engleski

Reading the Venetian Cadastre: Ravni Kotari Landscape in Early 18th Century

Landscapes have multiple meanings – they represent both the materialistic world and the subjective perception of space. Geographical research in the past has mostly dealt with the landscape's physical and social features. Over time, the focus has shifted and contemporary geographical research emphasizes the study of land use and land cover changes. Landscape development in Croatia and especially Littoral Croatia was marked by complex historical, social and economical factors. Ravni Kotari, the research area, is a physiognomic subunit of the central part of Littoral Croatia. Its physical features, such as fertile land and availability of water made Ravni Kotari suitable for agricultural production and settling since prehistory. Furthermore, the period of Roman rule and the Late Middle Ages marked the first two peaks in Ravni Kotari landsacpe development. Unfavorable conditions during Ottoman-Venetian wars in the 16th and 17th centuries caused discontinuity in landscape development. After liberation from Ottoman rule, the Venetian Republic organized settlement in Ravni Kotari because it wanted to establish a permanent military border towards Ottoman Empire. Settlers were given land and in return they had to serve as soldiers in case of war. Division of land was performed by cadastral survey, the first to take place in Ravni Kotari or Croatia. The primary role of cadastre was to monitor settling. However, the cadastre also recorded general spatial distribution and the surface of different land use categoriessuch as ploughlands, pastures, vineyards, meadows, uncultivated and infertile land. The largest shares belonged to pastures and ploughlands as a result of dominant grain cultivation and cattle breeding. The Venetian cadastre was not flawless considering the measurement techniques of that time and the categorization of land, but its importance is in introducing land survey that marks a starting point in land use study of Ravni Kotari area. The cadastre was made in the early 18th century which means that today we can track landscape development up to 300 years in the past. Another important fact is that contemporary Ravni Kotari landscape has its roots in early 18th cenutry, meaning that there were no more such profound discontinuities in landscape development.

cadastre; land use; landscape; Ravni Kotari

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