Episode 4: The Hauntings of Daksa Island

Feb 13

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here...

Episode Transcript

There is an island off the coast of Croatia. Just 1.5 nautical miles from the City of Dubrovnik, the small desert Island is home to a 13th century Benedictine monastery, a rustic lighthouse, and an idealistic landscape. Oh and if you are in the market for a piece of real estate in the Adriatic Sea, you might be interested to know that the property is up for grabs—if you can stomach it’s menacing reputation that is.

Because according to those who live or frequent the nearby city of Dubrovnik, the islet is also allegedly the setting of a rather grisly haunting. Apparently on stormy nights, ghostly moans can be heard emanating from the dense forest past its shoreline. Not to mention, the site is widely avoided, despite its ease of access and the tourist popularity of the many other keys scattered about the Adriatic Sea.

Perhaps the prospect of encountering one of the island’s many spirits is too much of a risk for most vacationers, or maybe the supposed curse placed on the location is cause for the apprehension.

But regardless of its circumstances, the story and lore behind Croatia’s Daksa Island is shrouded in mystery. It’s rarely referenced in discussions or literature about haunted sites. And despite years of my own research into the paranormal, I had never heard of the location until I started brainstorming topics for this week’s episode.

Which got me thinking, maybe it’s high time that someone shed some light on this otherwise picturesque islands obscured history.

I’m Courtney Hayes and you’re listening to haunts. Stay tuned…

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Like every good story, this is one worth starting at the beginning. So let’s rewind back to the 13th century when Daksa island was inhabited by a brotherhood of Benedictine monks.

The Monastery of Saint Sabina—or Holy Sabine as it was known back then—was built in the year 1281. At the time, Daksa island itself was owned by Croatian nobleman Sabin Getaldić. As his name would suggest, it was he who, financed the monastery where these monks lived, worked, and prayed. And upon his death, he even left the island and the monastery to the monks in his will.

For a while, all is well for the Benedictine brotherhood. That is until the late 18th century when Napoleon Bonaparte began his conquest of the Mediterranean. It wasn’t long before he stumbled onto holy Sabine and Daksa Island. And just like so many that came before, the small isle was claimed in the name of France.

So the monks were evicted from their home and undoubtably a fair a few lost their lives in the process. And it should come as no surprise that the monks weren’t exactly happy with their circumstances either.

Now there some who believe that the monks were so angry even that they placed a curse on the isle itself. These were men of God after all. And some pretty remarkable miracles had been preformed in His name. And at the time of the monastery’s inception crusades were rather rampant throughout Europe, so I guess really who knows what these men were capable of.

Yes, it is entirely possible that this brotherhood of monks attempted to place a curse on the Island at the time of the eviction. However, I think the more likely theory is that rumors of a curse came to be in more modern history… in an effort to make the story of Daksa island even more mystical and terrifying than it already is.

Now, before we go any further, I urge you consider this for a moment. Details about holy Sabine and the brothers who lived and worked there are not widely available to us. However, we know that they were Benedictine monks, and there is a vast amount of information regarding how Benedictine monks lived and worshiped. Meaning that we should be able to get a general understanding of how this sect operated.

In fact, Benedictine monks were to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict— which was a book written by Benedict of Nursia for monks living communally under authority of an Abbot. Now the overarching theme of this book was “pax ora et labora” which is Latin for peace prayer and labor. Emphasis on the peace aspect of that motto.

Considering this pacifistic lifestyle, coupled with the idea that the act of cursing would have been considered black magic at the time, it seems very unlikely that any monastic brotherhood would ever attempt to perform a curse on sacred ground.

And further, why would they even need to? Given the violent nature of napoleons conquests it is very likely that the grounds of this once pristine and holy island were soiled in the chaos. And as we’ll see as we continue the story, it’s negative energy that begets negative energy.

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Despite Daksa’s humble yet tragic beginnings, the landscape and historical sites of the island are painstakingly maintained.

After the monks of holy Sabine were driven from the island and the French army left its shores for other conquests, the island was sold to a polish prince by the name of Alexander Poninski. By all accounts, Poninski seemed to be rather despondent over the island’s recent history. So much so that he expended a vast amount of resources restoring the island to its former glory.

