Galesnjak

Galesnjak lies in the Pasman channel between the mainland and Pasman island, a small uninhabited islet of about 130,000 square metres whose outline is a near-perfect heart. The shape was recorded on charts long before - Napoleon's surveyors mapped it in the early nineteenth century - but nobody made anything of it until satellite imagery became public in the late 2000s, at which point international coverage found it and it became briefly famous. It is privately owned and undeveloped: scrub, a few olives, stone shore and no buildings, no water and no facilities. Visiting means arranging a boat.

Background

The islet is also known as Island of Love, Lover's Island and Otok za zaljubljene. It covers 0.132 km2, its beach runs for 1.55 km, and the higher of its two peaks rises 36 m above the sea. Napoleon's cartographer Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré first recorded the shape, placing it in an 1806 atlas of the Dalmatian coast now kept at the National and University Library in Zagreb. The Jureško family of Mrljane on Pašman own the island, where wild plants and trees grow and small rabbits and wild pigeons live. Three Illyrian burial mounds and the foundations of an ancient building show earlier human activity. Tours leave from Tkon.

Source: Wikipedia, "Galešnjak"

What you'll find

• A heart-shaped outline - about 130,000 square metres of it.
• Charted long before it was famous - mapped under Napoleon.
• Found by satellite imagery - the reason anyone knows it now.
• Undeveloped scrub and stone - no buildings and no water.

When to go

May to September, when the sea allows small boats. Half a day.

Practical notes

The heart shape is only visible from the air - from a boat it is an ordinary islet. There is no scheduled transport and charter costs money. The island is private, with no facilities of any kind.

Nearby

Pasman is across the channel; Zadar is north.

Key facts