Sunset, snacks and sips

Welcome to Vodice, the best transition point to start sightseeing the surrounding area. Due to the environment and the beautiful archipelago, the proximity of two national parks and the charming beauty of the city, the tourism here has a long tradition, about fifty years old, and as an industry, it has meant tremendous development for the town.

The population once lived in the Vodice fields, which abound with fertile water sources and provides conditions for agriculture and settlement on the coast is associated with a growing fear of the Turkish threat.

The city, named after the water, lies on the sources of drinking water. In the past, its prosperity relied on the abundance of wells and the water trade. Today, two wells have been preserved in the square, below the parish church, as a monument to tradition.

Prvić is the first island to the mainland of Vodice, only 1000 m away. It is inhabited by two picturesque, typical Mediterranean villages with stone houses and alleys, Prvić Šepurine and Prvić Luka, with about two hundred inhabitants in each. Because of their authenticity, they are protected as a cultural entity.

The island abounds in gorgeous natural beaches and the gentle terrain, with the present traces of arable land that testifies for the people of Prvić as valuable farmers who cultivated a wide range of overseas lands along with their own.

Nowadays, Srima is a modern tourist resort connected to Vodice, but it was inhabited in prehistoric and ancient times. Archaeological finds of two one-nave basilicas, known among the population as "Prižba", were found at the Srimska Lokva site. They are also called twin churches because they were built next to each other.

It was on Srima that the inhabitants of Prvić had vineyards, so the real jewel of dry-stone heritage remained from that time, hidden from the sea - "Domaćinova bunja" (Host's Shelter) with a height of over 5 m. It was constructed to provide owners with accommodation when they had to stay longer to work in the vineyard, outside the main island of Prvić.

Jadrija has been the first beach in Šibenik, a city district and a monument of cultural heritage. It is placed at the Šibenik Channel entrance, on a peninsula formed by an embankment in 1922 to connect St Andrew's islet with the mainland.

The dominant view of Jadrija is the lighthouse, still in function, whose construction began in 1816 during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was built as part of a lighthouse system on the Adriatic's east coast, intended to ensure trade sea routes' safety.

It was completed in 1871.

St Anthony's Channel is the only sea route to Šibenik. It was protected in 1974 as a natural phenomenon due to its landscape value.

The Channel is characterised by Aleppo pine and holm oak forests, the vegetation of about 600 plant species, and an underwater world of 56 shellfish species and an abundance of fish. The dominant feature of the relief is karst.

It is a little more than 2000 m long, 220 m wide and 40 m deep. In the past, it had two towers between which an iron chain stretched and defended the entrance to the city for the enemy ships.

Due to the Channel's narrow width, the traffic of larger ships is regulated by traffic lights.

Under UNESCO protection, this fortress is one of the essential Venetian fortifications outside Venice, built for defence against the Ottomans. Famous as one of the most beautiful forts on the Adriatic. It was built on the island of Ljuljevac, to which people eventually paved the way, and access to the fortress is now possible by land.

At the time of its construction, in 1540, it cost as much as half of Dalmatia, 40,000 ducats. The builders of the fortress are the distinguished Venetian Sanmicheli family.

There is the Cave of St Anthony, the abbot in the Channel that has served as a chapel since the Middle Ages.

Hermits also lived in it, including the Zadar nobleman Jeronim Detrico, buried there in 1615. One stone has been preserved from the church equipment, into which water drips from the rock. During the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, cannons were located there, and in the SFRY the cave continued to be used for military purposes.

During the Second World War, Germany began digging a sea tunnel in the living rock that was supposed to accommodate the "Schnellboots." People, therefore, popularly called the tunnel "Hitler's eyes." When only the excavated rock remained after the war, the post-war Yugoslavia army took over the tunnel, concreted it and used it for patrol boats.

Šibenik, as one of the historical Croatian cities, was first mentioned in the middle of the 11th century in a document of King Petar Krešimir IV.

The view is dominated by its four fortifications: St Nicholas, St Michael, St John and Barone.

Of the sacred monuments, of which the city has 24 churches and six monasteries, from a distance, the Cathedral of St James, a unique monument of European sacral culture attracts the eye's attention. The cathedral was constructed entirely of stone, without any other materials and is the work of Juraj Dalmatinac and Nikola Firentinac, placed under the care of UNESCO World Heritage.

On the way to Krka, we will stop to collect mussels at one of the shellfish farms, which we call "pidoče" in this area. You will taste fresh, freshly picked mussels, prepared on board as a speciality of this area. Mussels are prepared on "buzara" in a simple, traditional Dalmatian way that best expresses their exceptional taste. Oysters are prepared by opening a shell on which a few lemon juice drops are placed, and it is a well-known aphrodisiac.

Zlarin is called the Golden Island because it is believed that its name comes from the Latin word golden.

It is also called Green Island because of its wooden appearance, the absence of cars, and because it is the first "island without plastic" in Croatia.

However, Zlarin is best known as a coral island due to the long tradition of hunting and processing corals dating back to the 14th century. The Museum of Corals at the island shows that tradition, and the ecosystem of the Šibenik archipelago.

Tijat is an example of bare karst terrain with vegetation of typical Dalmatian macchia, which in the past was wooded and with arable olive groves. It is estimated that there were about 2,500 olive trees on the island that the people of Prvić cultivated. Vegetation impoverished by the cessation of human activity and the release of moufflon, wild sheep to uncontrolled grazing.

Passing through the Vodice sea surface, we notice Logorun, an island in front of Tribunj, which the locals call Veliki Škoj. It is only 200 meters away from the mainland. It housed the world's first donkey reserve, an indigenous protected animal that was domesticated on the Dalmatian islands, coast and hinterland as a faithful companion in the life of a Dalmatian man.

On the way back from the trip, towards Vodice, we pass by Tribunj, a charming fishing village that differs by a marvellous front of nearby islands and the well-preserved original Dalmatian appearance of the village. The seaside view shows a picturesque sight with the dominant church of the patron St Nicholas, locally called St Mikula looking from the hill at the Tribunj fields, houses and the coast.

On the hill was once the fortress Jurjevgrad, abandoned and destroyed when the mainland population, in the face of danger from the Turks, took refuge on an island. There is a scenic whole of densely populated stone houses with typical Dalmatian narrow streets on the island from that time.