Brijuni national park

The Brijuni (also known as the Brionian Islands; Italian: Brioni ) are a group of fourteen small islands in the Croatian part of the northern Adriatic Sea, separated from the west coast of the Istrian peninsula by the narrow Fažana Strait. The largest island, Veli Brijun (5.6 km²), lies 2 km off the coast, the others are Mali Brijun, Sv. Marko, Gaz, Okrugljak, Supin, Supinič, Galija, Grunj, Krasnica (Vanga), Madona, Vrsar, Jerolim and Kozada. Famous for their scenic beauty, the islands are a holiday resort and a Croatian National Park.
GEOGRAPHIC POSITION
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.
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.
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.
The majority of the flora on the archipelago of Brijuni has the typical Mediterranean characteristics. The most important plant associations of Veliki Brijun are:
Macchia 261 ha
Meadows 124 ha
Parks 118 ha
Holm oak forests 68 ha
Holm oak and laurel forests 48 ha
Conifers 18 ha
It is interesting to point out that on the islands there are some plant species that are among the endangered plant species of Istria (marine poppy, wild cucumber, some grass species etc.), but on the islands they are quite widespread and develop freely.
FAUNA
Because of the millennial presence of men on the archipelago of Brijuni, the animal world on the islands, especially Veliki Brijun, besides the autochthonous species, was enriched by many imported species that are not congenial to this habitat but got acclimated to it thanks to the almost ideal microclimatic conditions.
SUBMARINE WORLD
The indentation of the coastline, the diversity of the base, the bathymetric configuration and the specific hydrodynamic conditions are reflected in the wide variety of littoral biocoenoses - life communities - that are characteristic for the northern Adriatic region and are still unaffected by direct sources of contamination.
The local seas of Brijuni are important hatching grounds and representative oasis (marine park) for the typical marine organisms of the northern Adriatic, that is their colonies andcommunities. Of the marine organisms that are protected by the Law on Environmental Conservation in the waters of Brijuni you can find the pen-shell (Pinna nobilis) and the date-shell (Lithophaga lithophaga). Turtles and dolphins, the protected marine vertebrates, can also from time to time be seen in the waters of Brijuni. There are also some endemic species like the black tang, Jadranski bračić, and the tunicate, Jadranski ciganin.
The seabed abounds in sponges, shellfish, sea urchins, crustaceans, fish etc. Among fish the most numerous are sea basses, giltheads, grey mullets, soles, groupers, conger eels, dentexes, black umbers… In the past in the seas of Brijuni were found some species that were never seen in the Adriatic, as well as some species up to then unknown to scientists like the soft coral Alcyonium brionense (Kuekenthal 1906) or the variety of the sponge Ircinia variabilis fistulata (Syzmanski 1904).