He started by renovating the monastery—only stopping when it was once again how to monks had left it. He also began replanting the cypress, pine, and lemon trees that grew naturally on the island. He even left his own mark on Daksa with the addition of a small lighthouse and a library with a selection of over 4000 books.

In addition to these contributions, the remains of a 19th century villa still stands on the islet, along with some larger structures that are theorized to have been used for agricultural.

But in spite of Daksa Islands natural and architectural beauty, the site eventually became more or less disregarded and forgotten—that is until the end of the Second World War, when yet another tragedy befell onto its shores.

It was October 1944–a fitting month for the horror story that was about to unfold. It was the end of the war and partisan forces entered Dubrovnik in search of suspected Nazi collaborators, who were said to be hiding out in the city. Upon their arrival they took into custody a priest, by the name of Petar Perica, along with the newly appointed mayor, Niko Koprivica.

In the week that followed, postings started to appear around Dubravnik—informing it’s citizens that 53 of their friends and neighbors were sentenced to stand for their alleged crimes in front of the firing squad.

To this day the surviving family members of those individuals are adamant that the accused were not involved with the nazi party. And further, there is no public trial on record to determine whether or not these allegations were true. Instead, the accused were taken on boats to daksa island where the sentence was ultimately carried out. Then the partisans simply returned to the Croatian main land—leaving the victims in a buried in mass grave.

The Daksa Executions as the event is known today was just one of many similar incidents carried out by the Yugoslav Partisan forces at the end of the Second World War. In later years, a formal investigation was even launched into war crimes such as this after the discovery several of mass graves scattered throughout the Balkan Peninsula… not unlike the ones on Daksa Island.

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They were left undisturbed for about 65 years, until in 2009, when the island had the rare honor of hosting a visitor. It was this unnamed individual who, upon walking through the ruins of an old farm house stumbled onto a plot of human remains.

Now you can imagine what a horrifying surprise this discovery was, so they immediately contacted Croatian authorities. Soon teams of forensic scientists and archaeologists alike traveled to the island in scores, to try to make sense of what had been found.

Upon excavating the basement of this farmhouse, over 10,000 human bones were discovered along with handful of personal effects including jewelry, crosses, rosaries, and even a few pieces of clothing.

These finding were then removed from the excavation site and taken to a lab on the mainland where they could be studied in a controlled environment. They sampled teeth and bone fragments and thanks to the modern miracle of DNA profiling, the team was able to make some pretty remarkable determinations.

Of the 60 victims, DNA profilers were able to confirm that 53 were male. They were even able to determine the identity of 36 of those individuals. And confirmed that they were all between the ages of 20-63.

Along with these identifiable details, forensics scientists were able to determine the manner in which a handful of these victims were killed. These forensic scientists also took into consideration the articles of clothing found at the site and theorized that, due to the lack of military decoration on the clothing, the victims were likely all civilians.

Now for the sake of longevity, I won’t read off the names of all those identified. However, I do think it’s important to draw attention to who these people were. So I have included a full list of the identified victims in the show notes for this episode on the haunts website and I encourage you to go read through them.

But in the meantime, I think these findings give credence to just how grisly the incident was—which no doubt is cause for the local rumors that daksa island is haunted by the spirits of these victims.

Which begs the question, is there any legitimacy to these claims? Or are these haunts just a phantasmal product of Daksa Islands dark history?

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In the 1940s there was a family living on the north side of daksa island. The father was the light keeper of that small rustic lighthouse that I mentioned at the start of the episode. And on October 24th 1944, the light keeper and his family were removed from the island by the Partisan Army.

They were brought to Dubrovnik where they stayed for 17 days, and upon their return, they claimed that things were… different on the island.

For example, the family started noticing screams coming from the south side of the island at night. Not to mention, the light keepers children no longer wanted to play outside. On one occasion, the children even discovered a human hand sticking up from the ground near the lighthouse.

The children were obviously traumatized and the light keeper and his wife weren’t exactly thrilled that their children were subjected to such a heinous scene. So needless to say, they moved away from the island a short time later. And upon returning to the mainland, news of the isle’s ghostly residents spread like wildfires.

