Pelinkovac

It seems that many Central European nations have some sort of a bitter-tasting liqueur based on wormwood and a bunch of other herbs.

The Germans have Jägermeister, probably the most famous brand among them, there’s also Underberg, the Hungarians have Unicum, the Czechs have Becherovka, and so on. Croatia is no exception.
Here we have Pelinkovac. The name is pretty straight-explanatory, as it derives from the word pelin, for wormwood ( Lat. Artemisia Absinthium). Variations of it are also popular in the neighboring countries. All major Croatian distilleries have their own version. Most popular are made by Maraska and Badel Distillery, and as in football rivalry, there are those who like just Badel and those who like just Maraska Pelinkovac, although there are other “clubs”/distilleries which produce Pelinkovac; Dalmacijavino, Darna Distillery (Rovinjski Pelinkovac), Zvecevo…
The alcohol volume is from 28% in Marsaka’s Pelikovac to 32% in Dalmacijavino’s Pelin.

pelin maraska

Pelinkovac on the Adriatic coast is served pure, with ice and lemon, as an aperitif or digestif.
Some people like it with lemon juice made from 1/4 to 1/2 of fresh lemon, and it is called “Štrukani Pelinkovac”, The nickname for Pelinkovac is Pelin.

Pelinkovac is known as “stomach restorative”.
It can be bought in some shops out of Croatia.

The story of Badel’s Antique Pelinkovac

ANTIQUE PELINKOVAC is Badel’s oldest and most famous premium herbal liqueur and also one of the most intriguing Croatian drinks. The product dates back to the year 1862, the founding year of the company Badel 1862.

It was created by Franjo Pokorny, a tradesman, and founder of the company Badel 1862. At that time Antique was sold solely in pharmacies with the recommendation “stomach restorative”. It was so successful that Franjo Pokorny became the supplier of this fantastic liqueur for the Viennese and French royal courts, and in accordance with records from that time, it was also exported to America. The recipe for the production of Badel Antique Pelinkovac is the oldest and most secret in Badel 1862 archives (…) and the original bottle in which the product is sold is exhibited in Zagreb City Museum.

Since the year 1862 Antique Pelinkovac is produced in the same, traditional manner, in accordance with the original recipe, from 100% natural ingredients. To those who understand the production technology of fine liqueurs, we shall reveal that selected aromatic herbs are first macerated in alcohol, and then the aged macerate is distilled in small series in coppers and after it is aged, it is manually bottled and thus it is a true Croatian craft product. Every bottle is marked with a unique serial number printed on the label at the back of the bottle. The flavor of this premium herbal liqueur is dominated by wormwood (Cro. Pelin), an aromatic herb characterized by its scent and bitter note, by which it is remembered and recognized due to the beneficial effect on the human body, thus making Pelinkovac the perfect digestive but also one of the best bases for traditional aperitif cocktails. (…)

maraska.hr
badel1862.hr
lovezagreb.hr
facebook.com/drustvo.stovatelja.maraskinog.pelinkovca/

Rab cake

If sweets delicacies are one of your loves, sweeten your life with Croatian delight and taste a Rapska torta (Rab cake)

It is believed that this symbol of a superior dessert was served for the first time in 1177 to Pope Alexander III on the occasion of the blessing of the Rab Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, while it is certain that the Rapska torta (Rab cake) was made as a specialty during the reign of the Venetians three hundred years ago in the houses of rich Rab patriarchs.

One hundred years ago this unique Rab dessert was made by nuns in the monastery of St. Anthony of Padua, while sometime later also in the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew. The original and at the same time secret recipe with all details required to make this sweet delicacy was only know to a few of the Rab women who miserly passed it on so that even today it is only known to a few of them. They only make them on especially festive occasions. Once reserved only for dignitaries and rich citizens, the Rapska torta (Rab cake) has become the most original souvenir of the Island of Rab, which along with the special delight for the taste buds has also taken a breath of Rab tradition and history to many corners of the world.

Some places to buy Rapska torta on Rab are “The House of Rab cake” by Vilma and by Nuns in their shop. Both places are located in the Old Town of Rab. There are also more places to buy it or to order it as a dessert in some of the restaurants. The shop of the main producer “Vilma” is also nearby Shopping center Petra at Banjol 162.

