LIGHTHOUSES 2014 - SUŠAC

Sušac
 
 
Sušac, an island at open sea, is 23 nautical miles away from the island of Hvar and 13 miles from the island of Lastovo. At windy weather the island is completely cut off from the world. The reach of its light beam is 24 nautical miles and because of its importance for the national navigation security system, a reserve light has also been installed with the light range of 12 nautical miles, which is lit when the mail light beam ceases to function.  The lighthouse is automated and the two-person crew alternates at the end of the month.
The island of Sušac has an area of six square kilometres. The south, at some points inaccessible shores sink steeply into the blueness. The natural island phenomenon is a sea lake in the north-east part, hidden behind the shore cliff.  It is connected with the sea through narrow underwater passage about ten metres beneath the surface.  On the island there are remains of the settlement which once had about two hundred inhabitants.  The testimony of the civilisation are also the remains of the two small churches, one originating from the 4^th century.   
The island is stretched in the north- south direction. Opposite ends of the island end with elevations connected in the central part with the low island's ridge.  The north part of the island is dominated with the 239 metres high peak. On the south peak of the island there stands a huge lighthouse building. When the silhouette of the island appears in the horizon, the low island's ridge creates an impression that there are two islands and not just one. This optical deception sometimes, before the lighthouse was erected, caused confusion with salesmen and they reversed the prows of their vessels in other directions convinced that they had wandered off the planned navigating route.  
The lighthouse was built in 1878, on an elevation 80 metres above the sea level.  The lighthouse building, a stone one-storied construction with the tower in the central part, is among the biggest in the Adriatic. From the east, the lighthouse is encircled by an old wall. The lighthouse men spend their time in the ground floor, while on the floor there are two touristic apartments. Yearly precipitations on the island are from about ten to about twenty litres per square metre, so that the cistern always had to be supplemented by water carriers. Deep blueness immediately beneath the cliff on which there is a lighthouse, has always presented a challenge for the divers. About some of them, who forever remained in the blue depths, evidences the stone memorial engraved in the cliffs of the promontory of Triščavac, northeast from the lighthouse.
 
Neven Šerić, PhD