Around and about in the hinterland of DalmatiaPART1

zija2022 (52)in #travel • 6 years ago

We had a few days of rain and clouds here, actually, the whole week was bad weather. And then on Saturday all of a sudden the sun came out, a perfect day for a little road trip. I live on the Adriatic coast and to be honest I really can't stand the tourist spots anymore. That is why the decision to go inland was an easy one, a few friends, me and my girlfriend jumped into the car and of we were. The Dalmatian hinterland is known as "Zagora" around here. The word Zagora describes the parts of Dalmatia which are behind the hills cut off from the sea. These parts are rarely visited by tourists and even local people mainly come here because they have relatives still living here.

So we drove the car up to Vrlika which is 58 km away from where I live, it was a 45 min drive. It is about 36 miles for those of you who don't get the metric system. The plan was to check out the fortress Prozor above Vrlika, the spring of the Cetina river and the church of Sv, Spas.
I did not visit the area before so I really didn't know what to expect here. I had a picture in my mind of how it would be. You need to know that the Dalmatian hinterland has been neglected for years. A lot of people moved away to find a better life after the war and to be honest I imagined abandoned house and destroyed buildings. Abandoned places are a common sight here, some of you who have traveled the Zagora know what I am talking about. But it wasn't anything I imagined it would be like to be true I was pleasantly surprised.

The small town of Vrlika

Vrlika is placed in the county of Split- Dalmatia and bordering with the county I live in. It is a unique sight as you drive the serpentine road down from the hills towards the wally. You can see the fields in front of the settlement with lake Peruča with the Dinara mountain in the background. It is truly an unexpected and beautiful sight for your eyes, I was blown away. The town itself is a small one with around 800 people living here and people are manly working in agriculture. The entire area has also been affected by Croatia's tourist boom.

On midway down, we made a stop at the Prozor fortress towering above the town of Vrlika. The fortress was built on a cliff towering over the town and the wally. The fortress was built between 14th and 15th century at the time the Turks or the Ottoman empire started their conquest of southeast Europe. The Turks conquered the fortress in 1522. and kept it till1688. The legend says that the fortress was defended during the Turkish attacks by a group of mercenaries and Croats. As Prozor was taken all were a slaughtered by the Turks except the mercenaries who were let go to tell the tale. Today it is one of few fortresses which is in exceptional condition with remains of residential buildings a chapel and a water reservoir. Restorations were started during the late 80s but stopped because of the war in the 90s and did not continue.!!

The enterance