THE ITALIANS OF CRIMEA

This month I want to do a research about the "Italians of Crimea". Here it is what I found:

The Italians of Crimea (Russian: Итальянцы Крыма; Ukrainian: Італійці Криму) are an ethnic minority residing in the eponymous peninsula, with the largest concentration in the city of Kerch. 

At the beginning of the 19th century, actual Italian emigration to the Crimea came from various Italian regions (mainly Liguria, Campania, Apulia), with immigrants settling mainly in the coastal cities of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as  in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Sevastopol, Mariupol, Berdiansk and Taganrog. But the first Italians settled there since Roman times.

Indeed as a result of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Crusaders seized Constantinople. This led to the formation of the Latin Empire in the Byzantine lands. This is what brought the Italians to the shores of the Black Sea. Italian trading posts, founded by Genoa, Venice, and Pisa, arose in the Black Sea and Azov Sea regions.

One of the first trading posts was Porto Pisano (near modern Taganrog, located one hundred miles to the east of Crimea), founded by Pisa in the first half of the 13th century.

But the first Italian settlements in Southern Russia were located on the territory of modern Crimea: the most famous cities that have preserved the memory of the Italians' presence in the remains of fortresses, architectural structures, and, undoubtedly, enchanting legends, are Feodosia (Caffa); Sudak (Soldaia); Novy Svet (Paradiso).

Map of Crimea during the early Renaissance, showing the Genoa colonies

CAFFA

In the late 13th century, the Genoese settled in Caffa (called also Kaffa), modern-day Feodosia, which became the largest port and trading center of the Black Sea region. The founding of Caffa is associated with the following legend:

"Merchants from the Italian city of Genoa took a liking to a strip of coastline at the site of the former ancient Greek colony of Theodosia. But Crimea already belonged to the Tatars, and the Genoese were forced to negotiate with them. The Tatars did not object to the Latins' desire to establish a trading post on the shores of Taurida.  They agreed on the following: the Genoese would cover a bull's hide, spread on the ground, with several layers of gold coins. That was the payment. As for the territory the Genoese were hoping for, they could cut the hide into strips, tie them together, and whatever area this rope encompassed would be their possession.

The Genoese agreed and paid the money. Then they invited skilled leather craftsmen. They cut the hide into the finest threads. Tying them together, the Genoese encompassed the territory where their trading post of Caffa was later located, with a population of 70,000 people. The length of the powerful defensive wall around Caffa was about five kilometers in total. Caffa, in terms of fortified area and population, was second only to Constantinople at that time."

Genoese Caffa existed for two centuries and was destroyed by Mehmed II in 1475. Some of the surviving Italians went to Akkerman, with which the Genoese had old trade ties, but their stay there was short-lived and sad: they were robbed and expelled by the local Turkish authorities, after which they scattered in different directions.

Another group remained in Kaffa, and there, "due to the absence of divine services and Latin priests, and also because their wives were of the Greek, i.e., Orthodox faith, they converted to the Greek rite." And if not all, then most of them became Orthodox, like the Greeks.

A third group of Kaffa Italians, those who were not taken by the Turks to Constantinople (they were settled in a special quarter called Chieffe-mahalasi - "Kaffa quarter," which was located near the palace of Constantine the Great), immediately dispersed in different directions. Some went to Circassia, "thanks to their wives, many of whom they took from those lands." Some moved to the court of the Crimean Khan. A special place was allocated for their settlement, located near Bakhchisarai.

Approximately 100 years later (in 1578), after the Turks settled in Crimea, the presence of Italians was noted in the southwestern part of the peninsula "on the way from Inkerman to Chersonesus, between a narrow harbor and the Euxine Sea there is an isthmus called Little Chersonesus (now called Belbek)." This group of Italians was made knights and nobles, exempted from paying taxes, and only obligated to accompany the Khan on campaigns. They were usually used as ambassadors when it was necessary to send embassies to Christian lands. Around 1604, they were resettled in Fecciale, half a day's journey from the Khan's residence. In their new location, they continued to enjoy the same privileges and benefits as the Circassians, with whom they had much in common in their daily life and customs. By the first half of the 17th century, a so-called "Tatarization" of this Italian group had taken place.

Fechella is undoubtedly the town of Fod-Sala or Foti-Sala, located on the Belbek River on the highway from Bakhchisarai to Yalta, 25 km from Bakhchisarai.

When Christians were expelled from Crimea in 1780, no one was expelled from Foti-Sala.

Already at the beginning of the 19th century, Italian immigrants settled again in Feodosia (Genoese Kaffa), forming a small but quite old group of Feodosia Italians. There was also an Italian street in Feodosia, "one of the most lively and significant in the city; at that time, Italians constituted an influential and very noticeable element in Feodosia. At that time, the Italian language was as frequently heard in Feodosia as Italian signs were common on taverns." A significant part of the families were Genoese.

Maximilian Voloshin recounted that he knew old men who remembered the famous Garibaldi, who sailed as a cabin boy on the Black Sea.

In connection with the Genoese in Feodosia, it is necessary to mention Voloshin's report that many of his schoolmates later completed their education in Genoa.

