As of January 20, 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia issued a decree on placing the Traditional Art of Silkworm Breeding and Silk Production of the East Coast and Hinterland of the Adriatic under the preventive protection until the cultural properties are fully determined. Apart from the fact that the protection of this cultural property will enable us to maintain and popularize the art of silk production in Konavle, we believe that it will further encourage research to finally unravel the local silk story. Although most believe that silk production existed only in Konavle, silk production was present throughout most of the Adriatic coast and hinterland. But not everywhere at the same time and not always. The survival of silk production in the Adriatic is indeed a vast and important topic that we will finally, hopefully, start unraveling.

Silkworm breeding and silk production are two separate activities. Silkworm breeders were engaged in silkworm breeding up until the moment when cocoons were produced, while silk producers were engaged in making the silk products out of those cocoons. Silkworm breeding was encouraged by local spinning mills, and often by the state, to procure raw materials for production and enable the population of agrarian-poor areas to create added value. Thus, suburban settlements, the area of ​​the Bay of Kotor, the surroundings of the cities of Split, Zadar, Dubrovnik, and also the area of ​​Slavonia, Dalmatia, and the Military Frontier (Vojna krajina) are most often engaged in silkworm breeding. Namely, with the initiative of Maria Theresa in the 18th century, silk factories were opened in Croatia and the population was encouraged to breed silkworms. From 1782, every Croatian municipality was to have mulberry plantations for which the government distributed seedlings. At the time, silk production in Croatia was at its peak, and silk was entirely exported from Croatia. And before, even during the Venetian rule in Dalmatia, the silk production was recorded, which was defined within the circle of Italian producers. Thus we can see that silkworm breeding had its way to Croatian producers through the great need for silk production in Europe. Silkworm breeding was organized in such a way that the state provided silkworm eggs with the basic instructions on silkworm breeding. After the silkworm feeding cycle was completed, the cocoons would be handed over for further manipulation in textile production. In some cases, breeders would suffocate them in furnaces themselves to prevent moths from emerging from the cocoons, i.e. destroying the cocoons. While sometimes they would do so during the time of repurchase. Depending on the price that was valid for a certain year, breeders would receive a certain amount of money for the number of delivered cocoons. Households that grew silkworms did not necessarily use silk for their own needs. Thus, silk production was separate from silkworm breeding, and this kind of silk cultivation lasted until the very beginning of the 20th century, with its greatest peak in the middle of the 19th century. At that time, silkworm diseases were rampant in France and Italy, so cocoons from our area became the main Lombard raw material in the production of silk textiles.

However, Konavle silkworm breeding and silk production do not belong to this, above-mentioned provenance. No commercial cultivation for purchase in the 19th century is recorded in Konavle. At that time, silk production was the personal production of young girls for their dowry, which is practiced by girls from all households. The only recorded data on the sale of cocoons, i.e. the breeding of silkworms for commercial purposes, can be found in the autobiography of Vlaho Bukovac Moj život, in which he describes how his father cultivated silkworms in the Šipun cave in Cavtat to earn some money. For the Cavtat area, it is to be expected that there would be incentives for silkworm breeding for commercial purposes, unlike other parts of Konavle, which were rich in many other agricultural productions, so there was no need for added value from silkworms. However, in some earlier times, there was certainly the possibility of commercial silkworm breeding, which we will probably learn through future research. Silk spread throughout the Mediterranean during the 6th century, and since then there have been numerous initiatives, ups and downs of various silk producers, probably some of them were from Konavle.

In Konavle, the notion towards silk is different than in the rest of Croatia. Thus, Konavle silkworm breeding is also its silk production. The same people who produce cocoons also make silk yarn. The breeding cycles take place once or twice a year for the girls to produce embroideries and woven belts for themselves on an annual basis. Several types of threads were produced, those for embroidery, for weaving as well as those for ornaments, tassels, and braids. Already prepared threads were dyed for domestic needs and then embroidered, woven, and decorated with them. It was also sewn with silk thread. Part of the undyed thread was kept in chests for household needs, for tying the umbilical cord of newborn children, and for tying the hands and feet of the dead at burials. A strong intangible heritage in the form of beliefs, customs, and apotropaic views, is woven through the Konavle silk production, which we do not record in commercial silkworm breeding. Therefore, it is to be believed that the Konavle story of silk is much older than the one encouraged by the state from the end of the 18th century onwards.

Today, to preserve art customs, silkworm breeding and silk production are still alive in Konavle. Silkworms are bred out of love for tradition, but also for educational and for presentation purposes. The produced silk is used for making tassels for traditional Konavle clothing, for textile restoration, and also for weaving. As the need for the production of clothing is not the main goal of breeding, nor a direct commercial value, we can say that the production of silk in Konavle is in its third historical stage. In any case, this protection will once again shed light on the heritage phenomenon of silk production in Konavle for new scientific contributions and incentives for the preservation of this art.