Brijuni National Park

The Maker intended to shape a part of the Earth to the image of Heaven. That is how Istria came into being, like a garden covered with magnificent trees and vast meadows, washed by the deep blue sea, appealing people to a happier life. But the jealous devil destroyed his work by tearing the bag in which the angel was carrying the unused stones. Thousands of rocks scattered around the Istrian land making it a land of contrasts, gentle and rough, fertile and barren, sunny and cloudy. The desolated angels gathered the pieces of Heaven remaining among the scattered rocks and protected them by the sea waves and created Brijuni.

We have prepared some very interesting programmes designed to make our guests stay on Brijuni more complete and to introduce them to some of numerous natural, cultural and historical assets of the National Park.

“When on the Istrian island of Brijuni all the yet unexplored and mostly inaccessible monuments from all ages, from the early periods of the pre-Roman Istria until the 16th century, will be discovered and made accessible to research then this beautiful island will be a unique museum rich in architectonic inventory of high artistic and historic importance. To all the cultures, which settled through history on the northern Adriatic coast, will be possible to ascribe at least one monument of architectonic heritage or some other artefact witnessing its presence.”  A. Gnirs, 1911.

The archipelago of Brijuni is an extraordinary blend of natural, historical and cultural heritage. The mild climate and the favourable geographical conditions, deep retracted bays and easily defendable elevated fortifications, have secured a continuum in the human activity on the island from a pre-historic age until the present day. On a relatively small archipelago, of an area of around 7km2, have been registered some hundred sites and buildings of archaeological and cultural-historical value and which comprise the period from the first Neolithic settlements, the dugouts in the bay of Soline, until the creation of an elite summer and health resort at the beginning of the last century and the presidential residency visited by statesmen from one third of the world s countries in its 25 years of existence (1954-1979).

This concise curriculum vitae of the island, which carefully preserves the traces of 5000 years of human history, makes the legend of its creation even more real and when arriving to the island a part of Heaven  discloses in front of our eyes in the unique harmony of the island€ s flora, fauna and heritage. A unique bland of the green islands sank into the turquoise-blue sea whose bays and hills are laced with the white Istrian rocks.