“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 architectural 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 architectural 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 blend of the green islands immersed in the turquoise-blue sea whose bays and hills are laced with the white Istrian rocks.
