Brijuni

Brijuni National Park was established in 1983 off the western coast of Istria, in the northern Adriatic, and protects some 34 km² around an archipelago of fourteen islands and islets.

Its history is inseparable from human intervention. In the late nineteenth century the Austrian industrialist Paul Kupelwieser bought the islands, eradicated malaria with the help of Robert Koch and turned them into a luxury spa resort for the European aristocracy, planting parks, avenues and exotic species. After the Second World War, Josip Broz Tito chose them as his summer residence and the centre of Yugoslav diplomacy: he received more than a hundred heads of state there, and the declaration that gave rise to the Non-Aligned Movement was signed there in 1956. The animals given to him by visiting leaders gave rise to a safari park that still operates, with axis deer, zebras and antelope.

The natural and archaeological value is equally notable. On the shore of the main island hundreds of Cretaceous dinosaur footprints are preserved, one of the most important trace fossil sites in the Adriatic, along with the remains of a Roman villa in Verige bay, a Byzantine basilica and a thousand-year-old olive tree still bearing fruit. The Posidonia meadows in its waters are among the best preserved in the northern Adriatic.