Island of Cres -- the gemstone of the Adriatic

Cres, the longest island of Croatia is located in the heart of the Kvarner Bay in the northest peak of the Adriatic. With an easy reach from the baseland, to be approached either from the Island of Krk or from the Peninsula of Istria, Cres is one of the less touristic islands of Croatia. It might be the result of its access only on ferryboat. Cres, with its capital called Cres City, is rather the island of fauna, flora and definite peace.

Its distance from the neighbouring countries' larger cities is as follows:

BRATISLAVA - 520 km
BUDAPEST - 530 km
LJUBLJANA - 165 km
MILANO - 520 km
MÜNCHEN - 560 km
PRAG - 860 km
WIEN - 555 km
ZAGREB - 185 km

Cres is a hilly island, 66 km long and ranging in width from 2 to 12 km. The island's coastline , 248 km long, is indented; its western and southern part have a plenty of bays and pebbly beaches while the northern and eastern part are characterized with steep and rough rocks.

The highest tops of the island - Gorice (648m) and Sis (638) - offer a unique view of the Kvarner Bay which will not leave anyone indifferent. The fresh water lake of Vrana, which covers the area of 5. 75 square kilometres in the middle of the Island Cres right to the south from Cres City, deserves attention as an unusual natural phenomenon. The level of the lake is above the level of the surrounding sea, and its bottom is beneath the sea level only at the depth of 74 m. The landscape of Cres owes its attractivity to a sharp contrast between the northern submediterranean part covered with high and thick woods of oak medunac (Quercus lanuginosa), hornbeam, elm, and chestnut trees, and the middle and southern parts which are covered with bare grazing lands and dense macchia. A great richness of the botanical and animal world, which boasts more than 1300 species and an exceptional number of edemic species, is a genuine challenge to all nature lovers. Cres is also one of the last habitats of a rare bird species - griffon vulture.

The choice of my heart regarding townships on the Island of Cres is Beli. Beli is one of the oldest settlements on Cres which used to play a prominent role in the past. A settlement organised like an acropolis, Beli is situated on a 130m high hill above the eastern coast of the northern part of the island, on the site of a prehistoric hill-fort. Today it is a typical, closely-built seaside village, rich in cultural and historical monuments, like a parish church with a semicircular apse of an older Romanic church, in which several valuable Glagolitic inscriptions are to be found.