sava

Monday, 22 August 2022

River Cruises on Danube, Drava, and Sava Coming Back in Style

August 22, 2022 - The trend that saw continuous growth before the pandemic, river cruises, seems to be coming back in style. From this year, all Croatian river tourism piers will welcome guests with a uniform visual identity.

As SiB writes, from this summer going forward, Croatian river piers will have a common visual identity. A logo, six identical masts, and seven flags were created for the Danube ports of Aljmaš, Batina, Vukovar and Ilok, the Drava port in Osijek, and the Sava ports in Slavonski Brod and Sisak.

The project is worth slightly less than HRK 92,000 and was fully financed by the Croatian Tourist Board, and was realized with the cooperation of the project holder, the Tourist Board of the Vukovar-Srijem County, and the regional tourist boards of Osijek-Baranja, Brod-Posavina, Sisak-Moslavina and the competent port authorities of Vukovar, Osijek, Slavonski Brod, and Sisak.

“With this joint project, our goal is to raise the awareness and interest of the tourism sector in the area of nautical tourism of river cruises. The common visual identity and its application at all seven river piers promotes and strengthens the visibility and position of the Croatian Danube and the Sava River on the market of organised tourist traffic for river cruises”, said Kristjan Staničić, director of the Croatian Tourist Board.

Before the pandemic, river cruises recorded continuous growth, and this year that trend has returned. Additional infrastructure investments on the Danube and Sava will make river tourism in Croatia more attractive.

“This is a rapidly growing product and market within which the Croatian Danube area has taken a significant position. According to data from the Port Authority of Vukovar, 339 dockings at Vukovar pier and 89 at Ilok pier were announced for this year. 75 dockings were announced in Batina, and 62 in Aljmaš, a total of 565 dockings only at the piers on the Danube. For comparison, in pre-pandemic 2019, a total of 557 river cruise ships docked on the Danube”, points out Rujana Bušić Srpak, director of the of the Vukovar-Srijem County Tourist Board.

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

Tuesday, 26 July 2022

Sava Boats: New Project to Explore Zagreb River's Tourism Potential

July the 26th, 2022 - Sava boats will connect Zagreb's popular Jarun lake with Borovje with the use of five piers. After many ideas like this one for Zagreb having floated around for years now, it will be interesting to see one come to fruition.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, throughout history, there have been many ideas on how to connect Zagreb and the Sava and how to make the Sava something more than just a river that divides the city. Until now, nothing has really succeeded, and only the embankment, which was created out of the need to protect the city from floods, has come to be.

However, after raising the standard along the coast with some new piers, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure is now preparing something for the capital as well. It has launched the project for the Promotion of Green Navigation on the Sava river in the City of Zagreb, for which the study and project documentation will be created in the first step by the IGH Institute, which was selected in a public tender announced back at the beginning of the year.

The very name of the project is associated with "Zagreb on the Sava/Zagreb na Savi" and the European 13 competition, a project that was relevant a few years ago, when the late Milan Bandic was in charge of Zagreb. However, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure has duly pointed out that this project isn't related to that megaproject.

This idea, which involves Sava boats, is a completely different project, and it is their independent project, that is, the City of Zagreb is not included in it at this stage. From the ministry with Oleg Butkovic at the helm, they noted that the involvement of the City of Zagreb is planned during the construction phase, that is, the arrangement of all of the access infrastructure.

In short, the project for which IGH will prepare the project documentation for the ministry envisages the creation of technical conditions for arranging the waterway and enabling the depth that would make the Sava safe for boat navigation. In the tender documentation, the ministry starts from the fact that in the area of the City of Zagreb, the Sava river has very limited possibilities for navigation, and that due to the uneven water regime, it can actually be used mainly only for tourist purposes.

There is no serious navigation on the Sava in Zagreb, and the ministry recognises the possibility of improving the attractiveness of the tourist offer by improving the navigability by introducing, as they say, the water dimension of sightseeing in the city with Sava boats. The ministry also explained that their goal is to create a plan for future works aimed at regulating the Sava river bed in that area in a better way, as well as their intention to create a concept for all of the accompanying infrastructure facilities for Sava boats and a pier project.

In contrast to all previous ideas relating to Zagreb's dividing river, which included connecting and arranging the Sava from the border with Slovenia to Sisak, the current project covers only the area from the Bridge of Youth (Most mladosti) to the area near the Arena at Laniste. In this area, it would be quite possible to install five piers, in locations that would coincide with the most important points of urban transport, and which, according to the ministry, lack traffic connections as well as entertainment and recreational facilities.

Those five locations are Jarun-east, where the eastern part of the Jarun lake towards Laniste would be connected by a ferry crossing, and, until the Jarun bridge is built, the ferry crossing would also be located at another location on the right, connecting Laniste to Jarun. The third location is the Hendrix Bridge, where the navigation unit would be placed on the left side of the bank and would be a connection to both tram and bus transport at the Savski Most interchange, while the fourth location would be Liberty bridge (Most slobode) on the right side of the bank and would connect Bundek, and the last, of all, involving the Bridge of Youth again, would connect the settlements of Savica and Borovje.

