When you step onto the plateau of Ulcinj's Old Town through the northern gate, the first thing you will see is the church-mosque, a unique cultural-historical monument, and behind it is the tall Balšić Tower, where Sabataj Cevi, or Mehmed Efendija, lived until his death in 1676. At the first step, and with a completely scant knowledge, you still realize that you are in the incredible vestibule of a historical treasury. Then you will be interested in the small square surrounded by casemates, i.e. vaults, which are located directly across from the church-mosque and the tower. You will learn that the name of the square is Pazari i gjytetin or Slave Square, which gives the historical dimension of the ancient walls more than two and a half millennia old a touch of irresistible mysticism, which attracts like a magnet. If you ask a local, in passing, they will tell you that you are on Cervantes Square. Confused, you realize that superficial information will not satisfy the playful imagination intrigued by the knowledge that one square in one Old Town in one country on the coast of one sea bears the name of the famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, far from his homeland.
This is where the story begins about how Cervantes, in his monumental work, sang of the beauty of Dulcinea, apparently the Ulcinj beauty from the Old Town, whom he fell in love with while he was a slave within the walls for five years. The romance of a tall, one-armed Spaniard and a beautiful Old Town woman, according to one legend, overcame all the prejudices of the time and as an immeasurable love found its place in Cervantes' Don Quixote, after the Bible, the most translated book on the planet that he wrote after slavery.
Although Cervantes himself never said during his life that he was in Ulcinj and although there is no clear evidence of this, numerous chroniclers agree that there are realistic assumptions that place the writer's enslavement in the Old Town in a realistic historical context.
"What would have given the main female character and mistress of Don Quixote the name Dulcinea among so many other names if he had not been here," says Ismet Karamanaga, a zealous chronicler and one of the first to deal with Cervantes' slavery, alluding to the fact that Ulcinj at the time wore the name Chita di Dolcigno and Dulcinho.
There are two versions, that is, hypotheses that link Cervantes to Ulcinj, and Karamanaga says that none of them should be ignored.
"Many biographers today are less and less in a dilemma about the slavery of Cervantes between Algiers and Ulcinj," he claims.
Journalist and publicist Mustafa Canka, who also deals with the subject, says that it is known that Cervantes was captured in 1575, upon his return from Corsica, where he was being treated for the left arm he lost four years earlier in the battle of Lepanto. pirates under the command of the famous commander Arnaut Mami.
"In Ulcinj they claim that it is clear from his very name that he is an ethnic Albanian, who brought him to Ulcinj," says Canka.
Three Ulcinj leutas, i.e. fast pirate boats, attacked a Spanish frigate in the Mediterranean Sea, near Sicily. In a bloody showdown, Canka says, the pirates overcame the belligerent Spaniards and brought the ship with the prisoners to their port. Among the prisoners was the then 24-year-old, one-armed Cervantes.
As an important written message for the Spanish king was found with him, it was estimated that he was a very valuable slave and that a lot of money could be obtained for him.
Map of old Ulcinj
"In Ottoman Ulcinj, there was a Slave Square for over 200 years, where slaves from enemy countries were brought to be resold. The families or their municipalities would be informed that they were there, and when the family, relatives or someone else decided to buy them, that trade would take place on neutral ground, usually in Dubrovnik," says Canka. He adds that the price ranged from 30 to 100, in exceptional cases 200 gold coins per item. "But Cervantes was asked for the entire 500 gold thalers. No one in Spain wanted to spend that much money, so he stayed in Ulcinj for five full years. "He was a half-slave - during the day he walked around the fortified city and on the permitted paths, attracted the attention of girls by singing wonderful Spanish serenades, and most of the time he wrote and expected a ransom," says Canka. In the meantime, his father had to sell the estate to free his son.
"A woman from Ulcinj went with him, who in the meantime fell in love with the famous writer. She later served as his inspiration for the famous novel," says Karamanaga. And that, he adds, is the famous Dulcinea, that is, the Ulcinian woman, because her name, as he says, comes from the words Dulcinjo Dulcigno, Dolcigno, as Ulcinj was called in the Romance languages.
Canka reminds us that what has been proven historically is that before he was released and left for Spain in September 1580, Cervantes had to defend himself against accusations that he collaborated with Berber, Algerian and Libyan pirates, to whom, by the way, Ulcinj was a safe base.
"Perhaps he came with them to Ulcinj, or maybe he heard interesting stories from them and other prisoners about Dulcinj, a city on the opposite coast of the Mediterranean," guesses Canka. Another hypothesis says that Cervantes was captured in the famous Battle of Lepanto in 1571 between the Western powers and the Ottoman Empire, where he lost his arm.
"The great Turkish admiral Alija Uluç, who became famous for his victory over the Greek pirate Haralmp, seeing that he was losing the battle at Lepanto, pulled out forty ships with a skillful maneuver. In that action, among the prisoners, Cervantes was also found," says Karamanaga. Uluč brought Cervantes as a slave to Ulcinj's Old Town, where he stayed until 1575, when Rodrigo paid a penny for his brother's freedom.
Karamanaga claims that in folklore in Ulcinj, Cervantes is known as - Servetus.
"Folklore mentions a certain Servetus, whose fate, as well as the basis of his name, coincides with that of Cervantes," says Karamanaga. He adds that the behavior of Cervantes was monitored with special attention.
"This slave would stay awake in his cell until late at night, constantly thinking and writing down something. During the day, interestingly, he always sang, so the girls often went out to the windows to listen to him. According to tradition, this was not enough for one girl, so every time the slave Servetus went for a walk on the permitted paths, she followed him. And so, over time, love was born between a local woman and an unknown slave", says Karamanaga about what the two versions of Cervantes' slavery in Ulcinj have in common.
There is also a version according to which the owner took Miguel to Algeria, i.e. to Berberia, with which the people of Ulcinj had close ties.
"He was bought by one of the most ferocious leaders there, a certain Hasan-aga. Cervantes managed to get out of there thanks to the Spanish friars who bought countrymen captured in the Mediterranean. "They had to count 500 gold thalers for Miguel, and that's how he, after five years of hard slavery, stepped onto Spanish soil," says Canka.
Only after that, "Don Quixote" and the story of Dulčineja, or Ulcinjanka, will follow. to the noble mistress of Don Quixote...
How to turn Ulcinj into Cervantes' city
The play "Cervantes and Dulcinea", directed by Munib Abazi, premiered on Friday evening on the stage of the Cultural Center in Ulcinj. The roles of Cervantes and Dulcinea were masterfully played by Muho Uluči and Flutur Mustafa.
"It's a fascinating story about his capture and stay in Ulcinj, and about his love with the beautiful Dolčineja, that is Ulcinjanka. In this case, it is completely irrelevant whether the story is a myth or the truth. It's just a fact that it's a beautiful love story by which our city is recognized in the world," Abazi said.
The play is the beginning of a project whose goal is for Ulcinj to take the name of Cervantes' city.
"The 'Dish of Cervantes' is being prepared, an initiative has been launched to have his image on all the glasses in the restaurants in the Old Town, as well as to place a statue of him in the casemate where, as they believe, he was imprisoned. Like a tide, awareness is growing among the people of Ulcinj that, in terms of marketing, the connections between Ulcinj and Cervantes, which have been told many times, should be used," said Canka.
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