As we know now, superstitions about the islet started cropping up around Croatia and before long no one would set foot on its shore—aside from the occasional curious traveler that is.

Those who are brave enough to make the trip out to the island of ghosts—as it’s known by the locals—frequently report hearing screams and moans while on the the island, along with feelings of being watched or an overwhelming sense of dread. And if that isn’t chilling enough, other common reports are a bit more physical in nature.

On several occasions, visitors have been scratched or shoved by unseen forces. Shadow figures are also said to be lurking about the isle, specifically at locations known to be mass gravesites.

And if the rumors are true, apparently these haunts also extend to the waters surrounding the island. Apparently, if you are interested in riding out to Daksa by row boat, you would likely be in for rapping coming from the underside of your vessel. Some believe that reports of this nature, are a warning from these long forgotten spirits. Almost as if they were to say “abandon all hope ye who enter here.”

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Credits

Victims

Petar Barbir, typographer
Slavko Barbir, student
Boris Berković, journalist (Zagreb, 1920 - Daksa, 1944)
Marijan Blažić, prof. (St. Matthew, Kastav, March 25, 1897 - Daksa, October 25, 1944)
Ante Brešković, merchant (Nerežišća on Brač, January 1, 1912 - Daksa, October 25, 1944)
Baldo Crnjak, craftsman (Trnova [hr] 1901 - Daksa 1944)
don Mato Dobud (Luka Šipanska, 19 September 1882 - Daksa, 25 October 1944)
Milan Goszl, merchant (Ruma, 1884 - Daksa, 1944)
don Mato Kalafatović-Milić (Janjina, July 23, 1911 - Daksa, October 25, 1944)
dr. Niko Koprivica, mayor of Dubrovnik, lawyer and champion of the Croatian Peasant Party
don Đuro Krečak (Dubrovnik, April 23, 1883 - Daksa, October 25, 1944)
Ivo Knežević, farmer (Dubrovnik 1910 - Daksa, 1944)
Ivan Kubeš (Kubesch), clerk (Korčula, 1913 - Daksa, 1944)
Jure (Đuro) Matić, postman (Točionik, 1895 - Daksa, 1944)
Željko Milić, captain of a long voyage
Makso Milošević, prof., Director of the Dubrovnik Gymnasium, (Dobrota in the Bay of Kotor 1887 - Daksa 1944)
Antun Mostarcic, prof. (Imotski, 1903 - Daksa, 1944)
Ivan Nikić, clerk (Dubrovnik, 1923 - Daksa, 1944)
Niko Nunić, B.Sc. Lawyer, Secretary of the Municipality of Dubrovnik (Dubrovnik, 1903 - Daksa, 1944)
Nikola Obradović, farmer (Danube, 1903 - Daksa, 1944)
Ivo Peko, director of the Dubrovnik Roundabout and journalist (Dubrovnik 1903-Daksa 1944)
Petar Perica (Kotišina above Makarska, June 27, 1881 - Daksa, October 25, 1944)
Dr. Baldo Poković, lawyer (Dubrovnik, 1897- Daksa, 1944)
Mato Račević, school janitor (Vitaljina, 1905 - Daksa, 1944)
Vido Regjo (Grbavac, 1906 - Daksa 1944)
Don Josip Schmidt (Vukovar, March 1, 1914 - Daksa, October 25, 1944)
Nedjeljko Dinko Šarić, tax officer (Trstenik, 1905 - Daksa, 1944)
Ante Tasovac, police scout (Vela Luka, 1907 - Daksa, 1944)
Toma Tomasic, prof. (Baška Draga, 17 August 1881 - Daksa, 25 October 1944)
Martin Tomić (Dračevo, 1907 - Daksa, 1944)
Josip Tuta, student (Dubrovnik, 1924 - Daksa, 1944)
Frano Vojvodić, president of the mixed Croatian choir Gundulić in Dubrovnik, (Brgat, 1897 - Daksa, 1944)
Marijan Vokić, driver (Sovići, Drinovci, 1915 - Daksa, 1944)
Frano Žiška, retired officer (1897 - 1944)
Dr. Ivo Karlović, Mayor of Dubrovnik (1893 - 1944)
Tomislav Baća