Traffic on the Sava using Sava boats would take place in two directions, and two ships could dock at the pier at the same time. In accordance with the EU's green agenda, the wharves would have energy connections and power generation from RES, and, as can be seen from the documentation, they would be built so that they would self-adjust to the water levels on the unstable Sava bed.

As far as the dimensions are concerned, the starting point is a bed depth of 5 metres and a bed width of 80 metres, a pier draft of 1 metre, with the length of the access bridge being 25 meters. The deadline by which IGH needs to create a technical solution for the activation of the ambitious project is 36 months from the conclusion of the contract, which is worth 1.1 million kuna in total.

Then it will be clearer how much the realisation of that project would cost and how it would be financed.

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

Friday, 28 January 2022

PHOTOS: Snowy Riversides and Magical Mountains of Croatia in January 2022

January 28, 2022 – The snowy riversides and magical mountains of Croatia in January 2022 show a spectacular and all-natural winter wonderland.

Snow finally stuck to the streets of central Zagreb for a couple of days this week. Early morning temperatures dropped to the lowest yet of this winter. Despite the chill, clear skies and sunshine days were enough to see the snow soon melt away.

But, far from the city, the snowy riversides and magical mountains of Croatia in January 2022 have kept their white blanket for longer. These all-natural landscapes look epic after the snowfall. For winter walkers and climbers – or even just lovers of photography – these images are way more spectacular than the bright lights and theatre of the Advent season.

Let's take a closer look at the winter wonderland of snowy riversides and magical mountains of Croatia in January 2022.

Gorski Kotar

Delnice, Lokve, Fužine, Stara Sušica, Ravna Gora

From above, Dvorac Stara Sušica © Vladimir Franolić

Jezero Bajer near Fužine © Marino Kirinčić

Another view of Dvorac Stara Sušica © Branko Lautar & Višnja Bolf

Risnjak National Park and Snježnik Hrvatski

Snježnik hrvatski © Ivan Ćuća-Žentil

For more about Risnjak National Park, look here

Velebit

Northern Velebit National Park

For more about Northern Velebit National Park, look here

Velebit Nature Park

Ljubičko Brdo © Ivan Ćuća-Žentil

Paklenica National Park

Bojinac © Ivan Coric Photography

For more about Paklenica National Park, look here

Kloštar Podravski, Podravina and Koprivnica-Križevci County

For more about the Drava river in Koprivnica-Križevci County look here. For more about the area of Podravina containing Kloštar Podravski and Đurđevac, look here

Slavonski Brod

The wetlands and ponds in Oriovac near Slavonski Brod are not only home to fish - over 50 species of birds visit these waters © Antun Lukšić

For more about Slavonski Brod, look here

Žumberak-Samoborsko gorje Nature Park

The high peak of Sveti Gera, on the western edge of Žumberak-Samoborsko gorje Nature Park © Domagoj Novosel

The author would like to thank each of the photographers who kindly loaned their work to him for this article

Sunday, 20 December 2020

PHOTOS: Epic Croatia Weather Photography Stuns The World

December 20, 2020 – The 13 winners of the incredibly popular World Meteorological Organization annual competition have just been announced, and two fine pieces of Croatia weather photography are among them. These spectacular images of Croatia weather photography show all 9 Croatian photographs which reached the final in 2020 and all 10 Croatian finalists who similarly stunned the global audience in 2019

Croatia weather photography: the two newly announced winners from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Sandro Puncet Photo taken: Losinj island

Photographer: Zrinka Balabanic Photo taken: Pag island

Thanks to its popularity as a tourist destination, lots of people are now used to seeing beautiful photos of Croatia. Although, the images they usually see are of idyllic beaches, cloudless skies, stunning nature and turquoise blue seas. But, as anyone who knows the country will tell you - and as these photos show - Croatia isn't always like that.

Croatia weather photography: the two newly announced runners-up from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Šime Barešić Photo taken: Drage, Pakostane

Photographer: Mislav Bilic Photo taken: Lapad Peninsula, Dubrovnik

Out of season, Croatia can experience vastly different weather conditions to those advertised in travel brochures and blogs. And, whenever there's a spectacular weather occurrence, usually there's a photographer out there, braving the elements, trying to capture it.

Over recent years, some of the best Croatia weather photography has featured in the annual competition organised by the World Meteorological Organization. 2020 has been no different.

The other five Croatian finalists from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Šime Barešić Photo taken: Drage, Pakostane

Photographer: Sandro Puncet Photo taken: Losinj island

Photographer: Zoran Stanko Photo taken: Geisler Alm, Dolomites, Italy

Photographer: Maja Kraljik Photo taken: Umag, Istria

Photographer: Igor Popovic Photo taken: Rijeka

The winners of this year's competition have just been announced and the two fantastic examples of Croatia weather photography within the top 13 will take their place in the 2021 World Meteorological Organization calendar.

