Marco Polo's island — the best-preserved medieval walled town in the Adriatic
Korčula is a densely forested island in the southern Dalmatian archipelago, its old town a perfectly walled medieval grid of fishbone lanes perched on a narrow peninsula jutting into the sea. The 14th-century walls, round towers, and the Cathedral of St Mark rival anything in Dubrovnik with a fraction of the crowds. Korčula claims to be the birthplace of Marco Polo — disputed but celebrated with a Marco Polo House museum and the annual Marco Polo Festival. The island interior produces some of Croatia's finest white wine (Pošip and Grk), and the traditional Moreška sword dance is performed on…
Korčula was founded as a Greek colony called Korkyra Melaina (Black Korkyra) around the 4th century BC by settlers from Corfu. It fell under Roman rule, then Byzantine, before becoming part of the Venetian Republic in 1420 — and the island's medieval old town, with its herringbone street plan designed to funnel sea breezes, was built largely under Venetian governance. The claim that Marco Polo was born here in 1254 is disputed by Genoa, but his family's presence in the town is documented, and the Polo house has been a point of civic pride for centuries.