Most of the Feodosia Italians were merchants, but there were also several people among them who were connected with land and agriculture.

The 1917 revolution forced many, or almost all, Italians to leave Feodosia forever.

In Soviet times, the Genoese Street reminded people of the city's Italian past. And now the ruins of the Genoese fortress are one of the biggest attractions of Feodosia.

SOLDAIA

The Genoese fortress of Soldaia surpasses all medieval fortifications preserved in the Northern Black Sea region.

According to ancient legend, the city was founded in 212 AD. Archaeological materials found indicate that the city was founded by the Iranian-speaking Alan tribes. The name Sudak (in Greek sources - Sugdea; in Western European sources - Soldaia; in Russian sources - Surozh; in Eastern sources - Sugdak) comes from the ancient Iranian word "sugda" - "pure", "holy".

From the 6th century, the city, like all of Eastern Crimea, was part of the Byzantine Empire.

From the second half of the 7th century, it was under the rule of the Khazar Khaganate - the largest state of that time in Eastern Europe. This lasted until the end of the 10th century, when Sugdea again passed to Byzantium.

From the end of the 11th century, the city came under the protectorate of the Polovtsians, and in 1217 it was captured by the Seljuk Turks.

In the early 13th century, Sugdea came under the rule of the Golden Horde as part of the Crimean ulus. It was at this time that a fierce struggle unfolded for possession of the ports on the Black Sea coast between the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa.

In the 1970s, the Venetians settled in Soldaia, creating their own trading post. The city was bustling with life. At the same time, they founded the Paradiso trading post, located not far from Soldaia, a former ancient Greek colony, modern Novy Svet. In the first half of the 14th century, after the establishment of the Muslim religion as the state religion in the Golden Horde, the Christian population was expelled from the city, and its walls were destroyed. Taking advantage of the internecine struggle that began in the Golden Horde in 1359, the Genoese seized Sudak in 1365. From this moment, the restoration of the fortress walls, public and other buildings began. Thus, the Italian name of the city, Soldaia, and the rule of the Italians, now the Genoese, were re-established. And the city came to life again. It was through the port of Soldaia that the famous "Silk Road" passed.

At the end of the 15th century, the Genoese were overthrown, and the city became part of the Ottoman Empire, leaving behind a centuries-old memory of the Genoese presence – the best-preserved remains of the Genoese fortress in the entire Northern Black Sea region.

KERCH

The Kerch group of Italians existed before the 1840s, primarily consisting of merchants. After old Odessa, it was the most numerous.

As early as the 1840s, there was a dedicated Sardinian vice-consul in Kerch, suggesting that the group was quite large and engaged in lively trade relations. The Kerch group was systematically replenished by influxes of Italians from abroad, which continued until the 1880s. The peak years for the increase in emigrant numbers were 1863-1865 and 1869. Russia's recognition of the young Italian kingdom in 1862 significantly facilitated travel.

Until the 1860s, the majority of Italians arriving in Kerch were Sardinian subjects, most of whom were Genoese. Among them, a significant number of merchants engaged in foreign trade, mostly on a small scale, stood out. In the 1960s, primarily Italians from southern Italy flocked to Kerch. Among this wave were sailors and small-scale farmers: winegrowers, gardeners, and vegetable growers. These people, especially the last three groups, defined the character of the Kerch settlement, which was primarily an agricultural settlement.

The Kerch Italians were the oldest and only significant agricultural Italian group in Russia.

The largest number of Italians—Russian subjects (and later Soviet citizens)—were among the sailors, since the old law did not allow foreigners to work even in the commercial navy.

The more deeply the Italians became involved in local economic life, the greater the need to learn Russian. Mixed marriages became more frequent, although they were almost nonexistent among farmers and sailors. Their working and living conditions also brought them into contact with Russian schools. As a result, the Italians quickly became more closely related to the Russians. Even before 1960, many Italians from Kerch joined Russian merchant guilds. A number of Kerch Italians enrolled as bourgeois, and their sons entered Russian government service.

Instruction in the native language was nonexistent in the pre-revolutionary years. It was acquired at home and through interaction with fellow countrymen.

In 1917-1918, the opposite phenomenon was observed – an exodus of Italians from Kerch, which occurred in three directions. First, inland to the north; second, further eastward movement, a very weak trend; and third, a return to their homeland. This last process affected only those Italians who remained Italian citizens.

Regarding the situation with the native language after 1917, the following can be said. The older and middle generations spoke their native dialect, especially when only members of their respective groups participated in the conversation. The presence of the younger generation often meant that conversations shifted from Italian to Russian. The older generation could communicate, albeit with difficulty, in the common Italian language, especially those born in Italy or serving their military service there; their Russian was poor. The middle generation didn't speak common Italian. The younger generation often didn't even know their own dialect, speaking almost exclusively in Russian, which they were fluent in.

Denationalization played a much less prominent role in everyday life. Small details in dress, gestures, posture, and eating habits reminded us of Italian traditions. Songs and fairy tales brought from Italy had not yet been forgotten in this environment.

The Italians who remained after 1917 settled quite firmly in their places, and this applies to both Soviet and Italian citizens. In 1929, the Kerch Italian colony, according to rough estimates by local residents, numbered about 1,000 people of both sexes, adults and children.

