Traveling Croatia

By: Zdenko Kahlina

After spending few days in Labin and Pula, we headed north along the Istrian coast. First stop was Fažana, small fishery town, settled amongst numerous pine woods and vineyards. Fažana lies opposite the Brijuni Islands, in the vicinity of Pula. It serves as a starting point for ships and shipping routes, mostly for the Brijuni islands.

Along the western Istrian coast there are several island groups among which the most interesting, the largest and most indented is the Brijuni island group with its 14 islands and islets covering and area of 7.42km².

When the Second World War ended in May 1945 a strong political hick hack erupted regarding the Zones ‘A’ & ‘B’ at the north-west corner of Istria. In 1949 Brioni alias Brijuni Archipelago was nominated the restricted zone and it became the seaside residence of Marshal Tito.

The war ruins on the Islands had been cleared and one had started the restoration and extention works of the whole infrastructure including communications and waterworks. The renovated hotel buildings and the rejuvenation of parks brought back the pleasantness pf staying on the Archipelago again. Two new large buildings were constructed on Veli Brijun western shore known as “White Villa” (1953) and “Brionka” (1957) for the State’s highly regarded guests.

The Yugoslav Government built a single-storey villa on the Vanga Island (Krasnica now) west of Veli Brijun Island for Marshal Tito’s personal use. On southern part of Vanga an orchard and a vineyard had been put up that contained an interesting wine cellar. During Tito’s times Vanga island was a strictly prohibited zone and not accessible to tourists at all.

The present day boundaries of the National Park were set in 1999 and comprise the land, the surrounding sea with the seabed and cover an area of 33.9km2. The length of the coastline of all the islands is 46.8 km. The most indented islands are Veliki Brijun (25.9km) and Mali Brijun (8.3km). The shores are mostly low and rocky but easily accessible due to the horizontal stratification of the rocks, and in some bays pebbles and sand can be found.

The National Park of Brijuni includes the following islands: Veliki Brijun, Mali Brijun, St. Mark, Gaz, Okrugljak, Supin, Supinić, Galija, Grunj, Vanga (Krasnica), Pusti (Madona), Vrsar, St. Jerome and Kozada. (Krasnica), Pusti (Madona), Vrsar, Sv.Jerolim i Kozada. Geologically and geo-morphologically Brijuni are the continuation of western Istria, the so-called “Red Istria”. Since the depth of the channel of Fažana is just 12m, Brijuni were until some 10,000 years ago an integral part of Istria.

Brionska maslina – najstarije živo biće u Hrvatskoj

The islands are made of horizontal or slightly inclined layers of limestone from the Cretaceous, on which in places there are layers of carbonated brown or red soil. The stone that belongs to that formation is white in colour, easily breakable, of marble structure and is abundant in clay and flint. Therefore it is very solid and is an excellent building material. Roman builders appreciated the listed qualities of these stones and it was used to build many towns on the Adriatic.

Climatically Brijuni are part of the northern Mediterranean type of climate and have all the qualities of the western Istrian coast with a relatively high value of dampness in the air (76%). The average yearly temperature is 13.9C, the precipitation average is 817mm, while the level of insolation is 2350 hours per year.

The main characteristic of the Brijuni archipelago is the extraordinary biological diversity given thanks to its geographical location, its geological base and geomorphology, its diversity of the habitat and its island isolation.

The natural biological diversity was enriched by men’s traditional husbandry. Veliki Brijun, as the largest island of the archipelago, which was cultivated into a harmonious landscape of meadows and parks, has along with the rich remnants of architectural heritage also the preserved vegetation types typical for the western Istrian climate. It is important to underline that the sea forms 80% of the protected area of the National Park and has almost all the elements of the marine eco-system of the Adriatic.

Flora

Another characteristic that makes Brijuni even more valuable in relation to other areas of this climate is its vegetation. On Veliki Brijun an extraordinary unity of natural elements and anthropogenesis has been achieved. By taking up the farmlands and by clearing the forests and transforming them into landscape parks with vast meadows, a unique landscape on the Croatian Adriatic coast has been created.

More pictures from Istria can be found here:

[Istria, Croatia] – photo thread – SkyscraperCity

Briuni home page:

http://www.brijuni.hr/en/Home.aspx?PageID=5