Brijuni (Bree-ooh-nee) National Park

“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.”

-Erol Ozan

Sites/Topics covered in this post:  

•  Novigrad
• Pula Fortress
• Brijuni National Park

Go-Date: Day 114, Friday, May 16

Lesson Learned: I really enjoy being the only Americans in off-beat places we visit. It makes me feel special (and we all want to be special, don’t we?), and think that we are blazing trails to really cool places unheard of in the Land of the Free. Of course, I realize this isn’t true, but I also have dreams that Jerry Jones will some day sell the Dallas Cowboys.

Novigrad is not in Russia

Novigrad is a pretty little fishing/beach village that guards the southward passage into Croatia from Slovenia and Italy. Novigrad is situated halfway between Porec’ and Umag. We caught it on a cold day in May, but we could tell the town was ramping up for the onslaught of summer tourists. Novigrad is also one of the top Istrian gourmet destinations and there must be four or five cafés every block in the city center. Istrian cuisine is excellent (especially the fish), with fabulous wines, and you can have a terrific meal without requiring a second mortgage on the house.

Novigrad is also known as the city of umbrellas. They have umbrellas hanging from wires all over town. I can imagine the damage high winds can do to these displays, but it does add a lot of color to their Venetian streets. The first written reference to the city goes back to 599 CE. Novigrad was founded on the ancient sites of several villages. There was Neapolis in the Seventh century, then Civitas Nova in the Ninth century, and ancient Emona (Aemonia) in the 12th century. This not only shows that they have a long and rich history, it shows that they got their butts kicked a lot by the Romans, Franks, Venetians, Goths, Germans, Italians, French and Russians. I think I would have always kept a bag packed for a quick departure.

The colorful decorations hanging all over old town Novigrad were first put up in 2013 as part of the set during the Street Wizard’s Night – Magical NoviGrad summer street art festival.

At first, the cheerful umbrellas used to be hung up only during the festival, along the two streets leading to the central town square. But the visitors and town’s people enjoyed the colorful decorations so much, and it did a lot to differentiate Novigrad from all the other Istrian beach towns that look like color post cards from the Riviera (and that seemed to draw more tourists), that they kept appearing in more and more locations around the city center. The “rule” of when the umbrellas can be displayed extended from spring throughout the summer season into October.

This town is small, but lovely. Its even less in size than Trogir, but you will really enjoy a visit to this quaint village. You might even score one of the 4-Star Apartmens for not a horrible cost. In the spring, when it frequently rains, you’ll always be able to find an umbrella.

Pula Star Fortress

Along the way we stopped off at the old star fortress in the center of Pula. This is our second stop here (in fact we are staying at the same apartment we did on our first visit) but we didn’t get a chance to go see the fort. My daughter teases me that I’ve made this trip into a Game of Thrones journey, but I’m just fascinated by antiquity and the art, buildings, and culture of the past. How could we not stop by the fort?

A Star Fortress is a fortification that was developed during the early modern period of gunpowder when the cannon came to dominate the battlefield. It was first seen in the mid-15th century in Italy.

The design of the fort is normally star shaped [duh] with bastions at the corners of the walls. These outcroppings eliminated protected blind spots, called “dead zones”, and allowed fire along the curtain from positions protected from direct fire. Many star forts also feature cavaliers, which are raised secondary structures based entirely inside the primary structure. The Pula fort is a perfect example of this style fort, as is Fort McHenry in Baltimore.

Constructed: 1630

Used by:

• Republic of Venice
• Austria/Hungary
• France
• Italy
• Germany
• Yugoslavia
• Croatia
• Duchy of Grand Fenwick (could be)
• Empire of Mordor (nah)
• Barsoom (where?)
• Morlock (fact check this)
• Zorro, the Gay Blade (I just made that up for a few of the above)

Conflicts in which it participated: Many

As we’ve come to understand in our two months in Croatia, they’ve had more rulers from other nations in their history than I’ve owned shoes in my 64 summers. I doubt if that is an exaggeration. Pula is in one of those parts of Croatia that just about every military power in history has raised their flag over this fort.

As has been common throughout history every time a new bully took over Pula, they knew the hill, in the middle of the town, was a perfect spot for a castle. Pula became a Roman possession around 45 BCE. But, while Zadar picked the right side, Pula picked the wrong team in a Roman civil war, and was burned to the ground in 42 BCE. Romans couldn’t let the rubble stay in such a valuable piece of real estate so they built a fort on the hill, along with an amphitheater, some temples, gates into the city, and loads of other stuff which you can find stacked in people’s backyards all over the city.

A few hundred years and half a dozen rulers later the Venetians built Pula Castle on the hilltop in the 14th century, which is now known as Pula Fortress. Honestly, the fort hasn’t been well maintained and we didn’t go inside the gates, but it was a good way to kill a few hours on a rainy morning.

