September the 4th, 2022 - A Pasman Venetian wreck has investigating archaeologists scratching their heads in surprise, with an international team working on the discovery which could tell us more than we knew before about Venetian shipbuilding.

As Morski/More/HRT/Ana Marusic writes, back at the beginning of the sixties, just south of the island of Pasman, the wreck of a wooden Venetian ship was first discovered. After it was searched by many divers for various reasons, it finally had some proper scientific research put into it, which revealed a lot.

This Pasman Venetian wreck has revealed many surprises since being found. This is the wreck of a large merchant ship that once travelled the maritime route between Venice and the Orient during the late Renaissance. Back during the early 1960s, it was came upon by fishermen and local divers from the island of Murter, as reported by HRT.

Since such discoveries can't remain a secret for very long, and illegal activities are usually organised faster than scientific ones, without a doubt the site was significantly depleted before the first official insights into its potential could begin. Despite all that, it remains an extremely rich old wreck, and the first legally extracted finds were discussed by several experts.

Although work has been done on the Pasman Venetian wreck since the second half of the 1960s, only during the last decade was systematic research actually properly carried out, which brought is new exciting insights.

''For a long time, we suspected that this site was still extremely valuable. Back in 2013, we started researching a part of the site that was thought to be the bow, as if the ship had sunk on its keel and only its lower part was preserved. We realised very quickly that the ship had actually sunk on its starboard side,'' explained the head of this research, Irena Radic Rossi, PhD,.

''With enough funds, it would be possible to complete the research in a year or two, but there's no talk of that yet. The work on the site could last ten years, if we'll be able to finance it,'' added Radic Rossi. Currently, there is money for research lasting a maximum of one month only.

''In addition to the Pasman Venetian wreck's overall structure, which is fantastically preserved, which we're gradually discovering, and thanks to which we'll be able to reconstruct Venetian shipbuilding from the end of the sixteenth century - we also discovered some small finds that made us happy. We even found a seal of the Doge of Venice,'' said Radic Rossi.

Such seals reveal whose goods traveled on this vessel, raw materials for the production of paints, previously unknown forms of glassware, and various small objects were also found, and they all speak about the ship, but also the cargo and the people it once transported all that time ago. Many experts have made a valuable contribution in the international team researching the Pasman Venetian wreck, including a well known Japanese expert in photogrammetry, who has been participating in such research for years.

''We don't know much about Venetian shipbuilding, so this wreck is very important for us, in order to understand how they built vessels that carried them around the world and thus spread their power and brought wealth to the Republic of Venice,'' said Kotaro Yamafune.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

February 6, 2022 - The beloved sporting event on Pašman island is back after a two years’ wait

One of the most popular races on the Adriatic will take place next month for the first time since 2020. Škraping, named after 'škrapa' which refers to a rock or a cliff by the sea, is a unique trekking race that involves a lot of cliff-hopping as the runners make their way over the island's rugged terrain. 

The beloved sporting event was last scheduled for March 2020, when it got cancelled last-minute to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

The skraping race will take place in Tkon on Pašman island on March 12th this year, reports morski.hr. Those who are interested in taking part in the event can register until March 7th.

Skraping on Pašman is the biggest and most popular trekking and trail running event in Croatia and is split into four categories:

Ultra - the most challenging race with a 45 kilometre route for experienced athletes. The route has a starting point in Ždrelac, on the west side of Pašman island.

Challenger - a 25 kilometre route for those looking to discover the natural beauty and historic sites on Pašman island

Active - a 12 kilometre route with a view of Kornati National Park and the entire Zadar archipelago

Light - a 6 kilometre race intended for children and adults looking to spend some time in nature

All participants who paid the race fee for the cancelled skraping event in 2020 can participate in this year’s skraping without any additional fees. They’re kindly asked to contact the organisers via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to let them know whether they want to attend.

Those contestants who are unable to attend this year’s skraping are also asked to contact the organisers so that a refund can be arranged.

You can register for the race of your choice and find detailed schedules and other details here.

New to skraping? Learn more about the popular trekking event in a dedicated feature here.

January the 24th, 2022 - Pasman island which lies among several others in Zadar County is set to receive a generous amount to be spent on the enhancement of traffic safety.

As Morski writes, back in September last year, the working group in charge of implementing the National Road Safety Plan of the Republic of Croatia for the period from 2021 to 2030 published a call/invitation for applications for projects in the field of road safety in Croatia.

Out of over 200 registered projects for 2021 and 2022, about 70 were selected, and one of them is the project of the Municipality of Pasman - The installation of new vertical signs and equipment in Dobropoljana, which will be co-financed by the Ministry of Interior (MUP) in the amount of 164,500 kuna, while the total value of the project stands at 235,000 kuna, as was explained from Pasman island.

