Cmomiri cultural and performing art society in Cara was named after legendary brothers who fought bravely for the rights of the serfs against the Venetian nobility and governor in ancient days. The villagers are farmers and work in tourism. There are modern family pensions right beside the sea in the nearby south bay of Zavalatica (2 km of good road).