The biography of Carlotta de Zamagna Calebich (Korčula, 1870 – Padua, 1962) has been reconstructed based on archival material from the State Archives in Dubrovnik and Zadar, the Diocesan Archives in Dubrovnik, the Archives of the Archdiocese of Zadar, family memorabilia as well as by correspondence with her descendants. Carlotta was a member of the Dubrovnik noble family, the Zamagnas, in the period when the memory of the failed Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), as well as the memory of belonging to an aristocracy, faded into a mere reflection and shadow still maintained by family memories and stories. Carlotta was born 60 years after the fall of the Republic, but the images of the old life offered a sort of a window into the ancient world of Ragusa. The first migrations she embarked on were “internal” migrations, as she and the family followed her father’s work-related travels through Korčula, Trogir and Zadar in her early childhood and teenage years.

After getting married in Zadar to Božan Calebich and founding her own family, Carlotta settled in Trieste. Then, after the tragic loss of her son, she moved to Padua together with her husband, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Three generations of women from the same family started their life in Padua, as the family built their new life in Italy. Carlotta’s daughter, on the other hand, continued to live with her family in Šibenik.

Descendants of Carlotta de Zamagna Calebich still live in Padova. They fondly cherish memories of their distant Ragusa heritage as well as their Croatian roots.

Carlotta’s life cycles reveal the ‘space of a woman’ at the end of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century, as well as the mentality and power of motherhood. Various aspects of Carlotta’s role and status with regard to family and social relations exposed and pointed to previously unknown information about the fates of the descendants of the displaced Dubrovnik nobles, whose circle Carlotta’s family belonged to since the time of the Republic of Ragusa.

Prepared by: Jelena Obradović Mojaš