Documents that were confiscated from the Dubrovnik State Archives and were found in the Salzburg Diocese Archives were handed over on Wednesday in the presence of Croatia's Minister of Culture and Media Nina Obuljen-Korzinek and Croatia's Ambassador to Austria Danijel Gluncic.

The documents involved are two pontifical documents which the diocese was immediately prepared to return to Croatia, and this was also approved by Austria’s state authorities, he said, adding that the documents will be placed in Dubrovnik’s Archives.

The head of the archive’s collection, Zoran Perovic, explained that the documents returned today are two pontifical bulls dated 1189 and 1252. The first notes that the Pope is deploying Archbishop Bernard to Dubrovnik while the other bull refers to the appointment of an archbishop to be a judge in a dispute between the Bar and Dubrovnik Archdioceses.

The process ended successfully with the return of Croatia’s cultural heritage, Minister Obuljen-Korzinek said, noting this is not the first or last time this has been done.

Ambassador Gluncic said that the Salzburg Diocese had full understanding that the medieval documents could not be considered to be part of Austria’s or Salzburg’s history.

Police working on issues related to cultural heritage

Police Director Nikola Milina said that the police were working on cultural heritage issues, adding that they have had good results so far.

A soon as the information was released, the Croatian police contacted the police in Austria and the documents were quickly identified which led to them being returned, he said.

Director of Dubrovnik State Archives Nikolina Pozniak is convinced that digitisation will contribute to other documents that have gone missing from the archives and other institutions to be returned.