Paradiso (Novi Sverth)

A village west of the Genoese fortress of Soldaia (actual Sudak), Novy Svet -also known as "New World"-, has a rich history that dates back to its ancient genoese name "Paradiso," meaning "garden" or "paradise." It was founded by families from Italian Liguria, who introduced the grape production (with a famous wine exported).

The village was mentioned in a document of the Genoa administration from 1449 and listed in the Record of Populated Places in the Russian Empire of 1864. It was likely an estate manager or caretaker. The name "Paradiso" was later changed to "Novy Svet" after Prince Lev Golitsyn's visit to Emperor Nicholas II, who renamed it in honor of the prince. 

Golitsyn's factory of sparkling wines, which is the main attraction of Novy Svet, was founded by him, and the town was built around it. The climate in Novy Svet is subtropical,  with hot and verydry summers, and the town is known for its sparkling wine production

The XIX and XX centuries disappearance of the Italians of Crimea

In 1783, 25,000 Italians immigrated to Crimea, which had been recently annexed by the Russian Empire. They settled mostly in the Crimea's southern coast, where the Genoese had their colonies some centuries before. In 2025 there are only 300 of them (if interested in precise info, please read in Italian:  https://web.archive.org/web/20110418213053/http://www.monarchia.it/download/Giulio_Vignoli_La_Tragedia_Sconosciuta_degli_Italiani_di_Crimea.pdf )

Photo of some Italians of Crimea, done in 2018 Kerch (The Italians of Crimea mainly live in Kerch, 200 kilometers from Simferopol, on that strip of land that risks being invaded by the Moscow army.  Caught in a geopolitical battle to which they feel extraneous, they remain in their homes, worried. Today there are 300 of them, but there was a time when there were over 5,000. Their history, which began with the Republics of Genoa and Venice, risked being swallowed up by the Stalinist purges. Many died between 1937 and 1938, and four years later they experienced deportation to Siberia: they were decimated by hardship and the gulags. The survivors, in 1956, founded the community of people of Italian origin. - See more at: http://www.rainews.it/archivio-rainews/articoli/italiani-crimea-invasione-russia-crisi-pane-5603d413-2d4b-4bde-8eea-1f823ce6c3e1.html)

The following are some excerpts taken from the book of Davide Berni, named "The Italian Minority of Crimea: History of a Diaspora between Emigration and Deportation :

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, emissaries of Tsar Alexander I of Russia were sent to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to recruit settlers. This policy was especially successful in the province of Terra di Bari. In general, the colonists were attracted by the promise of good earnings, abundance of fish in the seas surrounding Crimea, fertile land to cultivate. The farmers and fishermen were soon followed by teachers, notaries, doctors, engineers, architects, merchants and artists. Among the immigrants, many were owners of boats with which they transported goods to the ports of the Sea of Azov (Taganrog, Berdyansk, Mariupol) and the Black Sea (Feodosia, Simferopol, Odessa, Kherson, Mykolaiv). Others worked as laborers on Russian ships.

In 1830 and in 1870, two distinct migrations arrived in Kerch from the cities of Trani, Bisceglie and Molfetta. These migrants were peasants and sailors, attracted by the job opportunities in the local Crimean seaports and by the possibility to cultivate the nearly unexploited and fertile Crimean lands. Italian general and patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi worked as a sailor at least twice in the region of Odesa, between 1825 and 1833. A later wave of Italians came at the beginning of 20th century, invited by Imperial Russian authorities to develop agricultural activities, mainly grape cultivation. 

Italians quickly settled into local society and the community expanded rapidly. Kerch had 13,106 inhabitants in 1855^[and around 30,000 in 1870. In 1884, more than 1,000 people lived in the Italian colony, most of whom came from the Adriatic coast and were engaged in coastal shipping or earned their living as sailors and landowners of real estate. In Kerch, the Italians of Crimea built a Roman Catholic church, still known locally as the Church of the Italians. From Kerch, the Italians moved to Feodosiya (the former Genoese colony of Caffa), Simferopol, Mariupol and to other Imperial Russian seaports of the Black Sea, such as Batumi and Novorossiysk.

 After 1870, emigration stopped and many of those who had created a fortune returned to Italy. According to an 1897 census, 1.8 percent of the population of the Kerch province was Italian, and rose to 2 percent in 1921, corresponding to a population of approximately 2,000 people.

In 1914, when World War I broke out, the Italian community was numerous enough to have a primary school and a library. The local newspaper at that time, Kerčenskij Rabočij, used to publish articles in Italian language. But with the October Revolution of 1917, where the Russian Empire became the Soviet Union, a bitter period began for minorities in Russia. Italians of Crimea therefore started to face a lot of repression.

Of the approximately 2,000 people of Italian origin living in 1922 in Kerch (where were concentrated nearly all the Italians of Crimea), only 650 were "subjects of the Kingdom of Italy".and so received some diplomatic help, while all the others faced huge harassments.

