Albania Veneta
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The Republic of Venice in 1560 and the Albania Veneta shown as the pink area south of the Republic of Ragusa around Cattaro (Kotor)

Albania Veneta (English: Venetian Albania) was the name for the possessions of the Republic of Venice in southern Dalmatia that existed from 1420 to 1797. It originally covered the coastal area of what is now northern Albania and the coast of Montenegro, but the Albanian and southern Montenegrin parts were lost to the Ottomans in 1571 ^[1].

Name and geography

The word "Veneta" in Albania Veneta was used to differentiate the area from the Ottoman Albania (called Albania Ottomana in those centuries), an area stretching from Kosovo to southern Albania ^[2].

These Venetian possessions stretched from the southern borders of the Republic of Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik) to Durazzo (Durres) in coastal Albania. The Venetian territories never reached more than 20 km from the Adriatic Sea. After 1573 the southern limit was moved to the village of Confin (Kufin) near Budua (Budva), because of the Ottoman conquests of Antivari (Bar), and Dulcigno (Ulcinj) in the Balkans.
The Venetian territory was centered around the Bay of Kotor and included the modern towns of Kotor, Risan, Perast, Tivat, Herceg Novi, Budva, and Sutomore.

History

Venice periodically controlled the small southern Dalmatian villages around in the 10th century, but did not permanently assume control until 1420. The Venetians assimilated the Dalmatian language into the Venetian dialect quickly. The Venetian territories around Kotor lasted from 1420 to 1797 and were called Albania Veneta, a province of the Republic of Venice ^[3].

When the Turks started to conquer the Balkans in 15th century, the population of Christian Slavs in Venetian Dalmatia increased greatly. By the end of 17th century the Romance speaking population of the historical Albania Veneta was a minority, according to Oscar Randi in his book Dalmazia etnica, incontri e fusioni^[4].

After the French Empire conquered and put and dissolved the Republic of Venice in 1797, the area of the Albania Veneta changed control many times: in 1805 was annexed to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy^[5], then in 1809 became part of the French Illyrian Provinces and finally in 1815 was put under Habsburg control in the Dalmatia of the Austrian Empire.

In the Austrian Empire, the former venetian territories of Albania Veneta were part of Austrian Dalmatia, and in 1878 (at the Congress of Berlin) another 40 km² around Sutomore were added to this territory.

Italian writers from "Albania Veneta"

Writers from XV century to the end of the XVIII century.

• Giovanni Bona Boliris
• Ludovico Pasquali
• Cristoforo Ivanovich
• Giovanni Polizza
• Giorgio Bisanti
• Girolamo Pima
• Timoteo Cisilla
• Giovanni Crussala
• Giuseppe Bronza
• Girolamo Panizzola
• Bernardo Pima
• Nicola Chiurlo
• Luca Bisanti
• Alberto de Gliricis
• Domenico and Vincenzo Bucchia
• Vincenzo Ceci
• Antonio Zimbella
• Francesco Moranti

Gallery

Catholic Cathedral of Saint Tryphon in Cattaro (Kotor)	Church in Perasto (Perast) with typical Venetian bellfry	Postcard showing the Venetian architecture of Perasto in 1900	Old Cattaro (Kotor)
Venetian walls of Cattaro (Kotor)	Old Perasto (Perast)	Roman mosaic in Risano (Risan)	Old Venetian church of Cattaro (Kotor)

Notes

Bibliography

• Bartl, Peter. Le picciole Indie dei Veneziani. Zur Stellung Albaniens in den Handelsbeziehungen zwischen der Balkan- und der Appenninenhalbinsel. In: Münchner Zeitschrift für Balkankunde 4 (1981-1982) 1-10.
• Bartl, Peter. Der venezianische Türkenkrieg im Jahre 1690 nach den Briefen des päpstlichen Offiziers Guido Bonaventura. In: Südost-Forschungen 26 (1967) 88-101.
• Bartoli, Matteo. Le parlate italiane della Venezia Giulia e della Dalmazia. Tipografia italo-orientale. Grottaferrata 1919.
• Cecchetti, Bartolomeo. Intorno agli stabilimenti politici della repubblica veneta nell'Albania. In: Atti del Regio Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti. Bd. 3, Seria 4, S. 978-998. 1874.
• De Brodmann, Giuseppe. Memorie politico-economiche della citta e territorio di Trieste, della penisola d’Istria, della Dalmazia fu Veneta, di Ragusi e dell’Albania, ora congiunti all’Austriaco Impero. Venezia 1821.
• De Castro, Diego. Dalmazia, popolazione e composizione etnica. Cenno storico sul rapporto etnico tra Italiani e Slavi nella Dalmazia. ISPI 1978.
• Durant, Will. The Renaissance. MJK Books. New York, 1981.
• Gelcich, Giuseppe. Memorie storiche sulle bocche di Cattaro. Zara 1880.
• Martin, John Jeffries. Venice Reconsidered. The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297–1797. Johns Hopkins UP. New York, 2002.
• Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice. Vintage Books. New York, 1989.
• Paulucci, Luigi. Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810 Edizioni Italo Svevo.Trieste, 2005.
• Randi, Oscar. Dalmazia etnica, incontri e fusioni. Tipografie venete. Venezia 1990.
• Scaglioni Marzio. La presenza italiana in Dalmazia 1866-1943 Histria ed. Trieste,2000.
• Schmitt, Oliver. Das venezianische Albanien (1392 - 1479). (=Südosteuropäische Arbeiten. 110). München 2001.
• Sumrada, Janez. Napoleon na Jadranu / Napoleon dans l'Adriatique. Zalozba Annales. Koper, 2006.
• Tagliavini, Carlo. Le origini delle lingue neolatine. Patron Ed. Bologna 1982.
• Trogrli, Marko. Školstvo u Dalmaciji za francuske uprave/The french school system in French Dalmatia. Knjižnica Annales Majora. Koper, 2006.

References

• The struggle between Venice and the Ottoman empire for the "Albania veneta" in the sixteenth century (italian)
• Cattaro (Kotor) and the Montenegro's Venetian speaking area (italian)
• UNESCO: Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor (Cattaro)
• Historical review of the Italian traces in Montenegro (Italian)
• Dante Alighieri association in Kotor (Cattaro)