The Mayor of Pasman, Kresimir Cosic, stated that this is the third tender of the Ministry of the Interior in which a project from Pasman island has been accepted.

''We're constantly working on road safety in the area of ​​our municipality, so this is the third time we've managed to pass a tender from the Ministry of the Interior for the reconstruction of potentially dangerous places in terms of traffic. We participated for the first time back in 2018 when we received funding for the calm traffic zone on the part of the D110 state road in Nevidjani near the Vladimir Nazor Elementary School. Then, back in 2020, we received 172,000 kuna from another tender from the Ministry of the Interior for the installation of traffic lights from the main entrance to the centre of Pasman,'' said Cosic.

The municipality applied for this project due to the need to increase traffic safety in the zone of the kindergarten positioned along the LC 63 136 local road that connects the D110 state road with the centre of the settlement positioned there. There are no pedestrian paths along this road, meaning that parents and their children need to walk along the pavement to the kindergarten, and since the pavement is sloping down towards the sea, drivers passing can easily further endanger overall pedestrian safety.

An agreement between the competent services of the Ministry of the Interior and the Municipality of Pasman will soon be drafted and signed, on the basis of which the project will be co-financed.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

December the 19th, 2021 - OPG Matulic from the island of Pasman just off the coast of Zadar began working only a decade ago, and they have attracted the attention of not only locals, but also the much larger Zagreb market.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/PD VL native tim writes, the Matulic family farm (OPG Matulic) from the island of Pasman was started ten years ago by Krsto and Ana Matulic. This family business includes growing olives, figs and chili peppers. They started with just one hundred seedlings, and today they have over 2000 seedlings of various chili peppers each and every year.

˝We're a small family farm, currently there are three of us, we have one hectare of land and we don't sell raw materials, only the finished products. We grow chili, figs, aloe vera, and we also have a lot of wild plants. My husband Krsto is in charge of the field and spices, and I'm in charge of cosmetics. This year has been very challenging and intense. Throughout the pandemic, we set up a production facility and devoted a little more time to online sales. There were also some other novelties. I launched three new products: Sea Tail - hand cream, Belle - face foam and the summer hit Lady sunshine. Krsto made some amazing chocolate with fig and maraschino acetate and olive oil,'' Ana Matulic said as she began OPG Matulic's story.

They started online sales a year and a half ago, and as they point out from OPG Matulic, they're very satisfied with the results and sales they've experienced so far, especially during the festive period. In their shop on Pasman, you can buy only their products, from hot sauces, flavoured salts, fig oils and acetates, to cosmetics based on olive oil and new sorts of chocolate. Back in the beginning, the majority of their products were bought by foreigners, and today there are more and more domestic customers who visit them and buy them as gifts for others and for themselves. The best-selling and most sought-after products are Pasman Libre fig aceto and Immortelle face cream.

The products from OPG Matulic have been awarded the Croatian Island Product label, three times they received the Sunflower Award of Croatian Rural Tourism, and they also received the Superior Taste Award for their Pasmanero in 2017 and for their Pasman libre fig aceto back in 2018, making them the very first small domestic producer with that award.

The International Taste Award in Italy back in 2020 went to the Pasman Libre for gold and silver went to their Pasmanero and wine vinegar. The latest award OPG Matulic took home was the Great Taste Award, and they received as many as three stars in England for Pasman Libre. Out of over 14,000 registered products, only 211 received three stars. They aren't aiming at having their products placed on the shelves of retail chains, as they say, they prefer small delicatessens and specialised shops, for example, Gligora has their products in its larger stores in Zagreb, Zadar and Kolan, and during the season they're present in a number of small shops on the coast and islands from Vis to Korcula, Hvar and Brac.

˝A lot of our restaurants in Pasman take our hot Pasmanero and Pasman Libre fig vinegar sauces. We're represented in catering and hospitality trades on Murter, Korcula, in Dubrovnik and in Zadar, and most recently in Zagreb in the new restaurant Al Dente in Bogoviceva street. In fact, someone often calls us from various restaurants and asks for an offer. However, since we don't sell our spices in larger packages than those available on the website, this will be a problem for most people in catering and hospitality. Some people, however, decide to take what we offer them and are generally satisfied. We don't have classic collaborations with hotels, but a few of them take our products for their souvenir shops, and some occasionally for gifts for their VIP guests. One of the longest collaborations we have is with Adriatic Sailing Charter, which takes our gift packages for guests on their luxury yachts,'' they stated from OPG Matulic.

