Kornati National Park comprises 89 islands, islets, and reefs scattered across 220 square kilometres of the central Dalmatian coast, designated a protected area in 1980 to preserve its karst topography and sparse Mediterranean scrubland.
The archipelago's name derives from the largest island, Kornat, which stretches 25 kilometres in length and features the dramatic Klifovi cliffs plunging 82 metres into the Adriatic on its southwestern edge. Early Illyrian settlers left stone cairns and boundary walls across the islands, later reinforced by Roman livestock herders who cleared oak and pine for pasture. By the 16th century, noble families from Zadar and Šibenik established seasonal fishing stations and olive groves, and the dry-stone walls built to delineate grazing plots now form a distinctive lattice across the treeless slopes.
Today the park draws sailors, divers, and day-trippers who navigate channels between Dugi Otok to the northwest and the mainland port of Murter to the southeast. The islands' geology is uniformly karst — porous limestone shaped by millennia of wave action and wind erosion, leaving jagged shorelines, submerged grottoes, and a seabed that drops to depths exceeding 100 metres within a few hundred metres of shore. Marine biodiversity includes loggerhead turtles, bottlenose dolphins, and more than 850 plant species adapted to salt spray and thin soil. The park's administrative centre sits in Murter, but most kornati boat tour from sibenik departures launch from Šibenik's harbour at Butina 2, a quay built in the 1960s to serve the expanding fishing fleet and repurposed for excursion operators in the 1990s.
Excursion itineraries typically include anchorage at Telašćica Nature Park on Dugi Otok, where a saltwater lake separated from the open sea by a 20-metre-wide limestone barrier maintains temperatures two degrees warmer than surrounding waters. Another frequent stop is the Blue Lagoon near Veli Rat, where white sand reflects sunlight through three to four metres of water, producing a luminous cyan hue visible from cliffs above. Archaeological sites on Kornat include the Byzantine Tureta fortress and the 6th-century Church of Our Lady of Tarac, both constructed from local limestone without mortar. Kornati boat tour from sibenik tickets grant access to these cultural landmarks alongside swimming and snorkelling zones, and park fees — charged per vessel and scaled by length and season — fund conservation patrols and mooring infrastructure. The archipelago remains uninhabited year-round except for a handful of seasonal konobas serving grilled fish and lamb to visiting crews.
9 hr
