Biokovo is a mountain with its roots in the sea and its forehead in lightning. Every step up the highest peak, St. George at 1762 meters, it will be unsurpassedly rewarded with panoramic views of the sea and islands, Zagora, the mountains of Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighboring Italy. 87 churches and chapels were built on the Biokovo stone. In addition to its proud heights, the mountain has unimaginable depths, and the Biokovo Nature Park offers you to experience the best of Biokovo.
It has been discovered over 400 pits and caves. Some of them are forever full of snow and ice that withstand even the hottest sun. People inhabited the area of Biokovo before the letters appeared. The mountain is an old home that has largely preserved its ancient face.
What the presence of one man can do is a story inherited by the Biokovo Nature Park. Theologian, priest, scientist and naturalist from Jure Radić he worked tirelessly to give Biokovo a protected status with the name of the Nature Park. That is what happened in 1981.
Botanical garden – an enclosed part of nature
In the Biokovo Botanical Garden Kotišina above the village of the same name, the words of Dr. Fr. Jure Radić are engraved in stone: "Oculis mente corde per visibilia ad invisibilia" that is, "with the eyes, the mind, the heart according to what is seen to what is not seen". It is Radić's testament to those who stay at Biokovo, along with Biokovo and to those who came to discover it. A mountain is always a place where the primordial in man is happy to be small.
The botanical garden above the village of Kotišina is partly located in the Park. It was founded by Fr. Jure Radić in order to scientifically study the flora of Biokovo, but also to popularize it. Not a classic botanical garden, but one "fenced part of nature" to maintain the natural shape of the vegetation. There are, in a relatively small area, very diverse habitats such as rocks, gullies, cliffs, arable land, and the canyon Proslap with the eponymous waterfall, which is dry most of the year, and comes to life only during heavy rains.
In the immediate vicinity of the entrance, next to the cliff, the past of turbulent times is petrified. These are the walls of the great Kaštela, a fortification from the 16th to the 17th century. century. The bottoms of some sinkholes at the top of Biokovo are the beginning of pits of incredible depths, given that they are located above 1000 meters above sea level. Some are several hundred meters deep, for example a recently explored pit called The German is over 800 meters deep.
Biokovo has a French road
Above Brele you will find way which in Brela is claimed to represent an exceptional architectural contribution to road construction from the beginning of the 19th century, and which was designed by an architect Frane Zavoreo. The reason why it is worth climbing the French road to Biokovo is magnificent view. Namely, this whole road is a kind of lookout point from which you can see Brela, Makarska Riviera and neighboring islands. But don't forget that this road is still a hiking trail and for it, although it qualifies as an easy hiking trail, you still need appropriate footwear and walking in flip-flops is not a smart idea.
This road, which is still known today as Napoleon's or French road, was built from Obrovac to the Bay of Kotor. It was built thanks to Napoleon's military leader and the Duke of Dubrovnik Auguste Marmont which Croatian history remembers for the numerous advanced undertakings he undertook in the Croatian regions as the military commander of Dalmatia and the governor of the Illyrian provinces.
Some of the pits hide eternal ice
The Biokovo Nature Park hides the glacier pits in which they are found snow and ice from Biokovo's natural glaciers. They were extracted by local people, Biokovo ice makers, for the needs of hotels in Makarska, before there were still refrigerators. Donkeys and mules, at night, the peasants caught up with the cattle that were hauling ice from the glaciers. Not a harmless job at all. First, the blocks had to be covered with beech leaves and wrapped in sackcloth, goat hair, then loaded on donkeys and brought to the city. But that's how they earned their bread, selling ice to hotels, and guests drank drinks chilled with ice transported from heights they hadn't imagined.
Biokovo Nature Park – stone boundary between two climates
Sweat Mediterranean and continental climates that is, their mild encounters, but also fierce clashes, create a special climate of Biokovo. Air masses from the sea penetrate along its coastal sides, over reefs and mountain peaks. The mountain peaks on the north side keep the penetration of cold masses from the interior of the continent, but also the Mediterranean currents into the interior.
Air masses from the mountains and the sea know the place of their final encounters and conflicts: it is Biokovo. This conflict results in frequent changes in the weather, which in the autumn leads to the release of rain and snowfall, and in the winter to snowfall, which persists in the spring. The forest here is a regulator of precipitation, winds and heat. All this contributes to the diversity of the climate of Biokovo.
The view from St. George reaches Italy
The snowy mountain, Biokovo, reached its peak on Sveti Juri. It is the ultimate starting point of the Biokovo road and the culmination of the beauty provided by the view of those who arrived by hiking trail or means of transport. Panoramic view from 1762 meters altitude means to turn around and see the sea and the islands and Zagora and the mountains of Bosnia and neighboring Italy. The church of St. George is also on the lookout, and the sacral building existed there in the 12th century. Witness is a stone slab above the altar old demolished churches from 1640.
It is particularly attractive and Skywalk lookout which attracts many tourists to Biokovo Nature Park.
Biokovo has been a breadwinner for centuries, almost a sacred mountain. People found fertile valleys, dolce, scrapes, which they revived and used for survival. People stayed on Biokovo often, for the sake of growing potatoes and cereals, hunting, extracting ice, but still mostly for livestock. At the beginning of the 20th century, he lived on Biokovo more than 600 shepherdesses and shepherds.
On Biokovo, there were twice as many shepherds, men cultivated the land
Keeping cattle was a job done by women, so there were twice as many shepherdesses as shepherds, while men worked the land in the Biokovo dolci. They were scantily clad and mostly wore nipples, nipples and a coat of homemade cloth. They ate mostly cabbage, cigar (polenta) and potatoes, and less often with meat and milk. After a tiring day, shepherdesses and shepherdesses would gather by the fire and lead a "silo", where they would play music, sing, play various board games, and tell stories about fairies and werewolves.
Biokovo hides many animal and plant species, and with a little luck, it is possible to meet here wild horses. They are used to visitors and do not run away from people, and the sight of a herd of wild horses is truly a special sight that you will always remember.
Interestingly, Biokovo is constantly present vuk, a wild animal that is on the list of potentially endangered species, but Biokovo is also home to numerous chamois whose Biokovo population is considered the most stable and largest chamois population in Croatia.
Source: PP Biokovo
