In Memory of Giants

Bijanković Pine

This was one of the most beautiful and best known pines in Brela. It grew from the very stone and was over 300 years old. It was destroyed due to lack of attention when constructing the Soline Hotel in 1983. Under its rich foliage Nikola Bijanković (1645-1730), a bishop of Makarska and a lover of Brela, used to sit and meditate; he indebted in many ways the inhabitants of Brela. After a victory over the Turks at Sinj in 1715, he built the church of Our Lady of Victory in Brela (nowadays the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel).

At the place of the old pine, in his honour, a new pine was planted, and a street in Brela was named after him.

The Old Oak in Soline

The old oak (Quercus pubescens Villd.) was around 300 years old, of tree crown diameter of around 20 m and of extremely nice habitus, protected as a natural monument in 1967. It was probably the oldest and largest exemplar of its species in our county and also much wider. It is a rare exemplar of its species due to its dimensions and the fact that it grows in the immediate vicinity of the coast in Dalmatia considering that EU-Mediterranean climate is not optimal for it.   

His clon, downy oak has originated from grafting a shoot of an old tree which had been destroyed by windthrow on 12th March 2012. Grafts had been taken from the north side of the crown of torn tree and at the beginning of April grafted to a comparative base by modified English junction. Until the end of that vegetation period, grafts have remained at the greenhouse for establishing the base and graft and at the end of vegetation (in November) around ten samples were shifted for wintering into the poly greenhouse of the hotbed Hajderovac. In the second year after the grafting, only 5 of received grafts have remained which were taken over by Milan Žgela and driven off for cultivation to his court-yard in Bjelovar. During the years, in the end one seedling had survived which in the following year with proper cultivation care reaches the height of 350 cm, and is in the following vegetation period trimmed (reduction of side shoots) and reaches the height of 525 cm. Finally, on 05th December 2018 downy oak returns home, thanks to employees of the Croatian Association of Arbor Green and Tourist Board Brela and is switched to winter preservation, and planted on 12th April 2019.