Consequently, on the initiative of the former Italian communist deputy Anselmo Marabini, in 1924, according to the plans of "Soviet collective farming", the Italians were forced to create a kolkhoz, named Sacco e Vanzetti for the two Italian anarchists of the same name. The Italian collective farm was with 870 hectares of land and a herd of 80 cows, 200 sheep and pigs with  a dozen horses. The initiative received the full support of the Soviet authorities, but encountered strong resistance, especially among wealthy Italians in Kerch. Those refusing to comply were forced to leave or were deported. According to 1933 census, the number of Italians in the region of Kerch had already dropped by 1.3 percent.

Between 1936 and 1938, during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, many Italians were accused of espionage and were arrested, tortured, deported or executed. In particular, 204 Italians were accused of spying for Italy and counter-revolutionary activity, arrested, tortured and summarily sentenced to years of forced labor in the gulags of Kazakhstan and Siberia, where most were exposed to cold, hunger and succumbed to fatigue. 105 Italians were sentenced to death by firing squad; 26 in 1937 and 79 in 1938. Many of their bodies lie in the mass graves of Butowo or Kommunarka. 29 Italians were shot in Butowo and eight in Kommunarka. 

Dante Corneli, Italian writer and anti-fascist, who fled to the USSR in 1922 and then spent 24 years in the Vorkutlag labor camp, spoke of over 2,000 Italian victims of the Kerch agricultural collective farm. In 1939, more Italians fled once their Italian citizenship was at risk of being lost, after the Soviet Union imposed its own citizenship onto those of foreign origin. After this, 1,100 Italians were left in Kerch and smaller amounts in other communities

With the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Wehrmacht in June 1941, the population of Italian origin residing there was declared an enemy of the people and, on the basis of a census carried out by the German Wehrmacht, was deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia in three waves of deportations for alleged collaboration with the enemy "for their own security".

On January 29, 1942, while Nazi-fascist troops were attempting to conquer present-day Ukraine, the deportation of Italians from Crimea began on the orders of Joseph Stalin. Approximately four thousand people were loaded onto cattle cars and transported to labor camps in Central Asia. Most died before reaching their destination, others perished under forced labor. Only a small number managed to survive.

 Today, about 300 deportees and their descendants live in Crimea. Unlike other minorities who lived in the region and suffered the same fate, the Italians have not been granted the status of deportees, nor has their citizenship of their country of origin been restored.

THE "ROMANCE LANGUAGE" BRIDGE BETWEEN ITALY & ROMANIA

The historical "bridge" between Romanians and Dalmatian Italians

There was a continuum of romance speaking populations in Europe at the end of the Western Roman Empire, from Portugal and Spain to France and Italy: this continuum reached the Balkans until the Danube river delta, from Italian Istria until the Romanian Dobrugia.

But actually there it is a "hole" of this continuum in the area that was former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia), because of the Slav invasions that happened during the early Middle Ages. However for many centuries this hole between Italy and Romania was partially occupied by a kind of "bridge" of neolatin populations (usually called "Vlachs", a word from latin 'vallum', meaning 'people of the Roman vallum' near the barbarian borders of the Western Roman empire) during the late Middle Ages until the Renaissance centuries. These Vlachs lived in the mountains of the western Balkans, but were slowly "assimilated" by the Slavs and actually they have practically disappeared, leaving only some evidences of themselves in the names of the Balkan topography & history (like "Romanija", "Stari Vlah", etc..).

Map showing the remains of the "Bridge" (Romanija Planina & Stari Vlah) in the XIII century, between the neolatin territories of Ragusa Republic & Spalato of the Dalmatian Italians and those of the Valko (Vojvodina) & Kucso (Timok). Note that between "Romania Planina" and the dalmatian city-state "Spalato" there it is a mountain region called "Rama", a clear reference to Italian "Roma".

Indeed Ilona Czamańska wrote in "Vlachs and Slavs in the Middle Ages and Modern Era” (Res Historica, 41, (Lublin, 2016), 19) that: "The majority of Serbs from the Republika Srpska of modern Bosnia is of Vlach origin, as well as the majority of the population from Bosnia and Herzegovina in general." This fact is clearly related to the historical bridge -now disappeared- that existed until the Middle Ages between the romance speaking Romanians and the Italian populations in Dalmatia and Istria.

The following are excerpts -related to this "bridge"- from an essay written by Octavian Ciobanu (Professor of Iasu University) and titled "The Heritage of Western Balkan Vlachs":

A lot of Latin or Vlach place names still resist until today in Western Balkans. Jirecek wrote about the Vlach impressive presence in Montenegro, Herzegovina and Dalmatia in a period which lasted from the XIIIth to the XVIth centuries.The Serbian documents from the 12th to the 15th centuries revealed a large number of Vlach placenames and Vlach personal names which are still in use by the Slavs of the Western Balkans. The Romanian character of the language of these Vlachs is generally recognized.

According to Stelian Brezeanu, among the toponyms attesting the presence of the Romanic element in the region, there are two that have an importance: Palaioblacoi and Stari Vlah. Palaioblacoi is attested in Thessaly (later Μεγάλη Βλαχία/Megali Vlahia) and the second toponym, Stari Vlah, is attested in the Medieval Serbia and in Herzegovina: “It was a region inside of the Kingdom of the Nemanids that attached the Kopaonik Mountains to the Romanija Mountains, around the city of Sarajevo. That region had as centre the Drina and the Lim rivers valley.”

