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.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

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. 

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.