Strunjan Landscape Park (Krajinski park Strunjan), nestled in the Gulf of Trieste, stands as a unique and conserved natural gem, revealing millennia-old seascapes.
As with all Slovenian regional parks, Strunjan Park embodies a distinctive cultural landscape, its uniqueness amplified by its coastal setting. The Strunjan Peninsula, adorned with scattered houses across vast expanses of arable land, maintains the character of a typical Istrian settlement, preserving its original form. The favorable maritime climate and flysch soil provide optimal conditions utilized by locals who have fashioned terraces for cultivating early cultural plants.
The abundant natural resources along the coastline enabled the construction of salt pans with dikes, channels, and shallow pools in Strunjan Bay. During the Republic of Venice era, the remarkably clear and white salt was a valuable commodity, a tradition that continues today. Beyond producing salt, the sea around the salt pans serves as a habitat for rare plants and animals adapted to the saline-rich soil.
A distinctive feature of the Park is Stjuža, the sole Slovenian sea lagoon. The Strunjan Cliff, the highest in the Adriatic, crafted from steep flysch rock, adds to the allure. This stretch represents the only untouched natural area along the 130 km coastline of the Trieste Gulf, from Grado in Italy to Savudrija in Croatia. The sheer cliff and pebbled coast at its base are shaped by the relentless forces of the sea, wind, and rain, etching new forms into the rock layers.