Rapska torta

Za tijesto / Dough  :

500 g glatkog brašna / Flour 
50 g maslaca / Butter
2 jaja / Eggs
2 žlice šećera / 2 tablespoons of Sugar
prstohvat soli / Salt – pinch

Nadjev / Filling:

1000 g mljevenih badema / Almonds
900 g šećera / Sugar
3 vanilin šećera / Vanily Sugar
korica 2 limuna / Lemon zest
korica 3 naranče / Orange zest
6-8 razmućenih jaja / Eggas
oko 5 čepova maraschina / Maraschino Liquer

Beside Rab cake, I recommend you to try other traditional delicacies, Muštaćoni and Baškotioni. There you can find also An Almond in sugar, Pikantini (almonds combined with garlic, chili, cumin, pepper, ginger and salt), Rogačići (Carob) and Arancini.

rabskatorta.com 
Jutarnji.hr
www.croatiaweek.com/croatian-recipes-rapska-torta-rab-cake/
bake-street.com/en/rabska-torta-rab-cake/

Medieval Summer Festival RABSKA FJERA

The first and largest medieval summer fair in Croatia, Rabska fjera is based on a tradition started 21st of July 1364, when the City Council of Rab decided to celebrate and honor King Louis the Great who freed them from the Venetian rule, as well as a holiday honoring St. Christophor, patron saint of the town of Rab. Fjera used to last for 14 days to celebrate and praise the saint’s powers that supposedly saved the town from destruction. 

The entire island goes back in time during those days. Small artisan stores move to the streets, so you can have your belt or a perfumed pomade made in front of your eyes, while your hair is being braided with tiny flowers into a typical do from the medieval times. Freshly fried šulčići are served and at the beach, an entire fishermen village is built altogether with the traditional tools, machines and even toys for children. Air is filled with the song and music, while tuna, fritule, cheese, and wine are served to passers-by. 

Marco Antonio de Dominis

Marco Antonio de Dominis (Croatian: Markantun de Dominis) (1560 – September 1624) was a Dalmatian ecclesiastic, Catholic archbishop, adjudged heretic of the Catholic Faith, and man of science.

The high school on Rab is called by his name.

He was born on the island of Rab,  Croatia, off the coast of Dalmatia, in a noble family of Dalmatian origin. Educated at the Illyrian College at Loreto and at the University of Padua, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1579 and taught mathematics, logic, and rhetoric at Padua and Brescia, Italy.

He was educated by the Jesuits in their colleges at Loreto and Padua, and is supposed by some to have joined the Society; the more usual opinion, however, is that he was dissuaded from doing so by Cardinal Aldobrandini. For some time he was employed as a teacher at Verona, a professor of mathematics at Padua, and a professor of rhetoric and philosophy at Brescia.[3]

Scientific work

In 1611 he published, at Venice, a scientific work entitled: Tractatus de radiis visus et lucis in vitris, perspectivis et iride, in which, according to Isaac Newton, he was the first to develop the theory of the rainbow by drawing attention to the fact that in each raindrop the light undergoes two refractions and an intermediate reflection. His claim to that distinction is, however, disputed in favor of Descartes.

In 1625 his work “Euripus, seu de fluxu et refluxu maris sententia” was published posthumously in Rome. It is an important source for the strange story of the theory of tides. It contains an exact but qualitative, luni-solar explanation of the phaenomena. This explanation is directly connected with the later developments.[6]

Religious politics

In 1596 he was, through imperial influence, appointed Bishop of Senj (Segna, Seng) and Modruš in Croatia in August 1600, and transferred in November 1602 to the archiepiscopal see of Split. His endeavors to reform the church soon brought him into conflict with his suffragans; and the interference of the papal court with his rights as metropolitan, an attitude intensified by the quarrel between the Papacy and Venice, made his position intolerable. This, at any rate, is the account given in his own apology, the Consilium profectionis in which he also states that it was these troubles that led him to those researches into ecclesiastical lawchurch history, and dogmatic theology, which, while confirming him in his love for the ideal of the true Catholic Church, convinced him that the papal system was far from approximating to it.[3]

He sided with Venice, in whose territory his diocese was situated, during the quarrel between Pope Paul V and the Republic (1606–7). That fact, combined with a correspondence with Paolo Sarpi and conflicts with his clergy and fellow bishops, which culminated in the loss of an important financial case in the Roman Curia, led to the resignation of his office in favor of a relative and his retirement to Venice.

