Sights in the Kastelas

The people of Kaštela lovingly call their more than 1,500-year-old olive tree "Mastrinka". Older than the town itself, there is no record of where it actually came from - some say Italy, others speculate on Greece. In any case it will hardly have had a trunk circumference of 6 metres and a root system covering 100 sq m back then. Today an olive harvest takes place once a year, and its yield, given a 10-metre-high crown with a radius of 11 metres, is considerable. The olives themselves are pressed into oil, which is offered for sale exclusively on the spot.

The abundance of parks, astonishing for the size of the town, impresses more than just visitors. The commission of the European association for flowers and the environment, too, was so enthusiastic about the variety and the good upkeep that it awarded the town the bronze "Entente Florale" prize.

"In honour of the Holy Father John Paul II we founded the biblical garden above the bay in Stomorje" is written on the monument at the park entrance. The garden was laid out here in the year 1998 because the inhabitants of the area noticed that an astonishing number of plants mentioned in the Bible occur here quite naturally. It is fortunate that a small church had already been built on the same spot in 1189, thematically complemented by a replica of Noah's Ark on a river island. Also worth seeing are the works of various sculptors who immortalised themselves here with Christian-inspired objects.

In 1976 the primary school moved into a new building, surrounded by four hectares of untended wilderness. Pupils and teachers searched through the area, weeded, bought plants and, over the years, laid out this park, in which today you can see, smell and - when nobody is looking! - touch 1,400 plant species from all over the world. But it is not only plants that are worth seeing here; well-known styles of garden architecture (as in the English or French garden) are documented as well, and in the centre of the park grows the largest olive field on the entire Croatian coastal strip.

An artfully laid-out garden that passes directly into sea and beach is the 7,500 sq m Vitturi park, devised by the chairman of the agricultural academy in the middle of the eighteenth century. Since 1968 it has also been listed as a natural and cultural monument, which is easy to understand not only because of its conception but also in view of the diversity of species. Besides plants typical of the locality, such as cypress, laurel and spruce, cocoa thrives here too. Visitors can quickly stroll here between meticulously designed and wildly overgrown areas.

The Kozjak range closes off the village of Marina to the north and reaches from the interior of the country to the surf of the sea. Here the mountain ends with Croatia's longest cliff, whose white stone competes with the sea in glittering. The highest point of the range is Veli vrj at 779 m. On its slopes grow, among other things, orchids, myrtle and the typical Mediterranean plants. To the nomads of days gone by they were medicine; for the cyclists and hikers of our time they are more of a feast for the eyes. Anyone who would like to linger longer among the rough rocks and green slopes can find shelter in one of four mountaineers' huts.