Next to Stari Vlah it is Romanija. This area has the mountain still called Romanja.Therefore, the region of Stari Vlah belonged to a more extended area, intensively romanised at the end of the antiquity.Ştefan Stareţu writes that “it is clear that Stari Raska comes from Stari Vlaska, with a rothacism, and Raska from Vlaska (this is exemplified by the double name of Banat, as Vlaska or Raska)”. He also advances a hypothesis: “The Serbs and Vlachs are probably a single ethnic substance, constructed in the Balkan Peninsula as a unity in the 8th-14th century.”

Furthermore, according to Ilona Czamańska the Vlach population was already established in the western Balkans during the migration of Slavs. But she pointed out that both ethnic groups occupying the same land were not in conflict. Slavs, as farmers, occupied lands in the valleys, which were suitable for them, while Vlachs exploited mountains. Slavs, next to agriculture, also engaged in breeding, but did not practice transhumance pastoralism, which was the domain of the Vlachs. For the Slavs the land and the right to its cultivation and ownership was most important, for the Vlachs the ownership of land did not matter as long as the mountains were common property. The element, which bound their community together, was not the land, but family relationships and the sense of belonging to the same "clan".

In the Middle Ages the Vlachs lived in most of the mountain areas in the western Balkans up to the Adriatic coast. In the Middle Ages, the territory between the rivers Lim and Drina in the west, and Raska and Studenica in the east, was called “Old Wallachia” (Stari Vlah), and the Orthodox Church province of the Rasca – “eparchy Old Wallachian”.

In the Serbia of the Nemanjić dinasty (1166-1371) and the states that have later arisen on its ruins, the Vlachs created a fairly closed community because of their special privileged status, in contrast to the rest of Slavic peasant population. Mixed marriages with representatives of other social classes, especially the peasant population, were very difficult here. Despite that, here the processes of Slavisation and assimilation proceeded very quickly. It was also facilitated because of the vanishing of the areas where the Vlach shepherds could wander, because of the distribution of the mountain areas to particular owners. Vlachs defended themselves against dependence for example by buying pastures, which resulted in their definitive transition to semi-sedentary and sedentary life.

The Knez and provincial governors (often Vlach ones) became major landowners, entering the group of nobles and even the aristocracy of Serbia. Among the Slavic Balkan rulers many had Vlach roots – most probably the families Balšić, Hrvatinić – Kosača, and perhaps also Mrnjavcević. Already the earliest records of the names of the Vlachs as well as the names of localities preserved in the sources of the 13th century show a hybrid combination of Vlach and Slav element. Even then, many Vlach names were Slavic, often with Romanian endings (i.e. Dragul, Radul and Bogdan and afterwards even Milutin, Vukašin and Momcil).

Starting from the 14th century the term “Vlach” began to lose its ethnical meaning in favour of a societal meaning in the areas of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In these areas the Vlachs were strongly mixed with the Slavic population and the name “Vlach” was frequently used interchangeably with the term “Slav”.

In the "bridge", Slavisation (in fact Serbisation) of the Vlachs was also encouraged by the period of the Ottoman rule. As Orthodox, Vlachs belonged to the same millet as Serbs, and after the reconstruction of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć they were subordinated to civil authority of the Serbian patriarch. Thus, Vlachs were integrated with Serbs very quickly, especially that the religious affiliation was the main identifier. The persons who belonged to the Serbian Orthodox Church were called by the name of Serbs, not only in the lands which were traditionally Serbian, also in Bosnia. This process was intensified by the fact that many Vlachs abandoned their activities, especially since enclosed social classes did not exist in the Ottoman state.

Actually -according to Marian Wenzel- the majority of the population from Bosnia and Herzegovina in general is of Vlach origin.

Map showing the location (with small points) of the 'Stecci', medieval funerary monuments, in an area that is very similar to the one of the "historical bridge". Note that the easternmost 'Stecci' are located in Serbia's "Stari Vlah" and the westernmost are near the Republic of Venice's Zara area (linking -as a kind of "bridge" through Serbia and Bosnia/Herzegovina- western Romania and Italy's Dalmatia)

Indeed the medieval Vlachs (called often Aromanians) of Herzegovina are considered authors of the famous funerary monuments with petroglyphs (usually called "Stecci") from Herzegovina and surrounding countries. The theory of the Vlach origin of these 'Stecci' was proposed by Bogumil Hrabak (1956) and Marian Wenzel and more recently was supported by the archeological and anthropological researches of skeleton remains from the graves under these 'Stećci'. For Wenzel the Vlachs did not continue to create other 'Stecci' since their conversion -in the sixteenth century- to moslem religion because of Turks domination.