To England

Threatened by the Inquisition, he prepared to apostatize, entered into communication with the English ambassador to Venice, Sir Henry Wotton, and having been assured of a welcome, left for England in 1616.

On his way there, he published at Heidelberg a violent attack on Rome: Scogli del Christiano naufragio, afterwards reprinted in England. He was received with open arms by James I, who quartered him upon Archbishop Abbot of Canterbury, called on the other bishops to pay him a pension, and granted him precedence after the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. De Dominis wrote a number of anti-Roman sermons, published his often reprinted chief work, De Republicâ Ecclesiasticâ contra Primatum Papæ (Vol. 1, 1617; vol. II, 1620, London; Vol. III, 1622, Hanau), and took part, as an assistant, in the consecration of George Montaigne as Bishop of Lincoln, and Nicolas Felton as Bishop of Bristol on 14 December 1617. In that same year, James I made him Dean of Windsor and granted him the Mastership of the Savoy.

Contemporary writers give no pleasant account of him, describing him as fat, irascible, pretentious and very avaricious; but his ability was undoubted, and in the theological controversies of the time he soon took a foremost place. His published attacks on the papacy succeeded each other in rapid succession: the Papatus Romanus, issued anonymously (London, 1617; Frankfort, 1618); the Scogli del naufragio Christiano, written in Switzerland (London, (?) 1618), of which English, French and German translations also appeared; and a Sermon preached in Italian before the king.[3]

But his principal work was the De republica ecclesiastica, of which the first part after revision by Anglican theologians was published under royal patronage in London (1617), in which he set forth with a great display of erudition his theory of the church. In the main it is an elaborate treatise on the historic organization of the church, its principal note being its insistence on the divine prerogatives of the Catholic episcopate as against the encroachments of the papal monarchy. In 1619 Dominis published in London from a manuscript Paolo Sarpi‘s Historia del Concilio Tridentino.[3] This history of the Council of Trent appeared in Italian, with an anti-Roman title page and letter dedicatory to James I. The manuscript had been obtained from Sarpi for George Abbot by his agent Nathaniel Brent.[4]

His vanity, avarice, and irascibility soon lost him his English friends; the projected Spanish marriage of Prince Charles made him anxious about the security of his position in England, and the election of Pope Gregory XV (9 February 1621) furnished him with an occasion of intimating, through Catholic diplomatists in England, his wish to return to Rome.

The king’s anger was aroused when De Dominis announced his intention (16 January 1622), and Star-Chamber proceedings for illegal correspondence with Rome were threatened. Eventually he was allowed to depart, but his chests of hoarded money were seized by the king’s men, and only restored in response to a piteous personal appeal to the king.

Return to Rome

Once out of England, his attacks upon the English Church were as violent as had been those on the Papacy, and in Sui Reditus ex Anglia Consilium (Paris, 1623) he recanted all he had written in his Consilium Profectionis (London, 1616), declaring that he had deliberately lied in all that he had said against Rome. After a stay of six months in Brussels, he proceeded to Rome, where he lived on a pension assigned him by the Pope. On the death of Pope Gregory XV on 8 July 1623, the pension ceased, and irritation loosened his tongue.

Coming into conflict with the Inquisition he was declared a relapsed heretic and was confined to the Castel Sant’Angelo. He there died in September 1624.

Even his death did not end his trial. His case was continued after his death, and on 20 December 1624 judgment was pronounced over his corpse in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. His heresy was declared manifest, and by order of the Inquisition his body was taken from the coffin, dragged through the streets of Rome, and publicly burned in the Campo di Fiore together with his works, on 21 December 1624.[5]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Antonio_de_Dominis
tarocchi-dominis.com/marco-antonio-de-dominis.html
De Dominis’s (1611) De radiis visus et lucis in vitris perspectivis et iride – digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library