The Italian Province of Spalato (1941-1943) was an administrative section of the "Governorate of Dalmatia", created during World War II by the Italian government with Regio Decreto Legge of May 18, 1941.

Characteristics

The Province of Spalato was part of the Italian Governorate of Dalmatia and had an area of 975 km² with a population of 128,400 inhabitants. It was included the two main cities of Spalato (Split) and Trau (Trogir) and their hinterland, extending north to Sebenico (Šibenik). Additionally there were the islands of Lissa, Curzola, Lagosta, Cazza, Pelagosa (these last 3 removed from the "Italian Province of Zara") and Meleda.

The province bordered only the Independent State of Croatia. The "Capoluogo" (administrative center) was Spalato, where there was the "Tribunal" and was edited the Italian newspaper "San Marco". There was even the football team AC Spalato, that substituted the local Hadjuk ruled by Slavs.

Most of the population of the newly created province was Croatian, but there was even a small -but historical- community of nearly 3,000 Dalmatian Italians (only in Spalato city they were more than 1,000 in 1940, even if greatly reduced from the first half of the XIX century when they were more than one third of the city's population ).

History

Italian General Vittorio Ambrosio conquered in a few days all the Dalmatian coast of Yugoslavia, and occupied in April 1941 the area of southern Dalmatia around Spalato (called officially "Split" only since 1919).

The new Italian province of Spalato was created by order of Mussolini the next month, with the "May 19 Treaty between Italy and Croatia". Valerio Paolo Zerbino was named "Prefect" of the Province of Spalato, serving from June 1941 to August 1943.

The governorship of the Spalato province (and all the Governorate of Dalmatia) was held by Giuseppe Bastianini until January 1943 when he was recalled to Italy to join the cabinet; his place as governor was taken by Francesco Giunta.

In summer 1941 the Italian government started a policy of "Italianization" in all the Governorate of Dalmatia. New Italian schools were opened in Spalato. Administrative personnel from Italy moved to Spalato and Trau (nearly 6,700 Dalmatian Italians took refuge in Italy after the creation of Yugoslavia in 1919, and many of them were offered work if they returned to settle with their families in the Governorate of Dalmatia). Bastianini started needed public works, building hospitals, sewage systems and roads in the area. Even the "Bank of Italy" opened a branch in Spalato 

Thousands of Jews from Croatia took refuge inside the Governorate, and many moved to the Spalato area mainly in 1942.

In August 1943 the Governorate administrative personnel left Dalmatia and returned to the Italian peninsula: the area was ruled by the Italian military until mid-September 1943 when was occupied by German troops. After the disappearance of the province, all the area -that under Italian presence was spared the bloody guerrilla that happened in Ante Pavelic's Croatia- started to be involved in the massacres of the Yugoslavian civil war during WWII.

After WWII nearly all the 3000 Dalmatian Italians of Spalato were forced to emigrate from Tito's Yugoslavia, but in 2012 there were still 100 in the city.

"Comuni" of the Province of Spalato

The "Comuni" (Municipalities) of the Province were 13 (2 of them, Spalato and Curzola, had a special status):

Spalato / Split; population 46,900 
Blatta di Curzola / Blato; pop. 6,000 
Castelvecchio Inferiore o Castel Vecchio / Kaštel Stari; pop. 5,500 
Castel San Giorgio / Kaštel Sućurac; pop. 3,500
Castel Vitturi / Kaštel Lukšić; pop. 4,000 
Comisa / Komiža; pop. 5,000 
Curzola / Korčula; pop. 10,000 
Lagosta / Lastovo; pop. 3,000 
Lissa / Vis; pop. 8,000 
Meleda / Mljet; pop. 2,000 
Solta / Šolta; pop. 2,500
Traù / Trogir; pop. 25,000 
Vallegrande / Vela Luka; pop. 7,000

Related pages
 Cattaro (Italian province)
 Zara (Italian province)
 Dalmatian Italians
 Albania veneta
 Italian cultural and historic presence in Dalmatia
 Venice and Dalmatia

Notes

Bibliography

 Pavlowitch, Stevan. Hitler's new disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia. Columbia University Press. New York, 2008   
 Praga, Giuseppe. Storia di Dalmazia. Dall'Oglio editore. Varese, 1981 
 Rodogno, Davide. Il nuovo ordine mediterraneo. Ed. Bollati Boringhieri. Torino, 2003

History of Italy