I spend all day today drawing this Lastovo map:

On above picture you can see only small version of the map, but click here to see Lastovo map in it’s full glory!

I really enjoy drawing maps, especially of places I know, as somehow, it takes me back to all those little spots I visited. Also, by drawing my own map, I can make it look exactly I want - to choose my colours and fonts, as well as topographic details I think are important.

As part of my research, I looked for maps in my home atlas.

They are soooooo flat and unapealing….

Look at the mine one - isn’t it jolly?!

I was going throught some old press cuttings, looking for something completely unrelated, and found some old articles from local press with lot of info about future Peljesac Bridge. So, bellow is compillation of some facts and figures about this project:

Bridge between Croatian Mainland and Peljesac is going to be built from Komarna to Roscica Glavica on Peljesac Peninsula. ( see bellow map)

The total lenght of the bridge is 2374 m ( about 1.5 miles).

Bridge has 13 pillars.

Each pillar is higher then 100 metres.

The distance between each pillar is 170 meters.

The hight at the middle of the bridge is 35 meters.

The estimated cost of the whole project is ?250-300 million.

70% of the total cost of building incurred by under the sea work.

Opening of the bridge is planned for Summer 2009.

On bellow map you can see the location of future bridge :

Good and detailed map of bridge and all roads around it visible on following link :

http://www.edubrovnik.org/most_kopno_peljesac/most_s_pristupnim_cestama.pdf

Good article about this bridge is written in Croatian on this page :
http://www.iskon.hr/vijesti/page/2005/11/10/0279006.html

There is some recent news coming from Korcula?s Marco Polo Center about possible beginning of project of building replica of Marco Polo?s Galleon, which would be permanently displayed in Korcula Town.

The galleon is supposed to be similar one as Marco Polo was using during the Battle of Korcula back in 1298.
Apparently, the Marco Polo?s Galleon is supposed to be displayed within the space of future Museum of Marco Polo in Korcula.

Future Museum of Marco Polo in Korcula, which will be located within the space of House of Marco Polo in Korcula Old Town, is project that is already accepted to be financed by Croatian State Budget for year 2006.

There will be more news about possible future of this project after 17.12.05 when are we expecting more details to be announced…

For more info about Korcula and Marco Polo check this link

Latest News about Peljesac Bridge (from Associated Press):

New Bridge Causes Tension Between Croatia, Bosnia:

NEUM, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)–Construction has begun on Croatia’s longest bridge, which the government hopes will provide a lifeline to the southern part of the country.

But Bosnians fear the bridge will seal-off access to their only port to the Adriatic, and have warned the project could endanger bilateral relations between the two former foes.

Bosnian Transport and Communications Minister Branko Dokic said in Sarajevo Monday that Bosnia had sent a letter of complaint to the Croatian government.

“I don’t think that Croatia will jeopardize bilateral relations with Bosnia over this,” Dokic said.

The picturesque southern town of Neum is Bosnia’s only outlet to the Adriatic. But it cuts off Croatia’s southern peninsula from the mainland, forcing Croatians to cross into Bosnia in order to travel from one part of their country to the other.

Croatia’s 2,374 meter-long Komarna-Peljesac bridge is designed to overcome that problem, bypassing Neum and providing direct access from the Croatian mainland to the Peljasac peninsula and further south to the city of Dubrovnik, one of Croatia’s most popular tourist destinations.

Once the bridge is completed, “Croatia will finally be physically connected,” Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said last week during a ceremony to mark the start of construction.

The Komarna-Peljesac bridge is one of the Croatian government’s most important infrastructure projects, with an estimated cost of between EUR250 million and EUR300 million.

But Haris Basic, Bosnia’s former deputy transport and communications minister, who was involved in talks with Croatia about building the bridge, told The Associated Press the bridge would prevent large ships from docking in Neum and force them to anchor outside Bosnian territorial waters instead.

“We never agreed to the proposed Croatian solution because it does not preserve Bosnia’s free passage to international waters,” Basic said.

Neum, the only town on Bosnia’s 25-kilometer (15.5 mile) Adriatic coast, is a popular tourist resort. Its port is not large enough to be used for commercial traffic, and the only larger vessels that enter Bosnian territorial waters around there are ships of NATO member states.

Bosnians argue that although the port is too small for large ships at the moment, a new port could be built in the future - but only if the bridge isn’t constructed.

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It is not the best news, but let’s hope things will be resolved pretty soon and this project is going to go ahead…
Fingers crossed..

It seems things are moving on with that long promissed Bridge from Croatian Mainland (Komarna near Klek) to Peljesac Peninsula. I’m looking forward for that one..

” Prime Minister Ivo Sanader formally opened construction work on what will be the longest bridge in Croatia, one that will connect the southern Peljesac peninsula to the mainland. He said that the Peljesac project would bring benefits to the entire country as citizens of Croatia would no longer need a passport to reach the southernmost part of the country. The southernmost part of Croatia is cut off from the rest of the country at Neum, where neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina has a narrow outlet to the Adriatic Sea. The Peljesac bridge will be 2,300 metres long and the cost of construction is estimated at between 250 and 300 million euros along with access roads. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2008.”

A sudden movement of the earth’s crust in the Adriatic Sea at Mljet Island Channel is reported today by HINA - the official Croatian newsagency.

Around 2pm yesterday afternoon, seismographs (an instruments for automatically detecting and recording the earthquakes) from Croatian Seizmgologic Institute, noticed 3 movements of 4.1 Richter Scale.

The earthquake was also noticed in Hvar, Dubrovnik and Peljesac Peninsula as well as at Mljet and Lastovo.

There are no reports of any material damage or casualties.

So, I worked today on this new map of Korcula Island. The idea is to have lots of these tiny little red dots with links to pages and info about various places around Korcula Island (and a bit of Peljesac too).

So this is as far as I gone today…

Please note, this is work in progress - don’t get dissapointed if some of the dots still don’t have link attached. Some of the dots are not yet working as there are no pages atatched to it, but will do pretty soon ….

Check Korcula Places link for original map, red dots and links to various places on the Island: Korcula Places