Thursday, December 15, 2011

Croatia - Plitvice Lakes National Park (Plitvicka Jezera)

Plitvice Lakes National Park (Plitvicka Jezera) is the oldest national park in Southeast Europe and the largest national park in Croatia. The national park was founded in 1949 and is situated in central Croatia, at the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The protected area extends over 296.85 square kilometres (73,350 acres). About 90 percent of this area are part of Lika-Senj County, while the remaining 10 percent are part of Karlovac County.
Each year, more than 900,000 visitors are recorded.
In 1979, Plitvice Lakes National Park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage register among the first natural sites worldwide.

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Croatia - Dubrovnik Fortress

The Walls of Dubrovnik are a series of defensive stone walls that have protected the citizens of the proclaimed city-state of Dubrovnik (Ragusa) founded prior to the 7th century as a Byzantium castrum. With numerous additions and modifications, they have been considered to be amongst the great fortification systems of the Middle Ages (12th–17th centuries), as they were never breached by any army during this time period. Today's intact city walls have a length of approximately 1940m enclosing a 4300m perimeter and reaching a maximum height of about 25 metres. The walls were reinforced by three circular and 14 quadrangular towers, five bastions (bulwarks), two angular fortifications and the large St. John's Fortress (Sveti Ivan). Land Walls were additionally reinforced by one larger bastion and nine smaller semicircular ones. The city walls were also surrounded by a moat and they were armed by more than 120 cannons, and thus resulting in a superb city defense. In 1979, the old city of Dubrovnik joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Next, images shot on July 2011 @Dubrovnik Fortress.

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