Roman Paradise

Have no doubts, the Romans picked out the best spots in their conquered lands for the rich, prestigious, and powerful to play and lounge in the seasons when they weren’t empire-building. The island of Brijuni, and Brijuni National Park is one of those spots.

Along the coast of western Istria, due west of the beach town of Fažana there is a groups of islands, the largest being Brijuni with chain of 13 other islands scattered about. It sits only a couple of kilometers off the dock in Fažana, the entire island is a national park, and you reach the island via a 30-minute people ferry ride that is included with the park admission ticket. The beach area round all 14 islands covers 46.82 km and is crowded with sea gulls, herons, and terns, all supervised by the dolphins circling the islands looking for lunch.

The boat over to the island wasn’t crowded, and we appeared to be the only Americans aboard, though we did meet 4 Canadians. The ride was short, the weather spectacular, and the water blue and as smooth as your bathroom mirror.

Once on shore, the tour groups formed up like regiments preparing for a forced march to the battle front. Since they were going left, we turned right, and strolled the opposite direction to the bike rental kiosk. There are little park trains (trams) that circle the island but you would have to sprint to them to beat out all the tourists with walkers, canes and 200 mm zoom lenses on expensive Japanese DSLR cameras to get a seat. I think the average age on those tour groups had to be 75 at the minimum. Look out for blue-haired ladies with walkers, they can be vicious and have sharp elbows and sharper tongues.

What’s to see on this island? Here is a partial list:

Safari Park – The gate to the Safari Park reminded me a lot of the movie Jurassic Park. You push a button and the gate slowly opens while you have no idea what awaits for you beyond. There are no attendants, no brochures, and only a sign that says “Enter at your own Peril” and “Please don’t feed the Animals”. Fortunately, there were no lions or hyenas camped out by the gate waiting to pounce, as we were on one-speed bikes that weighed about 50 pounds apiece, and we probably couldn’t out peddle that German lady and her walker mentioned above. Besides that, unbeknownst to me, Ellen had stuffed her scarf in my rear wheel spokes to make sure that if there were predators just inside the gate, I’d be the slower peddler. Ain’t love grand? Well, OK, there are no lions, tigers or bears in the park, and the German lady from the ferry was really sweet, but it was kind of an eerie feeling since the term safari brings up visions of the Serengeti Plain, herds of wildebeests and lion prides. We did get an exasperated look from the zebra grazing just inside the door though. On the right side of the entrance to the park, ostriches and one lone peacocks strut around, though the peacock promptly found a hole in the fence and made like the local teenagers and got the hell away from the tourists.

On the left side of the entrance to the Safari Park, llamas are strolling (and sleeping) between donkeys, zebras, some kind of cattle I didn’t recognize, a few horses, and a few camels they claim are from South America.  The livestock in that field paid us no attention at all and were completely involved with grazing on the tall grass on the beautiful day. It felt like Amarillo on a March afternoon.

There is supposed to be an Indian elephant there, but he was taking a powder. They also claim that you can see sea turtles from the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in the Adriatic Sea (that sounded like a Mexican waiter taking your order an Uncle Julio’s restaurant…..Si, si, si, si….do you want flour or corn tortillas?), but it was closed and we never got a look at them. The most attentive wild life we found were the two ostriches that were really looking for a handout. As soon as they figured out none were coming, they moved on to do what ostriches do. Oh, and there are seagulls everywhere. I mean lots of them. I was looking for Alfred Hitchcock around every corner of the road.

Brijuni Olive Tree – The Brijuni olive tree is one of the oldest olive trees in the Mediterranean, and over 2,000 years old. A fact that has been verified by research carried out on samples of this ancient olive tree by the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, in the 1960s.

Byzantine Castrum – a castrum is a building or plot of land used as a military defensive position, which in this case was the richest site of ancient artifacts on Brijuni stretches on an area somewhat greater than a couple of acres in Madona Bay. Findings from the period of the Roman Republic and Empire, Late Antiquity, Eastern Goths, Byzantium, the Carolingian period and Venice testify to the longtime settlement.

Not long after the first villa was built in Dobrika Bay in the 1st century BCE, during Augustus’ reign, a new villa rustica (countryside villa) was erected partly on the site of an earlier Roman settlement. Its was a sizable with a central courtyard and equipment for producing olive oil and wine, as well as cellars, and modestly arranged housing units. Life in the villa went on until the end of the 4th century when the villa grew into a closely-built-type settlement with houses, olive and grapes processing plants, storage rooms, workshops, blacksmith workshops, ovens, in short, all elements necessary for an independent life of a community. It seems the wealthy Romans moved a couple of bays over to the newer, high-rent district. The Castrum became a work center and defensive walled fort.

