Podvrh 18, Tribunj 22212
Hrvatska

Tel: +385 22 446 513
Mob: +385 98 343 822
E-mail: danielunic@tempusfugit-tribunj.hr

Rogoznica Festival

The miraculous picture was burnt during a fire in the parish church, and a second one, which was stolen in the the last century, was painted in Vienna in 1888. It has a silver frame which weighed 13 kg and was made by a goldsmith called Valle from Split based on a sketch by Ivo Pavković, a shipbuilding master from Rogoznica.

The picture shows a very special moment: Having found out that she was pregnant, the Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elisabeth. Elisabeth was also pregnant by God's grace, despite the fact that she was old and was about to give birth to John the Baptist who was going to prepare the people for the arrival of Jesus Christ.

The larger chapel was built between 1907 - 1909 by a craftsman named Ivan Quero from Lecce, Italy. The altar was made in 19 14 by Pavle Bilinić from Split from donations of 7, 180 kuna, out of which he took only 400 kuna for his work. The Chapel was blessed by the parish priest.

The ceremony is held each 2nd July on Petrovčica. The picture of Virgin Mary is taken by the ship, in the company of a priest and young girls dressed in white robes, to the Caparinova waterfront. There, the picture is welcomed by the Bishop of Šibenik accompanied by a dozen priests and several thousand believers. From the Caparinova waterfront a procession starts which then goes along the Rogoznica waterfront and the picture of the Virgin Mary is taken to the parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The picture remains in the parish church until the first Sunday after Our Lady of Karmela, when it is returned in festive procession by land and sea to its sanctuary on the Gradina Cape. A hundred boats and thousands of pilgrims participate in the procession. Many of these pilgrims walk barefoot for 2.5 kilometers. In the past, the Virgin Mary's Ship was followed by young male swimmers. Today that is still the case; however now there are also young girls.

In the year 1887 there was an epidemic of black measles and up to 40 people died daily. The local priest, Father Tode Pavlović, gathered the believers and they went barefoot on a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Virgin Mary, begging her for mercy. From that day, 24th January, people stopped dying and the sick were healed, and on the day - now a votive holyday - a holy mass is held in the Chapel.