Meleda

Meleda (Serbo-Croatian, Mljet; Lat. Melita), the most southerly and easterly of the larger Adriatic islands of the Austrian province of Dalmatia. Pop. (1900), 1617. Meleda lies south of the Sabioncello promontory, from which it is divided by the Meleda Channel. Its length is 23 m.; its average breadth 2 m. It is of volcanic origin, with numerous chasms and gorges, of which the longest, the Babinopolje, connects the north and south of the island. Port Palazzo, the principal harbour, on the north, is a port of call for tourist steamers. Meleda has been regarded as the Melita on which St Paul was shipwrecked, this view being first expounded, in the 10th century, by Constantine Porphyrogenitus. As at Malta, a "St Paul's Bay" is still shown.