CURZOLA (Serbo-Croatian, Korcula or Karkar), an island in the Adriatic, forming part of Dalmatia, Yugoslavia. Pop. (1931) of island 28,492; of capital (same name) 6,563. Length about 38m., breadth (average) 5 miles. The island lies 2m. W. of Sabioncello promontory. The hilly interior has prehistoric grave mounds, and Phoenicians may have colonized here. Greeks did so in the 4th century B.C., and the name may be corrupted from Kipfcvpa MEAatva, perhaps referring to the dark pines that still partly cover the island. It first became Venetian in A.D. 998, was ruled by Hungary and Genoa in turn in the 12th century, became independent for a while, and then its counts submitted to Venice (1255). Marco Polo was taken prisoner by the Genoese in a sea-fight near by. Curzola became Hungarian in 1358, was bought by Ragusa (1413-17), and again submitted to Venice in 142o. The capital is on a rocky foreland and contains the loggia (council chambers) and palace of the Venetian governors, a fine Gothic cloister in a 15th century Franciscan friary, walls and towers of the citadel (1420) on the hill crown, and a church (I2th-13th century), formerly a cathedral. It was a see from I loI to IRo6_ The resistance of Curzola to the Turks in 1571 earned for it the title fidelissirna. In 1776-97 it was a Venetian arsenal, suc ceeding Lesina. In the Napoleonic wars it passed through Rus sian, French and British to Austrian hands (1815) , and it be came Yugoslav in 1918. The people are sailors and fishermen, build boats, grow vines, olives and corn, breed mules, and quarry slate, stone and marble. They cling to old ways, act traditional plays and pantomimes, and dance the "Moreska."