Episode 87

Sretni Blagdani, prijatelji!

LLC is back for its fourth annual Holiday episode.

Today we will learn a few new words and review some we’ve learned over the years.

Join us as we get into the Christmas spirit!

Holidays 4

Happy Holidays! - Sretni Blagdani! 

cold weather - hladno vrijeme

warm weather - toplo vrijeme

to give - dati 

Presents under the tree. - Pokloni ispod bora.

decorations - dekoracije

Christmas Eve - Badnjak

Midnight Mass - Polnoćka

Merry Christmas - Sretan Božić

Super Slatko Report

In this edition of the Super Slatko Report, DJ Moe tells about one of Croatia’s monuments from centuries’ past. Have you heard of Saint Nicholas Fortress? If not, stay tuned and learn about it with us.

Today I will be taking to you to a place located just outside of Šibenik, a place where the name is very fitting this time of year. Today we talk about St. Nicholas Fortress!

St. Nicholas Fortress is located just off the coast of  Šibenik. 

And Šibenik actually has 4 Fortresses to speak of, 

• St. Nicholas Fortress

• St. Michaels Fortress

• St. John’s Fortress

• And Barone Fortress

Of the four, St. Nicholas is the only one found at Sea, at the entrance of the Šibenik Port.

St. Nicholas Fortress got its name after the Benedictine Monestary that was originally at this location. Built by the Venetians in 1525 on Otok Ljulevac, a small island in the Šibenik Channel, the fort was intended to stop Turkish Boats from reaching the Port. The Fortress was not lacking for fire power as it had 32 cannons at the ready, which Wikipedia claims were unnecessary as the Fortresses design was imposing enough to turn back invaders and the fortress remains untested in battle.

The Design of the fort from an aerial perspective is in the shape of an arrow, the island fortress has high raised walls made of concrete as it was thought to have a better chance at withstanding canon ball fire at that time. From the pictures the massive walls giveaway to large high ceiling tunnels within.

The Fortress is extremely well preserved and at this time is only accessible via boat, though there is work being done that would allow you access to the Fort by foot or car. The Fortess is near enough to land for that to work and does currently have a thin trail that leads to the fort at this time; but it is under renovation. They say the current path in some areas is level with the water line and is prone to flooding, hence the need for the renovations.

The St. Nicholas Fortress is part of a UNESCO Heritage site group of Venetian fortress that are currently under its protection and set for some renovations across all of them in the near future. The St. Nicholas fortress is part of a line of forts comprising six Venetian defence fortifications, which extends as far as 1,000 kilometres, (600 miles) from the Italian region of Lombardy, along the Adriatic coast of Croatia, all the way to Montenegro. 

As I mentioned earlier, the only access to the Fort is by boat. And as you guessed it, there are tours available if you like., even self guided app versions that utilize headphones and a tablet. 

The St. Nicholas Fortress looks awesome and offers a great look into the past. The architecture alone is worth a look, I would love to see it in person. It’s on my list!

And thats it for the Super Slatko Report.