LIGHTHOUSES 2014 - STRUGA

Struga
 
 
On Lastovo, island about fifty nautical miles away from Split, there is just one lighthouse – Struga. Austro-Hungarian architects have found the location in the central part of the south coast of the island, at the highest point of the promontory Struga. With its light beam the lighthouse marks during night the only safe shelter at the south coast of the island, the cove of Hidden harbour, in its far end, in the background of Struga. From its erection in 1839 the lighthouse is recognisable after its 20 metres high cylindrical tower. The light in the tower rotates at the height of 104 metres above sea level, and the lighthouse is one of the main orientation points when sailing on open seas in this part of the Adriatic.
The lighthouse is connected by road with the main island harbour of Ubli. The lighthouse building is a vast ground floor building with an area of 222 square meters. The light was automated je in the twenties of the 20^th century and in 2002 the building was fully restored and in it four touristic apartments have been arranged.   The lighthouse is today connected to the island's electric network, while the old cistern accumulates rain water and secures drinking and hygienic water to the family of lighthouse men and to tourists who spend there even up to several months per year. The cliff beneath the lighthouse is about 89 metres high and continues in the undersea area, sinking about eighty meters deep into the blueness. The particularity of this Adriatic lighthouse is that it is the only construction serving for safe navigation   which for more than one century has been taken care of by the lighthouse men from one family   - Kvinata - grandfather, followed by the father of today's lighthouse man Jurica Kvinta.
In the darkness of the underwater abyss beneath the cliff   with the lighthouse many big fishes and crabs were caught.  Attractive undersea walls are crisscrossed by a number of gaps and caves adorned with the populations of Adriatic red coral.  Under this cliff the coral branch weighting 45 kilograms was taken ashore and in the same place the biggest crab in the Adriatic - a lobster weighting 18 kilograms was caught. 

Neven Šerić, PhD