Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1920 — CITY HAS VARIED HISTORY [ARTICLE]

CITY HAS VARIED HISTORY

Trau, Situated an Small Island Mi ths Adriatic Sea, Is Place of '' Unusual Interest. ' Trau la a little city, on a little Island, In the Adriatic sea. Trau is the Greek name for watermelon, which Is the shape of the Island, but ths people claim that the name Is a derivation of Traghilon, whence the Greeks came to Trau In 380 B. C. Many fascinating fictions are fixed beliefs in the minds of the natives of the Island. They believe a cypress bush was miraculously planted to shelter a statue of the elty’s patron saint, Giovanni Orsini, and that the same saint’s spirit nourishes it They also believe that the book which tho Lion of St Mark holds was snapped shut when Venice relinquished the Island, rather than that the statue was carved that way. The town has less than 20,000 population and fairly breathes a medieval spirit. The houses are built so close together that vehicle traffic is almost impossible, and the streets are so crooked that pedestrians find difficulty getting around. This was because of military necessity at the time the artistic Httlo city was created. The father of the Dalmation history, Giovanni Lucio, was born there. King Bela IV fled there after the Tartars overrun his country, but continued to Kraglievac when the Intrenched city was beseiged, although It did not fall. Byzantines, Huns, Franks, Genoese and Venetians fought for Trau, the Saracens looted It Napoleon took It in 1806, and the Austrians gained It seven years later.