Dalmatian pearls: Island Vis and Island Bisevo

Komiška falkuša (traditional fishing boat) and Modra špilja (Blue cave), the two sights on the islands of Vis and Biševo, are among other things the reasons why the French journalist from the production house Night and Day, and a world famous producer of tourist and educational documentaries Alain Dayan, recently visited Croatia. 

He, together with his crew, shot films at sites in Dubrovnik, Korčula, Mljet, Lostovo, Vis, Biševo, Hvar, Split, Šibenik and the National park Krka. The film will be distributed via a large network of partner television stations across the world.
He was interested in the falkuša ‘Comeza-Lisboa’, a fishing boat that in 1998 sailed from Komiža to Lisbon, to represent the nautical and shipbuilding tradition of Croatia at the world exhibition EXPO.
This is a boat built in 1997, as a replica of the last falkuša which was sunk by a hurricane in a bay of the island Biševo. The building of a replica of a traditional boat used by the fishermen of Vis, nine meters long, that was in use until the middle of the 20th century, caused great public and expert interest. So much, that a few documentaries and a radio drama have already been made about it.
Its image could also be found on a Croatian postal stamp, which won third place at the philatelic exhibition in Paris in 1999 in the category ‘the most beautiful stamp of the European continent’. Komiška falkuša had its own regatta in the past. The last one was held in 1937 and the tradition was renewed this year with a regatta from Hvar to Vis.
The small island Biševo, located less than five nautical miles from Komiža, the cradle of falkuša, hides the famous Modra Špilja (the blue cave), which was painted in 1884 and described by baron Eugen von Ransonet. At his initiative, the entrance to the cave was widened and so became accessible to the whole world. Thus visible, beauty of the cave, coloured in silvery blue, has constantly attracted tourists ever since. The cave has two openings; a smaller one artificially made so that boats can pas through, while the other, a much wider arch, lies beneath the sea level on the south side of the cave.
Sunlight that penetrates through this underwater entrance firstly breaks and then reflects from the bottom of the cave.

HTZ
The Tourist Board of the Split-Dalmatia County
www.dalmatia.hr
The Tourist Board of Vis
www.tz-vis.hr