August 14, 2021 - Rogotin tourism is booming in the Neretva Valley, and this is even without a city beach! 

Many wonder how Rogotin, a small town in the Neretva Valley's northwest, a few kilometers away from the city center, is leading tourism in the Ploče area. And this is with more famous tourist destinations around and despite the limited number of accommodation facilities and classic tourist facilities, including a beach.

In addition, Rogotin locals have only recently been involved in tourism, so they also lack experience, reports Slobodna Dalmacija.

Despite everything, according to the data of the Ploče Tourist Board, in the first six months of this year, compared to the same period of the extremely successful 2019, it was in Rogotin that the largest number and increase in overnight stays were achieved. In the first half of the year, 2349 overnight stays were realized, increasing almost 37 percent compared to the first six months of 2019 (1716)! Baćina recorded an increase of about ten percent (1455 vs. 1324), and Staševica 36 percent (129 compared to 95). In other settlements in the city area, there was a decrease in overnight stays compared to the year before last. Among the guests, most are locals, followed by Germans, Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, citizens of BiH, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Austria.

Guests find Rogotin to have a peaceful, relaxing atmosphere, beautiful landscape and is close to famous tourist destinations.

Spouses Larry and Jamie from San Diego, California, traveled to Denmark and Portugal, and before their final destination in Greece, they stayed in Rogotin for three days. They were thrilled by the world attraction of wind turbines on the Trovro hill and the view of the Neretva Valley, and enjoyed a four-kilometer-long boat ride on the canal that connects Lake Vlaška, one of the symbols of Rogotin, with the Adriatic Sea. 

The Pranjić family, Sandra, Mario, and daughter Ida, are from Zagreb, but their life circumstances took them to Oslo, Norway. First, however, they set aside three days for Rogotin. It is a quiet base from which they get to know everything they are interested in in the lower Neretva, from the mouth of the river to Opuzen, and special attention is drawn to the Pelješac bridge.

For the first time, a young family of four, Valentina, Marian, Patrik, and Liliana Kuchtova arrived in Rogotin from Poprad, Slovakia. They said they don’t like crowds and noise and looked for a quiet and peaceful place to rest. When it comes to Croatia, so far, they have been to Dubrovnik, Split, Makarska, and Podgora, and they got to know Biokovo. They pointed out that they had found everything they needed for a holiday in Rogotin, and they had already arranged next summer's trip with their kind hosts, who surprised them with gifts.

Marin Glamuzina, the mayor of Rogotin, is not satisfied with the attitude of the current city government, and his opinion is shared by the majority of Rogotin residents. Despite the promises and the fact that a beach is planned in the Ploče budget, this project has not been realized. When the number of tourist visits to Rogotin is growing significantly, this issue is becoming key to the further development of tourism.

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As Morski writes on the 11th of April, 2020, 21 ''tubes'' for the Neretva Valley's upcoming wind organs were delivered to the construction site of the unique wind organ project, which sits 114 metres high on Trovro hill in Rogotin, and the installation of the first tube into a 15.5 metre long concrete structure built by Trag employees from Dubrovnik began on Monday.

These tubes are made of a special type of stainless steel, they're resistant to even the most harsh weather conditions, and were built by the Kvaternik Orguljarstvo company from Koprivnica. The director of the aforementioned company, Alen Kvaternik, came to the site to organise the works on the installation of the tubes with chief construction engineer, Ivan Simovic, and supervising engineer, Matko Medak. Through pipes which are 120cm in diameter, air will flow in and produce sound. The pipe will be delivered from Koprivnica to Rogotin after the tubes have been fully installed.

Currently, two of the three structures have been completed, while the third is being completed, followed by the installation of the instruments and the stonework, which is the final phase of the wind organ project in the Neretva Valley.

The wind farm investment is worth just over three million kuna, and besides the installation of the tubes, it includes paving the path with stone slabs from the site, installing benches made of natural materials, such as stone and wood in accordance with the local environment, setting up an information map, creating a plateau from stone drywall, the construction of a panoramic binocular observatory and construction of an eco garden.

These new wind organs are one of the nine planned infrastructure activities undertaken as part of the project "Promoting the Sustainable Development of the Natural Heritage of the Neretva Valley", sponsored by Dubrovnik-Neretva County, with partners from the DUNEA Regional Agency, Ploce, Metkovic and the Public Institution for the Management of Protected Areas of Nature of Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

The project is being implemented under the Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020 operation programme and is funded by European Structural and Investment Funds. The total value of the project stands at a massive 14.3 million kuna, of which 10.5 million kuna is being co-financed by the EU support system.

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When you think of Rogotin... Actually, no, hang on, how many people have actually heard of this southern Croatian village? Rogotin is a small settlement located along the fruitful Neretva river, close to Ploče, and isn't all that from the popular City of Dubrovnik. Located right in the very heart of watermelon and tangerine country in warm, sunny southern Dalmatia, very few tourists have ever been there.

Unless you have relatives who come from Rogotin, or indeed the little towns and villages surrounding it, it's highly unlikely you've ever heard of it. Mainly a village to pass through on the way somewhere, those who do know of it associate it with precisely the above - watermelons and tangerines. It might come as a shock, in that case, that a company has decided to construct wind organs in Rogotin. 

As Morski writes on the 3rd of December, 2019, on the Trovro hill in Rogotin, employees of the Dubrovnik-based company Trag have begun construction of the first wind organs which will be able to be seen from the village of Rogotin itself.

As local portal Rogotin.hr reports, the concrete base on which wind organs will be built has already been constructed and dealt with, and all of the necessary material for the construction is currently transported to the top of the hill by a special vehicle.

These wind organs will "catch" the often powerful bura and thus create sound from it. Along with this truly unique project, the plans are to build two more wind organs, one from the direction of Ploče, a somewhat larger town in the Neretva area, which will generate sound using the maestral winds, and one from the direction of the Neretva river itself, which will use the strong jugo winds to create sound.

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October 27, 2019 - After the sea organ in Zadar, Croatia will receive another similar attraction next year - a wind organ in the Neretva Valley. 

Namely, a wind organ is being built above Rogotin near Ploce in the Neretva Valley. The project is also a successful case of utilizing European funds - of the 3 million kuna needed to construct it, Brussels will finance 80% of the costs, HRT reports.

The wind organ will be built as part of the edu-eco complex on Tovro hill, which is part of the project "Promoting the Sustainable Development of the Natural Heritage of the Neretva Valley". The prefect of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, when signing the contract for the project, emphasized that with the implementation of this project, the area of the Neretva Valley will gain new values in the form of tourism, and educational and cultural content.

HRT Screenshot

The conceptual design and the unique wind organ project were done by Ploce engineer Zeljko Skoric. The principle of operation is the same as that of all other organs. "Three pairs of seven instruments play where each pipe has a different length, on which the tonality of the organs themselves depends,” he said.

"In terms of the power of the organ and the sound it will produce, this is one particular experience that no one has encountered yet, at least as far as we know. It's unknown to the contractor and us,” emphasized Ante Sunjic, a resident of Rogotin.

"I hope that Rogotin will be raised to a much higher tourist level and that we will get a lot with this," said Marin Glamuzina.

When the works are completed, the Rogotin wind organ will become a tourist attraction, and by all accounts, the first of its kind in the world.

You can check out a video of Tovro hill below. 

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