The theory is much older and was first proposed by Arthur Evans in his work "Antiquarian Researches in Illyricum" (1883): while doing research with Felix von Luschan on 'Stecci' graves around Konavle, he found that a large number of skulls were not of Slavic origin but similar to older romanised Illyrian population, as well as noting that Ragusa memorials recorded those parts inhabited by the Vlachs until the 15th century. In other words: these 'Stecci' made by neolatins confirm the existence of this "bridge" betweeen Dalmatia and "Stari Vlah"

Last but not least, we have to remember that in the area of southern Croatia and internal Dalmatia these Vlachs -who were present in the early Middle Ages- were called 'Maurovlachs', or 'Morlachs'(Morlacchi) by the Italians, and they relatively quickly succumbed to Slavisation and Catholic faith. They differentiated themselves from the rest of society through their social status, which took on a special meaning in these lands. In the 17th and 18th centuries the term 'Morlachs' determined both Slavisised Vlachs from the area of Dalmatia, as well as Croatian peasants who were mixed with Dalmatian Italians (and who actually speak a croatian dialect -called "Chacavian"- that has more than 50% of words loaned from latin & romance languages).

Map showing the actual 'neolatin gap' between Italy and Romania, that from Istria & Dalmatia reached western Romania's Timok region trough Herzegovina, Romanija and Stari Vlah. Before the 6th-century Slavic migrations, a continuous Latin-speaking territory (a "dialect/language  continuum") existed from the Italian peninsula across the Balkans to the Black Sea. The expansion of Slavic populations effectively "broke" this bridge, isolating Romanian from its western cousins for over a millennium until the 17th–19th centuries.

In a few final words: The neolatin "bridge" (between Italy and Romania) existed from the barbarian invasions until the first Renaissance centuries, remaining in a few isolated mountain areas until the XVIII century: it seems to have disappeared with the end of the "Repubblica di Venezia" and the beginning of the 'nationalism' in the Balkans. But if we include in the "bridge" also the Dalmatian Italians of coastal Dalmatia, we must remember that the last speaker of this autochtonous Dalmatian language (Tuone Udaina) died in 1898 in Veglia (actual Krk) and so the "bridge" remains survived in some way until the XIX century's end.

However -according to Italian historians like Della Volpe- a legacy of this "bridge" can be seen in the existence of the Republic of Bosnia & Herzegovina, populated mainly by descendants of the Romanized populations who created the worldwide famous "Stecci" (read for further information on the Stecci:

 https://www.scribd.com/doc/34362364/Marian-Wencel-UKRASNI-MOTIVI-NA-STE%C4%86CIMA ).

The above image shows the names in red of Vlasi tribes in 1200 Herzegovina (Vlasi Gorni, Vlasi Donji, Vlasi Vahovici, etc..)

Of course, we have to remember that this disappeared romance bridge was connected not only with Italy, but also in the southern Balkan peninsula with the actual "Aromanians".

Aromanians are a romance speaking population (very similar to the Romanians), who populated during the Middle Ages the mountains between northern Greece, southern Macedonia, eastern Bulgaria and western Albania.

Actually they are scattered in many small areas (as can be seen -in yellow color- in the following map), but they are officially recognised as a minority ethnic language in Macedonia and Albania.

VLACHS/MORLACHS in Bosnia/Herzegovina and Dalmatia

The term “Vlach” originates from the old Germanic words Walh/Walah/Welsch, meaning "people of the Wall" (the Roman Limes) and is related to the words “Italian,” “French,” or generally “Roman.” Similarly, in medieval Croatian documents in Latin language, the term is translated as Latinus, i.e., “Latin.” As for the question of the origin of the Vlachs, we know for sure that the Vlachs were descendants of an indigenous Romanized pre-Slavic Balkan population living in the highlands of the central Balkans, such as Illyrians, Thracians, and Dacians, who had mixed with Roman colonists from the Italian peninsula.

Unlike the population of Roman towns and villages in the Balkans that disappeared after the migration of the Slavs, the nomadic/semi-nomadic Vlachs survived the Slavic massacres as an individual entity. In the course of time, however, under the influence of a Slavic environment the outnumbered Vlachs started to Slavicize and at first, became bilingual after the IX-X century. By contrast, some of the Slavic population in some areas adopted the transhumant life-style of the Vlachs and mixed with the Vlachs in some areas, like in Rascia/Arsia (originating the first state of the Serbs).

Cristian Luca also wrote that from the 15th century, the Vlachs in Dalmatia were also called "Morlaks", and from about the first decades of the 18th century, they became also named "Aromanians" or "Macedoromanians", belonging, from an ethno-linguistic point of view, to the Eastern Romanity, being speakers of a Romanian dialect. As mentioned above, the Vlachs settled in Dalmatia and then in Bosnia, mainly from the beginning 14th century, and came from the mountainous areas of the central Balkan Peninsula. They were scattered – in small, closed communities, united in a strong solidarity which arose from dealing exclusively in long term transhumant sheep breeding – in different parts of the South-Danubian area. Their presence was frequently attested to in sources from the 12th-18th centuries in Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia and mainland Greece (even in several Greek islands).

Although traditionally devoted to transhumant sheep breeding, there is also early documentary evidence mentions their presence in the Balkan Peninsula, and their excellent enterprising ingenuity in engaging in the caravan trade. By the first decades of the 17th century, they had established themselves as one of the most important groups of trading middlemen between the Italian Peninsula and Eastern Europe.

