24. Welcome to Dubrovnik - Turistička zajednica grada Dubrovnika

A Note From History
People from Dubrovnik
took part in the digging
of the Suez
Canal
A
shovel, a letter and an ivory
and gold-plated walkingstick
bearing the image of
a lion’s head decorated in the Oriental
style in ivory mounted with gold bear
witness to the time when the dream
of Mediterranean seamen - including
those of the once celebrated Dubrovnik
Republic - came true: the digging of the
canal that facilitated travel to the rich
merchandise of the Middle and Far East
without circumnavigating Africa. Almost
three thousand people from Croatia,
mainly from the Dubrovnik area and the
Croatian coast, took part in the digging
of the Suez Canal. The shovel, which lies
in the Orebić Maritime Museum, is a
souvenir of the hard and diligent migrant
life of a man from Pelješac - Vicko
Antičević - who excavated mud and sand
during the construction of the waterway
that was to connect the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Some
thirty thousand people of all races and
nations took part in the construction of
the 160 metre long, 100 metre wide and
12 metre deep Suez Canal from 1859 to
1869, at a cost of more than 400 million
gold francs. Vicko’s shovel in Orebić and
the one in the British Museum in London
both symbolize the enormous strength
and will of man to conquer nature.
The extent to which the constructors and
managers of the Suez Canal appreciated
36 Dobrodošli u Dubrovnik Zima 2012./13.