Cleaning up the heritage of Split.
Even though Turkish fort is one of the largest parks in Split stretching over 30 000 square metres, for decades it was not only abandoned but devastated. One enthusiast got sick and tired of waiting for city authorities to wake up and do something to return this former green oasis to its citizens, gathered a group of volunteers and started what he calls “an attack on the Turkish fort”. His name is dr Joško Kalilić, and in the last few months he organised a total of 7 clean up actions where he was joined by various organisations and individuals.
The whole location was divided into 70 land plots, each plot was given to one group of volunteers, and as dr. Kalilić commented, it will take three more work actions before they can organise an official opening of the park.
“When we started this project back in May, we had no idea what to expect or how many people will join in. But with every work action more volunteers should show up, Parkovi i Nasadi also started helping with their heavy machinery along Vodoprivreda and various firefighting associations and now I can safely say that we will be able to give the park back to its citizens in September. We’re already planning a great celebration”.
Dr. Kalilić is proud of the work done so far: “Just look at the areas where we managed to finish the clean-up. Kids can run here, play football, look at these rocks, they are a perfect natural stage, people from the theatre have already been here, they are interested in using this location for future plays, Croatian Mountain Rescue team wants to start using this location as a training ground for their new members….”
Along with dr Kalilić and individuals, many associations participated in this big clean up prooject including Kadulja, Vlaho Bukovac, Bhakti Marga, Croatia antiqua, Plehus and Gaz from Trilj. And while we anxiously await the grand opening, all we can do is invite you to join dr Kalilić and his volunteers for the next “Attack on the Turkish fort” on Saturday, September 5th.