At the beginning of the 5th century, the settlement overflowed the existing footprint, and defensive walls were erected in mid-5th century. Either side of the wall could be climbed onto by single or double stairs, while the walls were reinforced with counter-fort on the side facing the sea. Later, it was occupied by the Franks and Venetians and was a vital stop-over on the Adriatic trade route. Evidence shows that the castrum was abandoned during the Venetian era, most likely due to the arrival of the plague. Today, it is an impressive ruin that dominates the bay and makes you want to build your own villa on the site.

St. Mary’s Basilica – The basilica was erected in the 6^th century CE in close vicinity to the castrum to meet the settlement’s religious needs, while the church of St. Peter was erected some time afterwards. The specificity of St. Mary’s basilica is architecturally different from most other basilicas of that period in that the sanctuary ended with a rectangular apse, while most other basilicas had a semicircularly organized sanctuary. During the 13^th century the basilica was a possession of the Templar Order until their demise in 1312.

Dinosaur Park – The historical richness of Brijuni is also amplified by paleontological sites around the 14 islands where more than 200 footprints of dinosaurs have been discovered. It is believed that these ancient reptiles walked Brijuni 125-100 million years ago when the islands were part of the mainland.

Dinosaur tracks have been discovered at four sites: at Veliki Brijun and the islands of Vanga, Galija and Vrsar. If you wanted to charter a boat, footprints on the island of Veliki Brijun, as well as on Cape Ploče and Cape Vrbanj are open to the public. We skipped this site. We’ve been to Glen Rose, and have seen the footprints there, and we’ve seen the blocks of footprints removed from Glen Rose that are now on display in New York’s Museum of Natural History. https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/saurischian-dinosaurs/the-glen-rose-trackway

Roman Villa – On the western side of Brijuni, along Verige Bay, are the remains of an impressive Roman villa rustica. Its construction began in the 1st century BCE, and it achieved its greatest splendor in the 1st century CE. Certain parts of the villa were used until the 6th century.

This Roman villa is part of the Roman Emperors Route which has received a certificate of the Council of Europe and the European Institute of Cultural Routes. The route is 3.5 thousand kilometers long and stretches through Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania and promotes archaeological tourism. It covers 20 archaeological sites important for the period of imperial Rome and related to the lives of 17 Roman emperors. I will tell you that if you search for the Roman Emperors Route on the Internet, 90 out of 100 hits will be for wine tours. But, I can’t say that’s not a bad way to check out Roman sites in Eastern Europe.

On the southern side of the bay stood the impressive summer residence for the Roman equivalent of the Vanderbilts. An integral part of the complex were temples erected in honor of the sea god Neptune, the Capitoline Triad and the goddess of love and beauty, Venus, situated at the end of the bay. Man, no wonder the villa is currently in ruins. The Dieta (eating hall), palestra (health club or gym), thermae (public bath), fishpond (fishpond) and the economic part of the manor were situated at the northern side of the bay.

By an interesting system of promenades stretching one kilometer along the sea, all the buildings were connected into a unique whole, in ideal harmony with the landscape. This place was the Beverly Hills, North Hills, the Hamptons, and Fort Lauderdale of the Roman Empire long before Columbus was potty-broken.

Botanical Garden – the Brijuni Mediterranean garden is a real attraction within the Brijuni National Park. The garden was established in 2007 in the area of the former forest nursery. At first, the nursery was set up by the government for the purpose of  landscape restoration and development, lumber and farming abuse remediation. Over time decorative species of perennials, trees, and shrubs gradually began to be grown in the nursery, and some areas were used for research.

The main purpose of establishing the garden was to enhance the environment for park visitors. They have done a smashing job.

Golf Course – At the beginning of the 20th century, the Brijuni golf course became an elite meeting place for aristocracy and golf champions from around the world and the world’s first golf resort. Today it is accessible to all golfers, from amateurs and hacks to professional-level golfers. It’s an 18 hole course, of decent length, and it’s the only golf course (outside of West Texas) that I can recall having sand greens. I’ll bet they are fast greens to putt. Another distraction to raise your handicap are the herds of native deer (we saw one herd of over 100 deer), peacocks (peafowl), and flocks of seagulls that may interrupt the flight of your ball. Fore!

There are several seaside hotels on the island. Depending on the season, sea view rooms range from about $60 to $200 a night. Sorry, I never looked at any of the rooms. If this doesn’t meet your needs, there are numerous villas on the island that will run between $500 to $1000 dollars a night. I didn’t poke around, but I’m sure prices may run higher than that, based on the size of some of those places. Boat docking space is available as well (for a nominal fee, I’m sure).

We had a great day here. I’d recommend it for a low-impact, battery recharging get-away. There were things we’ve regretted on our trip, but this certainly wasn’t one of them.