Veli Brijun
.svg)
Map of Veliki Brijun and the surrounding archipelago
|
|
 |
|
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Adriatic Sea |
| Coordinates | 44°54′55″N 13°45′55″E / 44.91528°N 13.76528°ECoordinates: 44°54′55″N 13°45′55″E / 44.91528°N 13.76528°E |
| Archipelago | Brionian Islands |
| Area | 5.72 km2 (2.21 sq mi) |
| Coastline | 23.41 km (14.546 mi) |
| Highest elevation | 54.7 m (179.5 ft) |
| Highest point | Vela Straža |
| Administration | |
| County | Istria County |
Veliki Brijun (literally meaning Great Brijun, Italian: Brioni Grande) is an uninhabited island in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea. It is located off the west coast of Istria in northern Adriatic and is the largest island in the Brijuni Islands (also known as the Brioni or the Brionian Islands) archipelago. Like most of the archipelago, Veliki Brijun is part of the Brijuni National Park, established in 1983.
The island lies 2 km west of the mainland town of Fažana and is located some 6 km away from the city of Pula. It is separated from mainland by the Fažana Channel (Fažanski kanal) which is only 12 meters deep, and geological evidence suggests that until some 10,000 years ago the whole archipelago was connected to the Istria peninsula. The island has an area of 5.72 km², which makes it the 41st largest Croatian island, and its coastline is 23.41 km long.
Like most islands of the Brijuni archipelago, Veliki Brijun was settled since prehistoric times, with the earlies traces of settlements going back to 3000 BC, or early Bronze Age. The Illyrians lived on the islands from around 1500 BC until Roman conquest in 177 BC and remnants of five Illyrian fortified hill forts were discovered on Veliki Brijun. The most important Roman site on the island is at Verige Bay, where the ruins of a 1st-century villa rustica, a luxurious summer residence, can still be seen. After the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, the whole area came under Ostrogoth control, and during the Gothic War in the 6th century the islands were taken over by the Byzantine Empire. In 1331 the Republic of Venice took over and the island was ruled by a few Venetian aristocratic families. Starting in the early 14th century, regular outbreaks of plague and malaria decimated the local population, until the 17th century when the archipelago was de facto uninhabited. In the 19th century Austria-Hungary started fortifying the islands by building massive bastions and batteries, and two large forts on Mali Brijun and five smaller ones on Veliki Brijun had been constructed for the defence of the monarchy’s main naval base at Pula.
...
Wikipedia