As a child I was fascinated by the oldest house on our family island, ‘The Landlord’s House’, which is an example of a simple country estate from the eighteenth century, built by Count Fanfogna (on the land he was awarded for his services in the war between the Venetian Republic and Ottoman Empire). I found the vault passage, with its ceiling beams, especially magical. The Fanfogna house is the most prominent landmark on the steep way that leads to the hill-top village of Zverinac. Another motif of the island, the simple eighteenth-century bell tower, which stands separate from the church, was always dear to me as a child. The bell tower has been always used by the villagers to mark the times of day – sunrise, noon and sunset – by which they structured their daily activities.
