Telašćica - the only sea side Park of Nature in Croatia

I bet You’ve already heard of Croatia – the country of thousand island. And I bet, when you hear ‘thousand islands’, your imagination goes wild and you already feel the sand between your toes and warmth of the sun on your bare skin. Although every of 1246 Croatian islands is a paradise of another kind, there are some that represent the Earth as it used to and should be – unspoiled nature, unaltered ecosystem and magical beauty of the landscape.

The same situation caused another phenomena in the Park, salt lake ‘Mir’, meaning ‘Peace’ in Croatian language. The lake is situated in a narrow area of the land between the bay Telašćica and the open sea and it is connected with the open sea by numerous underground micro cracks. The maximum depth of the lake is six meters and due to that fact, the water in the lake is slightly warmer and slightly saltier than that one of the open sea. Thus the underwater life is poor, so , You don’t have to worry about jellyfish and seat-urchins when swimming at the lake. The coast of the lake is mainly rocky but one can find an intimate piece of sand to enjoy peace of Peace.
The other natural phenomena of the Park are vertical cliffs rising from the sea on the open sea side of Telašćica bay, forming the most distinguished cliff on the Adriatic, the famous "Stene" of Dugi otok. The cliffs are reaching a height of 161 meters and a depth of 85 meters in the sea. This area has a rich and interesting flora and fauna. Under the sea level, live several species of sea-urchins, a great number of different fishes and crab species. At recess of the cliffs in semi-dark caves live different sponges, stingers, and colonies of corals, especially jeopardized red coral, whose remains decorate numerous necks around the globe. The cliffs are also the nesting place of the Peregrine Falcon and Eleonora's Falcon. Thanks to the existence of a great number of individuals of this species, Telašćica has been enlisted to the Important Bird Areas. Two endemic species of the shell snail family live also on the cliffs, along with the Croatian centaury as a rare endemic kind. The cliffs of Telašćica are also very popular watching point for dolphins, since the rich underwater life attracts this magical creatures. The bottle-nose dolphin is a frequent guest of the Park. It is also a jeopardized kind, protected in Croatia from 1995. Still, it doesn’t help and their number is dropping down. It is estimated that there are 220 units in the Adriatic and they are the last mammals permanently inhabiting Croatian sea.

Tourists visiting this paradise are looking for more than just pleasure and leisure in some kingdom by the sea. Although Telašćica offers much more. Here You can walk in nature and visit some historical - cultural locations such as the Church of St. Anthony from the 4th or 5th century, pre-Romanesque Church of St Viktor or St. John, Illyrian grave-mounds, ancient limekilns and quarries and Romanesque Villa Rustica from the 1st century. Guests from all around the globe are cruising, practicing water sports and recreations, fish, photo-hunt, go cycling, trekking, and particularly diving in the magical endless blue. But most of them looking even more than that.
They are, actually, coming here to convince themselves that places like this still exist in today’s manic world. The places so pure and bright in their beauty, with vivid life of nature and protected from the influences of modern society. The Park of Nature Telašćica is appealing even scientists of different interests from all around the world. They come here to find the holy grail, a weapon for saving us form degradation of the environment. Parks of Nature like Telašćica help us to understand better live spices around us, in order to help prevent their disappearance.