SCENIC DELIGHT OF JUGO-SLAVIA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 25, 22 September 1931, Page 5

SCENIC DELIGHT OF JUGO-SLAVIA

FASCINATING COUNTRY VISITORS MAY EXPLORE OLD TOWNS OR RAMBLE ON STORIED ISLANDS. INTERESTING ARCHITECTURE. SUCTAK ( Jugo-Slavia) . Tourists are flocking to the innumerable beauty spots of the rugged Dalmatian coast, Jugo-Slavia's boundary on the Adriatic Sea. The sea line is a succession of fortresses, crowned by scores of towers and turrets j tbat kings and pirates, Turks and I Christians, have raised to fortify their dominions tbroughout the centuries. And, besides the towers, there are many picturesque old churches. To a coast more remarkable for natural beauty than any in southern Europe, the ages have added the mystery of conflicting empires, clashing civilisations, rival religions and the struggle between imperious tyrants and tempestuous republicans. History Leaves its Mark. Each group of invaders has left its mark in the old cities, ports and forts. Sometimes a single building shows that epochs took part in its erection. One finds, side by side, the towers and castles of contrasting and hostile peoples. Along the coast, land and water have conspired to make a mysterious, bristling, labyrinthie chain of harbours, natural canals and straits. The coast itself is a stern, austere, mountain ridge which has impetuously pushed into the sea, forming a vast number of penisulas and islands. The mountainous shore has been broken as by some world-making giant and the blue-green sea has rushed in to fill the cracks and crevices. Venetian Architecture. The prevailing style of architecture is Venetian. Lions of St. Mark abound. The cities, in fOrm and construction, much resemble those across the sea in Italy, although they are situated amid much more impressive gorges, besides wilder mountain streams and beneath more challenging cliffs tban are found along the flat, even Italian shore. Some of these towns are crowded into little basins hollowed into the rocks, others snuggle tip against the base of sheer crags to which they cling for dear life, so as not to be pushed into the sea, while others have wandered inland -and hidden within green, quiet, fruitful lagoons. Lagooms Like Blue Ribbons. These lagoons are among the most picturesque features of the Adriatic coast; sometimes they wind for miles, as blue ribbons with green borders, amid the bare overhanging rocks, and at others they are very short and filled with angry water that comes dashing from the base of dry, treeless ridges. Tliis range of mountains along the Eastern Adriatic abounds in vast underground caves and caverns, through which large, fast-flowing rivers course for scores of miles. The climate is mild in winter and hot in summer. There are excellent automobile roads along the shore and leading into the interior, while an extensive boat service connects the ports on the mainland with the scores of antique, picturesque cities on the myriad islands. There are very few places in the world where one can do so much exploring, voyaging for days in any kind of a boat that suits his fancy to any sort of island that takes his eye.

" Italian City. And besides all this, one finds along this sea an international phenomenon existing almost nowhere else in Europe: a purely Italian city in the Kingdom of Jugoslavia, namely, Zadar or Zara, halfway down the coast. Here fly the Fascist flags, here Italian soldiers march, Italian sentinels patrol the roads, and Italian patriots talk of redemptive crusades. The Jugoslavs wateh them from surrounding heights, but have no authority over them. The northernmost Jugoslav city on the upper Adriatic, Sushak, also maintains strange relations with the country about it. It is really a divided town, one part of which lies in Italy

and the rest in Jugoslavia, split in two by the frontier line. The Italian half is known as Fiume, and is famous as the port which the romantic Italian poet and novelist, Gabriele d'Annunzio, occupied at the end of the war, defying the instructions of all peace conferences. A river separates the two parts of the town and the short bridge over it is crossed by hundreds of people daily who are able to get past the sentinels on each end without much delay. Beaches Sandy and Whifce. Amusement-seeking youth may go from Juoslavia over to Italy for the movies in the evening or to the circus if they wish. Sushak, on the Jugoslavia side, abounds in excellent bathing places and is supplied with good hotels and boardinghouses. A regular automobile service takes visitors to a number of interesting old towns nestling amid the mountains behind it or lying farther down the coast. One of the best of these is Crikvenista lying in a little mountain basin and possessing a long, gentle sloping, sandy beach, making it the most popular bathing place in the upper Adriatic. It has a number of the best hotels in this part of the country. The beautiful park along the shore, the clusters of trees here and there the streams pouring down upon it out of the mountain behind, the boats plying to big and little, near and distant, bare and wooded islands all about, have given this summer resort many special advantages. Because of its clean beach, washed by warm, tranquil and very shallow water, it is especially sought by mothers and children. Bathing Places. A little below this town is Selee, where the three children of the royal family often spend the summer. And from there -on south, as bright shells in a vast net, are scattered many other bathing places upon the shores of the mainland and the islands. Far to the south are the twin cities of Shibenik and Split lying on the opposite sides of a large peninsula. Both abound in striking architecture, and the latter has a manifold fame as being the site of a very ancient Roman city, Solun, the yard of one of the grandest old Imperial Roman castles, namely, that of Diocletian, the centre

of a growing industry and the chief seat of one of Jugoslavia's main banats or counties. It is as new as it is old, with as many excellent modern biuldings as antique relies. Located on a beautiful harbour, besides wooded hills, it is a pleasant place to stop, and is situated near scores of other picturesque old towns so that it is an excellent base for exploration.