Is Aldonza Lorezno from Castile really Don Quixote's Dulcinea, do the ancient ramparts of a small coastal town hide the unfathomable mystery of the famous writer's love life, why does his name resonate more strongly in a small old town far from Spain than in his native Alcala de Henares...
Miguel de Cervantes, knowingly or not, giving his name to the main heroine of his famous novel Dulcinea, inextricably linked his name to old Dolcinio, mystically intertwined the stormy history of the city, bringing myth and reality into almost the same plane. In their lexicons, numerous historians noted Aldonza as Cervantes' love obsession, and within the ancient ramparts there are really no written traces that the writer was enslaved there.
His shadow, as Dr. Prof. Ivana Kovač Barrett says, still hovers over Ulcinj...
"As in any legend, there are data that fit perfectly into the story, and there are others that cannot be connected. There are events that seem theoretically possible and others that are mere guesses.
But, when all these stories are added up, we get an outcome that really seems fascinating and one could say, so contagious, that you start to believe it yourself," says Kovač Barrett, who is a professor at the Faculty of Philology.
In Ottoman Ulcinj, for more than 200 years there was a square where prisoners were brought after numerous, uncompromising confrontations between Ulcinj pirates and their enemies. There they were sold as slaves. Today, that place in the Old Town, next to the Balšić Tower, where Mehmed-efendi, or Sabataj Cevi after he converted to Islam, dined, is called Slave Square or Cervantes Square.
The inhabitants of the ancient fortress firmly believe that Cervantes lived there as a semi-free slave and that he found inspiration for Dulcinea in a beautiful girl he met while walking around the city. In addition to the name of the square, a memorial sculpture with a bronze bust of Serevantes, cast a little east of the casemates and vaults, in the courtyard in front of the Palace of Venice, defiantly testifies to this today. It is 3,6 meters high and is there to tell tourists and historians that it belongs there.
Ćazim Resulbegović, director of the "Real estate" company, which manages the Palace and commissioned the sculpture, says that the monument is there because of the obligation and debt of all Ulcinians to Cervantes.
"I think that this space will be widely recognizable, also because of the good, positive connotations and reactions of all visitors to the monument so far. With this, Ulcinj will become recognizable as the city where Cervantes lived, and what is of crucial importance for us is the fact that the character of Dulcinea has a place in the novel 'Don Quixote' for a reason, of which all of us Ulcinj residents are very proud," he says. Resulbegović. Cervantes thus, whether someone wants to admit it or not, like no one else in history, created a magical link between legend and reality, stories and facts.
Blacksmith Barrett recalls that Cervantes participated in the battle of Lepanto in 1571, in which he was wounded.
“It is also known that he subsequently spent six months recovering from his wounds in Messina. It is also known that after that he returned to his military mission, distinguishing himself in the battles of Corfu and Navarino. However, there is no information about his alleged stay in Ulcinj; although, in essence, it was possible," says Kovač Barrett.
Lepant, now Naupactus, is located 600 kilometers from Ulcinj, which was then called Dolcigno.
"Some researchers claim that exactly in the year when the battle of Lepanto took place, i.e. 1571, Ulcinj was taken over by Berber pirates. The Venetians and the Turks fought for a long time for this city, which will finally turn into a pirate haven under Ottoman protection," reminds Kovač Barrett. He adds that in the Saint Senato Mar from May to June 1656, in the entry number 135, page 168, information was registered that a certain "Giustina Donini" begged the Venetian Senate that her son, who was captured and turned into a Turkish slave, be "exchanged" for a certain Mehmet from Ulcinj. "Que era esclavo en una galera veneciana...el Senado aprobjo este intercambio"- "Who was a slave on a Venetian galley...The Senate approved this exchange".
"It is also known that Albania Venetia was finally completely taken over by the Turks around 1797, when Venice had already fallen to Napoleon's troops. However, historical data indicate that the southernmost part of Albania Venetia, i.e. the cities of Bar and Ulcinj, were taken over by the Turks in 1573, and because of this, the Venetians moved the borders of Albania Venetia towards Budva. That would be two years after Lepanto, and therefore it cannot fit into the theory that Cervantes was a prisoner in this city", says Kovač Barrett, recalling that the Genoese and Venetians were then allies of the Spanish, within the Catholic side, in the war against the Turks.
"If we leave aside all the contradictions and assumptions related to dates and events, we also see that Cervantes himself, with all the sources of inspiration he could have, never wrote directly about Ulcinj. On the other hand, we know all the details about his imprisonment in Algeria, when he was captured by Berber pirates near the Costa Brava in Spain some five years after Lepanto. They were left to us by the writer himself, which is not the case with Ulcinj. Isn't it strange, therefore, that a city which, as it is said, left such a strong mark that it inspired the writer to create a femme ideal model, i.e. his muse, who is named after that city, that the same city is not mentioned by the writer anywhere" , says Kovač Barrett and leaves a doubt "that maybe, for some reason, the writer wanted to run away from him, to hide that memory...".
"It is possible, in the end, that as a soldier and sailor, he heard stories about the city, that he even saw it from afar, or that he stepped on its soil on his way to Corfu and Navarino. It is possible that this is how he evoked his name when he created Dulcinea, which, as science recognizes and as Cervantes himself said, corresponds to a real girl who lived in Castile, and her name was Aldonza Lorezno. It is possible that with the name of Dulcinea he wanted to show how unfathomable, how difficult and how lofty it is to reach the ideal of perfect inspiration in the image of one woman..." says Kovač Barrett.
The old town will be more visited
Resulbegović claims that the area where the Cervantes monument is currently located will affect the recognition and promotion of the city in all segments.
"It will also have an impact on better attendance, which will finally give Ulcinj's Old Town the place it deserves on the cultural map. Such a significant cultural and historical content will also influence the enrichment of the tourist offer of the city of Ulcinj", claims Resulbegović. He added that the company "Real Estate & Co" will make a significant contribution to the enrichment of the city's offer with quality segments, such as "Beg's Tower", which tourists regularly visit, both in the previous and in the future.
An ideal scenario for dreamy knights and daring heroes
In 1405, the professor of Spanish language and literature recalls, Venice took over the city from the already weakened Serbian principality and gave it the name Dulcigno, in Latin, Dulcinium, incorporating it into an area they would call Albania Venetia, together with the Venetian possessions located in the southern part of Dalmatia, including such cities as Cattaro, Perasto, Castelnuovo, Antivari and Dulcigno.
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