History of Kornaten

On the origins of the Kornati opinion is divided: formerly people were sure that God had personally let a handful of white pebbles fall into the sea and then — surprised himself — found that any further change here would only have made things worse. Content with the accident, he turned to other business of creation and left the Kornati to themselves. This version is doubted nowadays; karst and carbonate rock suggest a less spontaneous origin. The representatives of this argument prefer to speak of the "northern remains of the anticline", which, with the rise of sea level by almost 100 metres at the end of the last ice age, sank all but to the summits. The strongly indented coast, numerous cave formations and the abrasion towards the sea count as fairly conclusive evidence of this. But not only the forces of nature contributed their part to the island's landscape: when the Romans settled here they cut channels, for instance, through islands they considered too long and unwieldy. That the island of Katina today no longer belongs to Kornat or Dugi Otok is one example: two sea passages were cut, and even though they were only 2 metres deep they changed the scenery lastingly. This can be seen particularly well at the Mala Proversa, on both banks of which ruins of one and the same building can still be seen. It towered over the ancient channel like a tollhouse, but was finally destroyed with the widening of the shipping passage in 1987 to 25 metres wide and 5 metres deep. After the Romans the islands became the home of fishermen and shepherds. Long stone walls, which separated one's own sheep pastures from those of the neighbours, still testify to this today. At first the people here still lived under feudal rule, but between 1885 and 1897 were allowed to buy land themselves. Since then the Kornati have been in private ownership, mainly of families from Murter, who have built 300 houses in the national park itself in order to live there during the season and to let others live there. Outside the park, on the "unprotected" islands of the Kornati as well, field farming is still carried on today and sheep are grazed. In the national park itself, systematic clearance by older generations has already changed the landscape so greatly that today it appears "characteristic" but is no longer really "authentic". And so in 1967 the Croatian government resolved to place the Kornati region — that is, all four rows of islands — under special protection. These regulations were meant to preserve the landscape and to encourage its survival — that this landscape looked different now from how it had a few thousand years earlier posed no problem, since on the one hand the coastline is already an impressive witness to the creative power of time, waves and wind, and on the other precisely this modified nature is unique — even if it is now left to itself again and given over to rampant growth. The sea and its inhabitants, however, were not taken into account in the draft. They were included only in 1980, after long and thorough research, and the area of the national park was finally reduced in 1988 to what we know today. Tourist and agricultural use of individual areas had made this necessary. And so today one can spend one's holiday quite close to this singular nature without burdening it oneself with civilisation. For the islands that are "left out" under the current definition of the national park still hold their status as a nature park.