When it comes to their spices, they produce most of the raw materials themselves, they buy figs from the local population right there on the island of Pasman, and when it comes to the production of cosmetics, they also cooperate with other family farms from which they purchase hydrolates, essential oils and beeswax. The production is located within their family house on the ground floor, and as Matulic explains, it is both an economic and residential space, and the production plant covers about 40 square metres in total.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

February 1, 2021 – The Adriatic might be too cold for us right now, but conditions are perfect for this dolphin family, spectacularly captured gliding through glacial, undisturbed waters by an overhead drone

The Adriatic might be too cold for us right now, but conditions are perfect for this dolphin family, spectacularly captured gliding through glacial, undisturbed waters by an overhead drone

The footage of the dolphin family was captured spectacularly by keen amateur drone photographer Davor Miljkovic. Davor, who is from Zapresic, usually puts his eye for aesthetics into website design – he works as a PHP website developer for Virtus dizajn in Lanište, Zagreb and as a freelance website developer. But, he is currently taking advantage of working remotely and was able to catch footage of the dolphin family during his off time.

“I live in Zapresic but my grandmother is from island Rava, near Zadar,” Davor told TCN on 1st February 2021, two days after he posted the video of the dolphin family to his Youtube channel. “So, we have a house here by the sea. My fiance and I spend part of the winter here and we are here all summer too.”

The Zadar archipelago (in Croatian Zadarski arhipelag) is an incredibly picturesque group of islands off the coast of the city of Zadar. In addition to island Rava, off which Davor saw the dolphin family, the archipelago also consists of the islands Dugi Otok, Galešnjak, Iž, Lavdara, Ošljak, Pašman, Rivanj, Sestrunj, Tun Veli, Ugljan, Vir, Vrgada, Zečevo and Zverinac.

The beautiful stretch of islands is usually very popular with summertime visitors. It would seem that it's also popular in wintertime with visitors who live in the sea. And, of course, people like Davor who are lucky enough to catch sight of them.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

Like elsewhere around the globe, and especially over the last decade or so, running events have been springing up all over Croatia like mushrooms after the rain, in all sizes and shapes. Among the many, there is a truly outstanding one - the country’s biggest trekking and trail race - Škraping. Christened so by its real founder Josip Tomic, a genuine athletic enthusiast thirteen years ago.

''Škrapa'' is a rock or a cliff by the sea. In other words, you don't go just running, but you go ''cliffing and rocking'', you run, you jump over the cliffs, climb up and down, all along the picturesque coastline of Pasman island.

The first Škraping was held back in 2006, with weak but enthusiastic local organisers, it gathered 182 enlisted participants, all so enthused and enchanted with the very particular track, spread the word around so that the event kept growing until it reached 1350 runners. In the words of the organisers, the Municipality and the Prvenj Comunal Entity of the picturesque little place of Tkon, that is the upper limit for the number of possible participants.

Why?

''Of course we'd like to have tens of thousands of people, but we are aware of our capacities. We don't have the necessary logistics for more than 1,300 people, approximately, that's about the number about which we're sure we can provide accommodation for, as well as catering and other services, transportation, and so on. We've had a lot of local infrastructure sorted out over the last several years, we've improved the old side and forest roads and made some ten kilometres of new paths and proper roads across the territory of our municipality, for at least two good causes - protection against wood fire and for Škraping!,'' says Goran Mušćet, the Mayor of the picturesque Tkon.

''It mobilises all our forces, but the purposes of Škraping are many. Taking place in early March each year, like an early harbinger, it announces the spring and the tourist season, it injects so much life into our otherwise very quiet little place, it helps the local economy, our young ones are interested and take part either by participating or volunteering in the organisation, friendships are coined, and so on. Last year we had people from eleven countries,''

Any age or limits of any other sort?

''Not really, as long as the person is healthy, one can be 100 years old and run! To support this, I always quote with special affection how some years back we organised the ''Little Škraping’ for pre-school kids. With our assistance, our local kindergarten invited other kindergartens from the island and the mainland. It's so touching to watch those little faces give their genuine effort to arrive first and win. So they also learn about the good that running can bring, about competition, about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, they mingle, share a fruit juice and a cake and make friends. Who could ask for more?'' concludes Mušćet.

There are other things happening during ''Škraping time'', too, music, fun, and the traditional and, again, another special event - the Fair of Island Products, a trademark under which some forty small private producers offer their very particular local products, from cosmetics to food.

But don't get discouraged just because you're past pre-school age! There are four different tracks, from short to long, you can choose and apply for any that you think suits your post-Christmas form. More details can be found here, and if you want to register, click here.

Hurry up, as registration closes on March the 1st, and many of those who have participated before have already registered again! Have fun, start getting back in shape in preparation and join the 1000+ people that, just like you, want to feel healthy in the cleanest environment imaginable.

Stay up to date with this and much more by following our dedicated lifestyle page.

An incredible discovery is made in the Zadar region.

How do you like your morning coffee?

One island in the Zadar region is about to get a large cash injection filled with American dollars...

Croatia is of particular interest to several...