The migration of several groups of Vlachs/Morlachs from inside the Balkan Peninsula towards the coast of Venetian Dalmatia (Venetian Dalmatia on English Wikipedia

) was also determined by the phenomenon of transhumance, which was the main occupation of this Romanic population. In it, sheep were bred in open areas, in the pastures of the high mountain ranges of the Balkan region. Transhumant sheep breeding imposed seasonal rhythmic cycles on the movement of flocks. Thus, as a result of their search for areas with a milder climate to settle down for the winter, the Vlach shepherds begin arrived on the coasts of central Dalmatia in the 14th century, where their presence was frequently reported in contemporary sources. In this coastal region they found pastures all along the winter, so that many decided to settle in the hinterland of urban centers under Venetian domination. In the subsequent centuries, some of them divided their existence between the Dinaric Alps, where they were kept their herds from spring until autumn, and these Dalmatian regions.

A situation of this kind can be found in the 16th century in the hinterlands of the towns of Traù (Trogir in Serbo-Croatian) and Sebenico (Šibenik in Serbo-Croatian), which had been part of Venice’s "Stato da Mar" since the second decade of the 15th century. Sebenico, is located in central Dalmatia, at the point where the Krka river flows into the Adriatic Sea. It is situated at about 30 km west of Traù. However, both ports were economically eclipsed in importance by another Venetian port, Spalato (actual Split), the main transit center which coordinated the trade on the Balkan land routes between the Serenissima and Eastern Europe. Sebenico, through its strategic position and the military functions of its port, had an important role in defending the Venetian possessions in Dalmatia. Therefore, Serenissima’s government decided to build a fortification named St.Michael, on the heights that dominated the city. In its turn, Traù was mainly protected by its natural location, the urban settlement being built on two islands lying in front of the central Dalmatian coast.

In 1774, when abbot Alberto Fortis made his famous journey in Dalmatia, the Vlachs/Morlaks from the settlements on the Cherca (Krka) river, including those in the hinterland of the town of Sebenico, were not yet slavicized, although the Venetian author inaccurately assigned them this origin.

Prior to Fortis, Giovanni Lucio, quoted by Jacob Spon and George Wheler, mentioned the Romanic origin of the Morlaks of Dalmatia and their ethnic and linguistic affinity with the Wallachians from the Romanian Principalities.

Venetian sources from the second half of the 16th century recorded the earlier stages of the Vlachs/Morlaks penetration and establishment into the hinterland of the town of Traù. In 1562 the inhabitants of the town of Trau (the old Tragurium) which belonged to Serenissima’s "Stato da Mar" mentioned the seasonal presence of the Vlachs/Morlaks in the area, where they had started arriving in 1525 to find winter shelter for their herds: in less than a decade, by 1531, the Vlachs/Morlaks had steadfastly settled down in the territory of the town of Traù, near the border with the Ottoman province of Bosnia.

The newcomers founded several rural settlements and began to grow grain on the neighbouring arable lands. Finally, in 1550 no less than 11 settlements inhabited by the Vlachs/Morlaks were recorded. They were located in Veneto-Ottoman border territory, in the area lying between Traù and Sebenico: Labin,Opor, Trilogue (Trolokve), Radosich (Radošić), Podine, Vrsno, Liubitoviţa(Ljubitovica), Lepeniţa (Lepenica), Prapatnica, Suchidol (Suhi Dolac) and Sitno.

The Vlach/Morlak settlements from the hinterland of Traù were already a demographic, economic and administrative certainty in 1626, when another Morlak settlement was done: in the area of the port-town of Sebenico a gradual penetration of the Vlach/Morlak shepherds, merchants and carters, was also recorded. The latter were also active at Zara (Zadar) and Traù, but without having settled down in the Trau hinterland, where the establishments mentioned earlier had been founded by the shepherds and their families.

Indeed during the first years of the second half of the 16th century, the Vlachs/Morlaks were exploiting, together with the Venetian subjects of Sebenico, several mills built on the Cherca river, near Scardona (Skradin). The Vlachs/Morlaks penetrated only temporarily into the territory of the town of Sebenico, without attempting to establish durable settlements in the area under the jurisdiction of the Serenissima and recognized as such by the Sultan Süleyman I Kanûn.

The Bunjevici, a group of Vlachs who presumably originated from western Herzegovina, migrated to venetian Dalmatia in the early 1400s, and from there to Lika and Bačka (actual northern Serbia) in the 16th and 17th century. They were catholic "Vlasi", who escaped from the Ottoman invasions and slowly were fully assimilated by the Croats.

The following is a map showing the romance speaking Bunjevici migration: the Bunjevici's roots were in middle-ages Bosnia-Erzegovina, a country with a majority of inhabitants speaking a neolatin language before the year 1000 AD. They moved away from Venetian Dalmatia to the north as can be seen in the following map:

M A P S  S H O W I N G   I N  D E T A I L  T H E S E   R O M A N C E   D I S A P P E A R A N C E S

The following are some maps about the romance language disappearance in: Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia

1) In Serbia: 2 maps showing the Romanian/Vlach - Aromanian presence in 1931 Serbia and in 2012 Serbia. Note the reduction in the Timok area bordering Rumania.

