Croatia is famous for its stunning Adriatic coast, but equally stunning is some of the man-made creations to be found there, none more so than the spectacular tiny islnad of Baljenac, just 0.14km2 in size, but with a staggering 23.357 kilometres of perfectly constructed dry stone walls. The original Dalmatian stone fingerprint.

Dry stone walls are one of the standard features of the landscape on Dalmatia's islands, a reminder of the harsh existence for islanders before the arrival of tourism, as these walls were built by hand, slowly and painstakingly to eke out a little land for cultivation. It is an art form from Croatia's heritage which has been proposed for UNESCO recognition, and there can be fewer finer examples than the tiny islet of Baljenac, which featured a few months ago in a Croatian news report, which you can see below, and which was subsquently reported on in the national media (see translation below). But before we start reading, let's begin with a video tour.

Historically, large islands have been targets of invasions, every grade schooler knows that, but an invasion on Baljenac and Baljenac in itself – well, that’s a curious story with information worthy of a quiz show!

Did you know that north of Šibenik’s Kaprije island lies as small island Baljenac with a surface of 0.14 square kilometres? Hands of Kaprije villagers built on it 23 kilometres and 357 metres of dry walls in order to plant, in cleared spaces the size of living rooms, vineyards, figs or other fruits. For every 10.000 square metres around two thousand metres of dry walls were built.

You did not know? Of course not. Unless you are from Kaprije like the sailor Mladen Radovčić whose father Ante cleared Baljenac, on the north side, with Mladen at his side at times. Father Ante used a hoe, wedge and lever to gather a handful of skimpy soil, Mladen tells us. They owned some three hundred vines and four fig trees.

Today he sails his gajeta boat to ferry to Baljenac journalists, ethnologist Jadran Kale, conservationist Marko Sinobad, director of LAG More 249 Meri Krnić, local Kaprije administration President Dinko Radovčić. The goal is to try to make land – as in past attempts we failed: there is no seafront on Baljenac or large cover… The sail takes fifteen minutes.

Meri Krnić, director of LAG More 249, had a magnet made with a relief, a true depiction of the island and deliver it in situ – on Baljenac – to one of the owners of the parcels, Mladen Radovčić… And to Dinko Radovčić, head of the village. It was the only social event on the island ever – unless we count the illegal hunt of rabbits by hunters from the mainland and illegal picking of immortelle, practiced here in and out of season.

We managed our way out of the boat in winter conditions when falling into the sea is not a fun thing – although a bit later Dr. Marko Sinobad did take a swim on purpose and without problems. He is from inland Knin so for him it is like Scandinavians coming to the warm Adriatic… HE is here to register Baljenac as a cultural landscape.

“When father headed out to fish early in the morning, all the Kaprije women who had fields on Baljenac would wait for him. The boat was completely full. He would take them on board, they would go work the land, he would go fish. On his way back, he would pick them up – whenever that was, says Mladen Radovčić.

“Baljenac was landscaped to everyone’s amazement,” both Mladen and Dinko tell us.

Even today Baljenac leaves no one indifferent. Dr. Jadran Kale says reactions from social anthropologists at a congress in Italy were quite interesting when he displayed an image of Baljenac. His colleague Filip Šrajer met similar reactions all along the Mediterranean, along with multilateral registration of dry walls for UNESCO: that image always brought in lively reactions,” says Šrajer.

In the portfolio added by Ivo Pervan to the letter to UNESCO sent by Joško Božanić and Joško Belamarić, proposing for Croatian dry walls to be listed on the World Heritage List, out of a total of 42 photographs, seven were from Kaprije: the largest concentration for a single place,” claims Dr. Jadran Kale.

“Around three hundred islanders at the time of vine conjuncture of the 19th century built, according to measurements with available web tools, at least 106.6 kilometres of dry walls on cleared land on a total of twelve square kilometres of islands. Statistically each Kaprije resident cleared at least four hectares of karst, while other areas with dense dry walls in Adriatic Croatia – such as Takala, Hvar, Korčula – had a statistical average of 0.1 hectare per resident.

After ethnologist Sandra Barešin measured upon aerial photographs, it was all, says Kale, “run through a computer by Filip Šrajer.”

Here is the result: on Baljenac there are a kilometre and a half of dry walls per hectare – compared to one hundred metres of dry walls on Kornati islands or two hundred per hectare on Žut.

“If all the owners of Baljenac were to apply to ARKORD for repairs of walls, at that length and at the lower rate (repair of wall less than half damaged) the total amount of subsidies would amount to 5.3 million kuna. This is upon the suggestion of the Agriculture Ministry, the subsidies negotiations are still ongoing,” says Dr. Jadran Kale completely aware that “project Baljenac” will amount to – nothing.

Baljenac is being slowly invaded by pine trees and already the next generation after Mladen Radovčić will have no clue what it was all about.

Kaprije is trying to keep the memory of those who made dry walls at the speed of concrete mixers, with their bare hands.

And this is how: when you disembark in Kaprije, at the end of the small pier is a sign – village map. On it is the one for the museum. There is no museum, but the sign has been there for several years and everyone would be happy if there were only a few more years until it was realised… For Dinko Radovčić the main hope lies with the join folklore choir of the Olive Growers Association and the Sports-Fishing Society Gavun.

In the village they have a two-story house owned by the City of Šibenik. They envisioned on the ground floor a representative – and functional – olive and medicinal herbs processing plant, and on the first floor and yard an ethnology collection – the home of a Kaprije villager.

“If they would only grant us state funds for public works, it would do everyone in the village a lot of good, including this house. But, in Kaprije there is no one who can work on public works, and mainland people need ferry tickets and there is no one to pay for them. The local administration receives from the City of Šibenik 4.400 kuna annually. For the entire year,” quite unhappily says Dinko Radovčić.

Baljenac provoked an emotion from LAG More 249 as well, named after the number of islands and islets in the Šibenik archipelago. Meri Krnić applied to the Krka National Park tender and with that money, together with the Museum of Šibenik, she had a magnet made. They named is cheerfully and optimistically: “For the Museum of the Kaprije villager.” Four hundred were made to be handed out around the end of the year.

“We also wanted to make a calendar, with the great images of Ivo Pervan, but there is no money. Besides, why wouldn’t such a magnet be a product from Kaprije, such a specific island…”

We leave Baljenac, not too much larger than the magnet itself. At least the magnet is safe from being overgrown by pine trees in a few years…