The mystrical stone walls of Croatia

Do you know what to see in Istria or Dalmatia in Croatia? The dry stone walls.

Those are almost everywhere along the road in Croatia. Even on steep hills, you can see these stone walls somtimes stretched for kilometers.

Those are the result of many hard work from farmers of old times as the technique is centuries old, date back to the 4th century BC.

As Dalmatia mostly karst land, not too many flowing river/creek available. Farmers should work for their own land and garden pretty hard. The stone walls, which not glued by any mortar only prefectly shaped rocks on each other, helped to mark each land and well in most cases. Farmers were growing olive trees and grapevines or herd sheeps (like in Hvar island). In some parts of Istria the dry stone technique was used to built small shelters (kazuni). The dry stone walls of Croatia are a cultural heritage, some places UNESCO protected (Stari Grad on Hvar). Some still in use nowadays, many abandoned.