Lovran

A town of rich tradition and history, Lovran is one of the oldest settlements on the east side of the Učka mountain. It managed to maintain its medieval town centre throughout the ages and build the urban settlement of today on its foundations. It was named after the laurel plant (“lovor” in Croatian”) which grows in abundance all over the town and the surrounding area.
The area was known for the construction of a type of traditional boat, “guc”, and one of the more interesting stories of Lovran is certainly the story of the Lovran water carriers who carried fresh spring water from the public well of Tuliševica up to a dozen times a day. Oral tradition and photography have preserved the identities of two Lovran water carriers: Andro Lazarić Bak (“Bak” is a local expression for a man as strong as a bull) and Antonija Martinčić Lulu, nicknamed Tonka. They supposedly divided the historic centre between them in two zones, but there were still occasional fights for territory.
They charged one “centesimo” (one hundredth of a lira) for the service, which provided a few liters of water. Nowadays, Lovran’s inhabitants pay one of the highest water utility tariffs in Croatia due to large investments in water supply.
For over four decades, Lovran and the nearby villages of Liganj and Dobreć organise the event of “Marunada”, which revolves around products made of chestnuts, i.e. the traditionally roasted marrons.
Lovran and the 4 nearby settlements are inhabited by just over 4,000 people.

Zoran Žmirić

Zoran Žmirić is a Croatian writer, born in Rijeka in 1969. He is a member of the Croatian Writers Society and his works have been translated into English, Italian, Polish, Slovene and Ukranian.
So far, he has published the following works: “Kazalište sjena“ (“The Theatre of Shadows”) of 2002, “Vrijeme koje nam je pojeo Pac-Man“ (“The Time Eaten From Us by Pac-Man” of 2005, “Blockbuster“ of 2009, “Riječke rock himne“ (“Rock Anthems of Rijeka”) of 2011, “Snoputnik“ (“Dream Traveller”) of 2014, “Zapisano metkom“ (“Written By a Bullet”) of 2015, and “Putovanje desnom hemisferom“ (“Travelling along the right hemisphere”) of 2017.
He has received the following awards and professional recognition: finalist for the VBZ award for best unpublished manuscript – “Blockbuster” (2009), finalist of the T-portal literary award – “Blockbuster (2010), winner of the “Književno pero” award of the Croatian Literary Society for book of the year – “Blockbuster” (2010), winner of the annual award of the City of Rijeka for creative work and special achievements in culture (2011), finalist of the VBZ award for best unpublished manuscript – “Putovanje desnom hemisferom” (2015), winner of the CeKaPe super-short story competition (2013), finalist of the “Vranac” international competition for best short story of the literary festival “Odakle zovem” (“Where I’m Calling From”) of 2016.

More on the author and his work:
zmiriczoran.wordpress.com
www.goodreads.com/author
www.facebook.com/Zmiric.Zoran

Photo: Carmela Žmirić

The programme was implemented in cooperation with the Municipality of Lovran.