Adriatic Islands and lighthouses

A cover from Croatia 

Croatia's islands are numerous (at least 1185 depending on which size rock counts as an island!) and spectacular. From remote fishing outposts to harbours dotted with massive yachts, Croatian islands display nearly every style you can imagine and some you haven't yet imagined. With all those islands in Croatia, it may surprise you to know that only 66 islands are inhabited.

Although the islands stretch from Istria to Dubrovnik, most islands are clustered in central and southern Dalmatia. Istria has few islands. Central Dalmatian islands tend to be dry and rocky, carpeted with brush and olive trees while southern islands are green and forested. For geological reasons, Croatian islands tend to be long and narrow, running from northwest to southeast and parallel to the coastal mountains.

As the Adriatic sea sits atop the African plate, its seabed is getting squeezed which will cause new islands to pop up. But not that soon. If all proceeds as expected, Italy will edge ever closer to Croatia and in about 50 to 70 million years all of the islands will get smushed together in one landmass.

Palagruža is a small, remote Croatian archipelago in the middle of the Adriatic Sea. Palagruža is closer to Italy than to the Croatian mainland, being some 42 km (26 mi) from Monte Gargano.After Italy's entry into World War I, the country's armed forces occupied the island. The Italian Navy submarine Nereide was sunk there on the 5th of August 1915 by the Austro-Hungarian Navy's submarine U-5.
In the time when the lighthouse was built, in 1875, first archaeological remains were found suggesting that Palagruža was inhabited far back in the Neolithic. The building of the lighthouse lasted two years and about two hundred workers worked on it. The light of a range of 25 nautical miles was lit for the first time in 1876.

• Date of issue:
• 30.05.2014.
  
  

At a distance of less than two nautical miles to the west of Cape Pernat and the coast of the island of Cres, there is a bare islet of Zaglav. Already at the auction for building a new lighthouse in 1874 it became obvious it was by no means just an ordinary location. It was only during the fourth auction that the maritime authorities managed to find a constructor who was going to build the facility.

• • Date of issue:
  • 12.09.2008.
    
    Croatia issues stamps every year with lighthouse series !!