The intensification of the accademic programmes specially related to the Mediterranean area led the University of Zagreb to the establishment of the CMS – Center for Mediterranean Studies in 1996.

Situated in Dubrovnik, it is hosted by CAAS – Center for Advanced Academic Studies (www.caas.unizg.hr), institution founded by the University of Zagreb that ownes and takes care of the building which is more than 100 years old.

CMS is promoting specific cooperation initiatives, exchanges and dialogue, bringing together various universities, heritage-management institutions and cultural entities. It has a long tradition in organizing conferences, summer schools, courses and training seminars, all of which follow the concept of a Mediterranean region that includes the entire territory without any limits and divisions.

In accordance to that idea, the Centre is also cooperating with local and regional authorities as well as with numerous NGO's, thus enabling the diffusion of Mediterranean culture and taking care of welfare of the whole Mediterranean community.

CMS projects mainly focus on:- Mediterranean heritage,

- Sephardic culture

- maritime history and underwater archeology

- history of Mediterranean medicine,

- language

and cooperate with accademies of science, universities, UNESCO, UNICEF, museums, cultural organizations and institutions, etc.

THE MEDITERRANEAN MEMORYPROJECT

The relationship between Mediterranean countries and their people in the past can be analised from various sources. The testimony of the almost everyday contacts between our countries can be found in the travellers’ and pilgrims’ reports, „avvisi“ from apostolic visitations e.g. or through mutual or even multi influences of music, paintings, art and crafts, language or customs in general. It is exactly the „metissage“ or that wonderful interchange and interinfluence between people that creates the particular Mediterranean world which can be considered as one entire planet called „Mare Nostrum“.

• During it's long history, Croatia, no doubt, actively participated in the creation of Euro-Mediterranean cultural identity. Dubrovnik / Ragusa, urbs par excellence, is the city - example of several centuries long custody of immaterial and material heritage and not only of the Croats but rather of all Mediterranean countries. A great French historian, Fernand Braudel stressed the cities of Venice, Genoa and Ragusa/Dubrovnik as main factors of development of the Mediterranean basin in the 16th century.

Today, Mediterranean, a cradle of our civilization, in spite of wars and migrations, is still a special entity.

In order to recuperate our relationships, so vivid in the past and no longer existing, Centre for Mediterranean Studies started a project Mediterranean Memory which aims to gather together all the Mediterranean cities where Ragusa had had its maritime consulates.

Just to mention briefly, Ragusa had more than 50 maritime consulates in the 16th century along the Mediterranean basin and on the Atlantic.

Maritime consulate of the Republic of Ragusa in the past:

ALBANIA: Duracchio, ValonaALGERIA: OranBULGARIA : JedreneCYPRUS: CyprusEGYPT: AlexandriaFRANCE: Marselle, Nice, Villafranche, Toulon, CorseGREECE: Corfu, Salonniche, Patras, Modon, Zante, Crete, Khios, RhodosITALY: Trieste, Venezia, Ancona, Pescara, Pesaro, Vieste, Trani, Ortona, Bari, Galipoli, Catania, Siracusa, Palermo, Trapani, ...ISRAEL: Acco LEBANON: AleppoLIBYA: TripolisMALTA: MaltaMOROCCO: MaroccooPORTUGAL: LisbonSPAIN: Cadix, Malaga, Cartagena, Alicante, Valencia, Barcelona, Mallorca, MenorcaTUNISIA: TunisiaTURKEY: Istambul, Dardanels, SmirneUKRAINE: Odessa

The conference will take place from September, 8th to 10th, 2010 and targeted participants are archival researchers and historians as well as Mayors of the invited cities.The historians and researchers will tell us how much of our past relationships remained recorded, while the Mayors will explain future development strategies of their cities so that we can maybe establish our new nets of cooperation.

We invite you all to accept our invitation and join our project.

And finally, welcome to Dubrovnik!