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This island do not belong to the Elafiti archipelago
It’s one of the islands which didn’t get
a rector. It is mentioned here because of its architectural
and floristic richness.
The island measures 100 square kilometres. If you compare
the size of the island with the population (1200 inhabitants)
you’ll notice that there is a very sparse population.
The island owes its name to the Greek. They called the
island Melitte nesos (Honey Island). Later it became
Mljet. The island is one of the most beautiful islands
in the south of Dalmatia. It’s no wonder that
Mljet was appointed a national park. A legend tells
that the famous Odysseus had stranded on Mljet. A place
called Sobra has got the biggest port of the island.
In the high season ships and car ferries that come from
Dubrovnik are docking there. The biggest place on the
island is called Babino Polje and has got 400 inhabitants.
It is in the west of the island and is famous for its
dripstone cave that is called Odisijeva spilja. The
national park Mljet that measures 30 square kilometres
is worth visiting. The two salt lakes Malo jezero and
Velo jezero are embedded in beautiful forests. The lakes
are filling when the sea-level is rising. The seaport
Polace is a tourist centre. There are the remains of
a palace from the late antique. Furthermore there is
an early Christian basilica that is probably from the
5th/6th century. There are a hotel and a yachting port,
too. From this place a lot of walkways are leading through
forests to the salt lakes and the landing wharf for
the boats taking visitors to the monastery island Sveta
Marija. The Benedictines have built the massive monastery
and the abbey on this island. In 1960 the monastery
has been rebuilt to a hotel. It’s now getting
renovated and in the future there will be attractive
accommodations.
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