Veliki Brijun

Veliki Brijun (Veli Brijun) is the largest of the fourteen islands making up the Brijuni archipelago, lying about two kilometres off the coast at Fažana and some six kilometres from Pula. It covers 5.72 square kilometres, with more than 23 kilometres of coastline, and its highest point, Vela Straža, reaches only 54.7 metres.

Beyond the Roman-era ruins found across the wider archipelago, Veliki Brijun carries a set of much more recent, and unusually specific, landmarks. On its northern side sits a safari park, created in 1978 on nine hectares of land, where descendants of animals once given as diplomatic gifts to Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito — including nilgai antelope, zebras and Indian elephants — still live today. Nearby, an 18-hole golf course was laid out on the island as early as 1913, at the time promoted as the largest golf course in Europe.

Tito made Veliki Brijun his summer residence from June 1947 to August 1979, using the island to host a long list of international heads of state and other public figures. Near the 15th-century Church of St Germanus stands a monument to the German bacteriologist Robert Koch, commemorating his work fighting malaria on the island between 1900 and 1902.

All of this sits alongside the well-known ruins of a 1st-century Roman villa rustica at Verige Bay, on the island's south coast. Veliki Brijun has been protected as part of Brijuni National Park since 1983, and remains a popular stop for gulet charter guests exploring Croatia.