Silba Island – A dry stone wall workshop as preservation of stone heritage

Dry stone walls, locally called mocire are an integral part of the landscape of every Adriatic island, especially small islands in the Zadar archipelago. They are the result of many hours, days and months of hard work in the heat, storm, rain, of diligent calloused hands that raised them to protect and separate the “roots” of the precious land.

Mocire, or dry stone walls, stood proudly as a legacy of their ancestors and formed a recognizable view of the island, but the ravages of time began to erode them and a large number of them began to decay and crumble. In order to save the dry stone walls from ruin as well as to preserve and transfer knowledge about the construction of dry stone walls, various workshops were launched, and one of them was held last week in Silba where SEA Silba Environment Art organized another, fifth in a row workshop of drywall construction, under the leadership of the association Dragodid for five years.

Five mentors and ten participants

Natasha Kadin, from Mavena, under whose wing the Sea Silba project or platform was organized said:

This year, five mentors and a dozen participants built a dry stone wall from the very beginning to the end and another kapareta, a conical dry stone wall in which capers are planted, and which was named after the Silba Toret. Mislav Tovarac, Mario Švencbir, Mario Zaccaria and Maja Frajsig participated as mentors from Dragodid, and the workshop, as every year, started from the theoretical foundations after which the participants went to the field and transferred theoretical knowledge into practice. The workshops are intended for beginners, who have not yet encountered this type of construction, but also for those who have already worked and repaired drywall, children and adults.

She explained that the association Dragodid was founded in 2007, and the beginnings date back to 2002 when the first international drywall workshop was held in the village of Dragodid near Komiža on Vis. She added that today they are present in various localities along the Croatian coast and in other countries. The headquarters of the association are in Šapjane near Rijeka and the main workshop is held in the village of Petrebišća on Učka. The main activities of the association are the organization and conduct of drywall workshops and the conduct of drywall heritage research in cooperation with local partners, original holders of drywall construction skills and connoisseurs of local traditions.

Silba – a delight for new generations

Silba Environment Art is an artistic-ecological multimedia platform founded by lovers of Silba and its natural and cultural beauties. For decades, the island of Silba has been known as the “island of artists” because it has always attracted people who want peace and quiet for  creating their works of art and constantly delights new generations, so in 2010 we founded an informal art platform within which we create and work together to improve conditions, procure technical supplies and logistical assistance to other interested people from all over the world who want to spend some time in Silba working on their own or joint artistic, cultural, environmental and sustainable development projects, in cooperation with local organizations and people, in order to improve life on the island.

Kadin

Source: Zadarskilist.hr