The 10 Croatian finalists from the 2019 competition
Photographer: Danica Sičič Photo taken: Srobreč, Dalmatia

Photographer: Romeo Ibrišević Photo taken: Plitvice Lakes National Park

Photographer: Božan Štambuk Photo taken: Bundek park, Zagreb

Photographer: Miroslava Novak Photo taken: Pribislavec, Međimurje

As well as the two winners, two further examples of Croatia weather photography came in the runner-up category, of which there were 12 in total.

Photographer: Francesca Delbianco Photo taken: Zagreb

Photographer: Ivica Brlić Photo taken: Sava river, Davor, near Slavonski Brod

Photographer: Nataša Šafar Photo taken: Rečica, near Karlovac

Photographer: Romeo Ibrišević Photo taken: Plitvice Lakes National Park

Over 1000 photographs from all over the world were entered in the 2020 competition. The submissions were narrowed down to a final selection of 70 contenders. As TCN reported back at the start of October, no less than 9 examples of Croatia weather photography made it into the final 70, taken by 7 Croatian photographers.

Photographer: Danijel Palčić Photo taken: Pag island

Photographer: Aleksandar Gospic Photo taken: Ražanac

Croatia regularly punches well above its weight in the annual competition, as we can see from these 10 examples of incredible Croatia weather photography that were among the finalists in 2019.

All images courtesy World Meteorological Organisation

Tuesday, 16 July 2019

Croatia, Bosnia Sign Contract on Construction of Bridge across Sava River

ZAGREB, July 16, 2019 - The Croatian Roads company, the Bosnian Communications and Transport Ministry and a contractor representative signed in Zagreb on Tuesday a EUR 19.5 million contract on the construction of a bridge across the Sava river from Okučani to the Croatian-Bosnian border.

Including VAT, the contract is worth 23.5 million euro and the costs will be covered equally by Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The bridge will be built by a consortium comprising the Bosnian company Integral Inženjering and Croatian companies Đuro Đaković Montaža and Zagreb-Montaža.

Croatian Transport Minister Oleg Butković, who was present at the signing ceremony, said the contract proved that Croatia and BiH, neighbours and friends, could carry out big infrastructure projects.

The bridge across the Sava is part of a future expressway stretching from the Croatian-Hungarian border across Virovitica and Okučani to the Croatian-Bosnian border.

The bridge is expected to be built in the next 30 months. It will be 462 metres long, 22 metres wide and have four lanes. The whole project consists of three stages and envisages the construction of 8.5 km of access roads.

Butković said the Svilaj bridge, which is also being built by Croatia and BiH, would be inaugurated by the end of the year.

More news about relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina can be found in the Politics section.

Tuesday, 29 January 2019

Good News for Capital as New Tenders for City's Sava Project Published

Some welcome Zagreb news as a new tender which aims to ''do up'' the Sava riverbank has been announced, but with some cut-backs and amendments in an attempt to reduce problems for potentially interest companies.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of January, 2019, a new tender for the realisation of the planned facilities thought up by the City of Zagreb along the Sava river has been announced. The new facilities along the banks of the river Sava will be, at least according to what we currently know, four cafés, a pavilion for film screenings, and wooden sunbeds.

The Sava's long-awaited riverside amenities should have appeared in the desired location late last June, and from the City of Zagreb itself, they announced that all the works would be carried out in the scope of the ''Swamp on the River'' project, which won the Europan 13 international competition. The Spaniards and the Turks, who had been working on the project, had foreseen pedestrian-cycling paths, sports grounds, kids' playgrounds, sandy beaches, swimming pools, an outdoor cinema, markets, several viewpoints, and various hospitality facilities.

All of that would need to be located within an assembly of facilities which could easily be packed away so that things could be safely removed within 24 hours should the Sava's water level threaten to rise.

All of the above posed a problem for the companies who were supposed to produce the pavilions, as well as take care of their upkeep, meaning that nobody was actually applying to the tender and the whole project was of course far from realised by the previously promised month of June 2018, Vecernji list writes. Meanwhile, the office for strategic planning and city development carried out "consultation with the interested public", then a new tender was announced, but this has a smaller volume than the one last year did.

The plans for container pools have been thrown out of the tender, so there will be no chance of safely swimming in the Sava, and therefore some millions will be saved to spend on ''doing up'' the riverbank itself. Instead of last year's 7.5 million kuna, five million kuna will be allocated.

Both the east and the west of the ''Hendrix Bridge'' will have two pavilions and twenty wooden sunbeds, the east of Freedom Bridge (Most Slobode) will also boast two pavilions, but one will be for watching films, there will also be ten wooden sunbeds placed in that location.

Make sure to stay up to date with Total Zagreb for everything you need to know about what's going on in the capital.

Sunday, 14 October 2018

Sava Parks Network Protecting the River in Four Countries

ZAGREB, October 14, 2018 - The Sava Parks network of protected areas in the Sava River basin has been granted 1,604,137 euro from EU funds for a new project that will be carried out over the next three years in four countries to find an effective method of suppressing and removing invasive alien plant species.

Thursday, 11 October 2018