November 12, 2019 – Last weekend, Parks and Greenery employees pulled out three truckloads of vegetation from inside the Fantazija Quarry in Rovinj, a natural geological monument that has been overrun by branches, deep roots, and leaves over the years.
Namely, Glas Istre explains that Fantazija Quarry is a unique example of the sedimentology of carbonate rocks in the world. Fifteen green workers extracted three rounds of wild plants or 36 cubic meters from the quarry itself during the two-day operation, thus clearing the surrounding green areas and inaccessible terrain, confirmed the manager of Parks and Greenery, Barbara Matošović Talajić.
This horticultural cleanup kicked off the ”geoIST3A” project, worth HRK 5,346,052 (of which more than HRK 6.8 million is in grants from the European Union Fund), financed by the Operational Program on Competitiveness and Cohesion and the call “Promoting the Sustainable Development of Natural Heritage”, which includes the City of Rovinj, its Tourist Board and Natura Histrica.
This is one of the most important quarries in the world, as well as a unique example of carbonate rocks from which layers of genetically different types of dolomites can be seen or read. Not only the texture but also the structure of the diagenetic and genetic characteristics are visible from the rock section, with which scientists read the processes of blue-green algae activity, the chronology of petiole, the oscillation of the sea level, the change of the tide, and the successive wetting and drying of seawater.
In short, these rocks from the Rovinj quarry serve to scientifically explain the origin of similar rocks in the world, which, unlike Fantazija, contain only some of the evidence and indications of this type of origin. For the same reason, Fantazija itself has become even more significant and a standard for all other rock sites of this type of origin. The Rovinj Tourist Board explained that the rocks in this quarry are older than 130 million years.
All the advantages and attributes of this natural geological monument have been used by the City of Rovinj as another worthy tourist attraction near the city center, only a few kilometers away.
By cleaning the quarry, the plan is not only to preserve and enrich the natural heritage, but also to brand the tourism product for what it really is, which is a geological phenomenon on a global scale.
“After the horticultural cleanup, we will remove and clean the graphite from the interior of the quarry, and then submit the project for technical documentation, which is in its final phase, i.e., the preparation of a preliminary museological program, a museological concept with a detailed interior design and content development with the implementation of the quarry layout, announced the head of the Management Department for Economy, Public Procurement and European Funds, Martina Čekić Hek. Hek also revealed that Fantazija should receive its first visitors at the end of next year.
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