The stone that resembles the look of lace on the island of Baljenac could soon be registered under UNESCO Cultural Heritage.
Of the more than 130 intangible cultural assets registered in the Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Croatia, Croatia has 13 properties inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This list includes lacemaking in Croatia, the two-part narrow intervals of Istria and the Croatian coast, the Festival of St. Blaise, the annual spring procession of Kraljice and Ljelje from Gorjani, the annual carnival of the bell ringers from Kastaština, the procession with the Cross on Hvar, the art of making traditional wooden toys from the area of the Zagorje, the Sinj Alka, gingerbread craft in the north of Croatia, the Bećarac instrumental tune from Slavonia, Baranja and Srem, Kolo from the Dalmatian hinterland (Zagora), Klapa singing and the Mediterranean diet on the Croatian Adriatic, its shores, islands and part of the hinterland.
HRTurizam reports on 11 December 2016 that soon, our cultural heritage list could expand with the addition of the “lace” stone from the small island of Baljenac. The small island of Baljenac is located off the coast of Šibenik, and what makes it so unique is the dry stone wall that tells the story of centuries-old efforts made by local residents who used this stone method to cultivate grapevines. The island of Baljenac has a surface of only 10 hectares, on which there are 23 kilometers of stone walls which resemble a unique stone “lace”.
It is this “stone lace” that has been nominated as a new candidate for cultural heritage. “The Conservation Department in Šibenik, on the proposal of the University of Zadar, will prepare a draft decision on the protection of establishing the status of cultural property as a cultural landscape for Baljenac,” said Marko Sinobad for HRT.
The dry stone walls on the terraced slopes of the island provide the direction for the land to prevent soil erosion. In this way, they have achieved a densely saturated combination of radial and concentric stone walls. It is important to highlight the uniqueness of Baljenac where no stone is left in place, as each stone was moved and built into the stone wall.