Stari Vlah in actual Serbia is a word meaning literally "Old Vlach". It derives from the Latin/Vlach-speaking populations that survived the Avar-Slav invasions of the VII century, taking refuge in the high valleys and mountains of the central Dinaric Alps. Those inhabitants are usually called Morlachs (or "Morava Vlachs").

Around the year 1000 they started a process of slavicization of their language, under the domination of Serbian kings. When the Ottomans started to appear in the region, the last neo-latin groups moved away or were fully assimilated (like in Bosnian Romanija): by the XVIII century they had ethnically disappeared, remaining only the name "Stari vlah" and the name of some villages and mountains. See the following map of Stari Vlah:

2) In Bosnia Herzegovina: The Morlacchi or Wallachians of Bosnia and Herzegovina were romance speaking shepherds who lived in these Dinaric mountains (also known as the Western Balkans), constantly looking for better pastures for their flocks of sheep. They were a mixture of Romanized indigenous peoples and Roman settlers, who moved every year with the practice of seasonal transhumance in Macedonia and in the southern Balkans.

Around the year 1000 these Vlachs (usually called by the Slavs with the name "Vlasi") were the majority of the population in the most mountainous area of ​​the center of the Dinaric Alps (an area that today corresponds to the Sarajevo region, where the mountains are still called "Romanija" . Currently in northwestern Bosnia there are also the "Vlasic" mountains near the Roman Banja Luka (a neo-Latin name probably originated from "sanlucas baths"), while in Herzegovina until the fourteenth century there were numerous communities of "Vlasi" (such as Bobani, Gorni, Boljuni, Banjani, Bunjevci). See the following map showing the "Romanija":and the "Vlasic mountains", actually without romance population:

3) In Dalmatia: the  Dalmatian city-states were formerly Roman municipalities in Dalmatia where the local Romance population survived the Barbarian invasions after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 400s AD. Eight cities (with their surroundings) were created by the indigenous Illyro-Roman inhabitants of the region, who maintained political links with the Eastern Roman Empire, which in return defended these cities, enabling their commercial trade with Byzantium and the Italian peninsula.

The original names of these city-states were Arba, Cattarum, Crespa, Jadera, Ragusium, Spalatum, Tragurium, and Vecla (actual Arbe, Cattaro, Cherso, Zara, Ragusa, Spalato, Trau and Veglia). The language and the laws were initially Latin, but after a few centuries, they developed their own vulgar Latin language, Dalmatian, which survived into the 19th century. Actually only in Cherso, Lussino and Zara there are a few hundreds of romance speaking autochthonous inhabitants. Between them and the Romanians in the Timok area of Serbia bordering Romania there are no more romance speaking inhabitants: they have been "wiped out" (assimilated and/or exterminated) in the centuries between the fall of the Roman empire and today!

CONCLUSION

This bridge that united Romania to Italy has disappeared. From the actual Italians of Fiume (now Rijeka) and coastal Dalmatia (Zara, Spalato, etc...) until the actual Romanians of the Timok area in Serbia, the romance population of Stari Vlah, Romanya Planina, Romanija, Rama, Morlachia, Dalmatian city-states, etc.. has disappeared leaving only some topography names and the existence of Bosnia-Herzegovina (that many Croats -like fascist leader Ante Pavelic- claimed as a region of Croatia, populated partially by actual  moslem "Bosniaks" who were originally autochtonous "Vlasi romanised" mixed with some Slavs). 

The last tentative to try a "reunification" was during WW2, but has failed with the further "slavification" of Istria and some Dalmatian islands (with the Zara area) on the Adriatic coast. Here there are some maps related to this tentative:

Map of the Italian "Governorate of Dalmatia", where the orange dots indicate its borders, and the blue and green dots show the limits of the Italian occupation zone in Yugoslavia between 1941 and 1943. Note that the green dots of Italian occupation included also the southern Slovenia until Italian Istria/Venezia Giulia and reached western Serbia. Only in the Governorate of Dalmatia there were romance speaking populations.

The Italian Governorate of Dalmatia was created in 1941 and had an area of 5,242 km² (2,024 sq mi). It lasted only nearly two years and half. This Governorate of Dalmatia contained 395,000 inhabitants, of which 270,000 (69.2%) Croats, 85,000 (23.0%) Serbs and 40,000 (7.8%) Dalmatian Italians. The Italians were concentrated in Zara and Spalato.

On the Romanian side of this "bridge" was proposed the union to Romania of the Timok area of Serbia. but the German opposition blocked the proposal and so Romania in 1941 was enlarged only with former URSS territories (as can be seen in the following second map).  Here it is the Timok area with 1941 ethnic percentages of Romanians (blue color) and Serbs (green):

Map of the ethnic area of Romanians in 1910 (red color), showing also the Timok area in Serbia.

Map of the ethnic areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2013 

The above map (that has received some critics) refers to the possible local romance languages of the Latin majority & minority during the late Roman Empire and early Middle Ages. Note the possible link between Italy and Romania.

The following is another detailed (but also with critics) map of "possible" early romance languages in the area of former Yugoslavia