The legend of Miljenko and Dobrila

The eerily beautiful legend of the Kaštela begins in the seventeenth century at Kaštel Lukšić. Here lived the Vitturi and Rušinić families, who since time immemorial, and without the reason ever having been handed down, lived in feud with one another. Neither wished the other any good, and their forebears too had wished the plague upon one another. Now it came about that a child was born to each of the two families. The daughter of the Vitturis answered to the name of Dobrila, and the son of the Rušinićs was baptised Miljenko. The children grew up well sheltered and healthy, and one day — as fate will have it — they fell in love with one another. Appalled by this impossible liaison, Signor Vitturi resolved to entrust his daughter to the Benedictine convent in Trogir. Full of sorrow the child submitted to her fate, but secretly hoped and waited for her beloved Miljenko, that he should seek her, find her and wed her. In her isolation she is the only one who has not yet learned that the young man has been sacrificed by the judge of Kaštela to the laboriously maintained peace of Kaštela and likewise banished to a monastery. There, in Visovac, quite close to the Krka waterfalls, the despairing Miljenko one day meets an old woman. She introduces herself as a peasant, seems exceedingly friendly and quickly wins the young man's trust. To her he can confide his tragic love story. She is a little startled, for she had formerly been in the service of the Vitturi family and had raised Dobrila as her nurse. Out of upright love for her former foster daughter she promised Miljenko to make contact with the girl and to encourage her to flee, if she returned his love. And so it came to pass: Dobrila rejoiced to hear that her friend was well and thought of her as much as she of him, and resolved to risk the flight. But fortune was not kind to her. Before she could at last take her Miljenko in her arms again, she was carried off by robbers. Her disappearance had of course not gone unnoticed, and when her father heard of the brutal abduction of his daughter he did not hesitate a second: he used his wealth, his good name in Kaštela and his tactical skill, and so at last succeeded in freeing Dobrila. Both the Vitturi family and the Rušinićs had to admit to themselves that they were powerless against love, and so they accepted the feelings of the youngest generation — more than that: they finally made peace. A resounding wedding feast was held for Dobrila and Miljenko in Kaštela and the banishment lifted. But soon old feuds and hatreds flared up again. And since he now had the opportunity, old Vitturi used his contact with the band of robbers to have Miljenko killed. When Dobrila learned of the death of her newly wedded husband, and then heard as well that her own father had ordered it, she succumbed to madness. She screamed and wept for many days; the grief so weakened the young widow that she fell gravely ill — perhaps also because the meaning of her life, Miljenko, had now been taken from her. A short time after Miljenko's death Dobrila died too. Her last wish, to be buried beside her husband and so at least in death to be united with him for ever, was granted by her relatives. Both families had first to lose their children in order to accept their sincere love. Of this tragedy the coffins of Miljenko and Dobrila in the church of St John still bear witness today.