Sights in Mljet

The park administration offers boat tours through the Veliki Most passage, on which you pass through the channel of Soline and then turn west to view the high, steep cliffs that plunge into the sea there. This sight is impressive even looking down from above, but the rocks only become truly imposing when you look up at them from the water. Since entry into Veliki jezero is forbidden to all other vessels, the park administration's offer presents a unique opportunity.

While nature in the rest of the national park positively bursts with strength, it made pleasingly little impression on the Polače palace: the walls, from the 3rd to 5th century AD, were probably built as the summer residence of a Roman patrician family and have been inhabited by every subsequent generation since: people still live today in this complex, which has by now been expanded into a whole village. West of the original palace walls one finds the remains of a basilica, on Mount Glavica the ruins of a castellum are enthroned, and east of the palace two further sacral buildings have been discovered. The place is thus a point of attraction not only for holidaymakers but for (amateur) archaeologists as well!

On a small island of St Mary in the middle of Veliko jezero the Benedictine monastery from the 12th century still stands today. Whereas the monks then found on the inaccessible island the seclusion and quiet they were seeking, today thousands of visitors a year find out interesting things here about the culture and history of the region: church and monastery were built in the Romanesque style but later adapted to the Renaissance and Romantic styles, and within these walls - inspired by the beautiful landscape and fostered by the solitude - some of the most important writings of Croatian culture came into being.

Outside the national park, near the villages of Blato, Sobra and Prozure, nature is distinguished above all by the "polja" - depressions in the ground with a direct connection to the sea, so that the salt content in them fluctuates constantly. After rainfall lakes form here; in summer the valleys dry out to leave only small waterholes; the salt-water spots (saltine) alternate with the freshwater spots (baltine) and thus form a water spectacle that is rarely to be found. Anyone visiting the national park who is also interested in natural phenomena beyond flora and fauna and has a little time to spare should not miss these waterholes.

On the south coast, at about half the island's length, lies the Jama grotto, a former karst cave whose roof collapsed and thereby tore a deep chasm into the rock. From above one has an impressive view of the steep walls and the sea washing into this grotto, and anyone who wishes can walk to this viewpoint from Bambino polje in about half an hour. Those who dare can then also descend the steep paths right down to sea level. Easier - but dependent on the weather - is to enter the grotto by boat: fishermen regularly drop anchor here, but since the rock faces separating the Jama from the open sea have very low ceilings, a hazard-free transfer is possible only when the sea is very calm.