Koločep or Kalamota as the locals call
it is an evergreen island full of pine and carob trees entangled with citrus
gardens and small olive groves. Kalamota is like a small park, a favoruite
resort beside the beach.Kalamota has two settlements, Gornje Čelo
and Donje Čelo, each a sovereign ruler on its part of the island. The
settlements are interconnected by a meandering path that leads through the
gardens and the olive groves, unraveling the remenants of the ancient
architecture scatered all throughout the island. You can stroll the island and
rediscover the lovely pre-Romanesque churches, old summer mannors,
guardian castles and more...
Kalamota has a surface of 2,4 square km and is 3 Nm northwest of Dubrovnik.
The island is made up of limestone and dolomite rock but at each end every
settlement has its own, natural, mirraculous sandy beach.
Kalamota experienced it's golden age in the 15th. century. In that time
many sacral builduings and summer manors were built on the island. Later in
the 16th century after an attack by the Turkish fleet, Kalamota was
fortified with defence towers.
Today on Kalamota, apart swimming you can visit a parish church, The
Assumption of Mary, located in Donje Čelo, built in 13th century.
On the way to Gornje Čelo you can visit The Church of St. Anthony from the
15th century and admire one of the greatest work of Dubrovnik school of
painting, an altar-piece, done by the Ivan Ugrinović in 15th. century.
In Gornje Čelo, a pre-Romanesque church of St. Anthony of Padova, built
in 11th/12th century waits for your visit as do some other
pre-Romanesque churches. However, many of the fabulous buildings of the past
are now only ruins.
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