We previously brought you Croatia’s heart-shaped island via the incredible aerial photography of Peter Rajkai.
Let’s now see that geology of the country is not just about the body. There’s also an island in the air that looks almost like a huge fingerprint.
Bavljenac is its name. The fingerprint effect it creates from a network old stone walls, and an oval shape gives the area its distinctive oval shape. A Google Earth image of the location shows this.
Croatia harbours an island that looks like a giant fingerprint – Bavljenac, also known as Baljenac (pictured)
Bavljenac’s fingerprint effect is caused by an old stone wall network and an oval-shaped shape, according to this Google Earth photo
Bavljenac also called Baljenac is uninhabited. It covers an area 0.14 sq km. These stone walls would extend for about 23km (14.1 miles) if they were combined.
The Croatian National Tourist Board claims that the Adriatic Sea island was once used by Kaprije Island farmers to cultivate the land.
They cleared Bavljenac’s ‘harsh vegetation’ to make room for fig and citrus trees, as well as grapevines, building a web of stone walls to protect the crops from the wind, and to divide up the plots.
These stone walls that reach up to waist height were built using dry stone walling, a method which involves interlocking stones and carefully stacking them.
Bavljenac is uninhabited and covers an area of 0.14 square km. If the stone walls were joined, they would stretch for approximately 23km (14 miles).
Bavljenac, which was used by Kaprije’s inhabitants (pictured above), as an agricultural zone.
Croatia’s National Tourist Board described the island as “sun-kissed” and said it was once home to vineyards, groves full of figs, and other citrus aromas.
Although the fruit trees are gone now, the stone walls have been preserved as part of the Unesco List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2018.
The tourist board says: ‘They [the walls]These are the people who have witnessed the times when perseverance, hard work and determination were crucial to controlling the brutal, but stunning, karst landscapes of the Adriatic coast.
‘Bavljenac, the sun-kissed islet, once dotted with vineyards and groves overflowing with figs and citrus scents, now it is a tribute to cultural wealth and Mediterranean tranquillity waiting to be relished and rediscovered.’
You can’t help but fall in love this stunning shot taken by Peter Rajkai on Instagram. The image shows Galesnjak, an uncommonly occurring natural heart-shaped island found in the Adriatic’s Pasman Canal.
The fingerprint-shaped island’s nearest hub is Sibenik (pictured above), a historic city in central Dalmatia
Archipelago Tours can arrange a boat tour to take you around the island. These tours can’t dock on the island because there isn’t a pier or harbour.
Bavljenac’s nearest hub is Sibenik, a historic city in central Dalmatia, with the island one of 249 in the Sibenik archipelago.
The heart-shaped island, meanwhile, which is privately owned and officially called Galesnjak, lies further to the north in the Adriatic’s Pasman Canal. The only thing that is known about it are some wild plants, and a couple of colonies of rabbits.