Brijuni National Park: Istria's Island Safari & Roman Ruins

The Brijuni National Park is an archipelago of fourteen islands off the Istrian coast near Fažana. For decades the islands were the private retreat of the Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, who hosted heads of state and film stars here, and that strange 20th-century layer sits on top of Roman villas, a Byzantine fort, dinosaur footprints and a landscape of pine and deer.

Today the main island, Veliki Brijun, is open to visitors and is run almost like an open-air museum. You arrive by a short boat from Fažana and tour the island by electric train, rented golf cart or bicycle. There is a safari park with imported animals Tito received as gifts, an ethnographic park, Roman mosaic floors, and the Tito Museum.

The mix is unusual, half nature reserve, half presidential time capsule, and that is the point of going. The rest of the archipelago is mostly left wild and is reachable by organised boat tours.

For photographers, the contrast of Roman ruins with the park-like landscape, and the period interiors of the Tito era, are the strongest material. Allow a half-day minimum and check current ferry times and ticket arrangements, as access is organised rather than drop-in.

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