Prološko blato – viewpoint

Croatia is a land of wonders. You set off on a trip to one of them, only to discover another right by the road. That is more or less how it went with this one too. Later we recalled some TV footage of a little island in a lake in the Zagora hinterland, but…

There are two viewpoints about 250 metres apart from one another. Both are right by the road and have a spacious parking area. The view is spectacular, sweeping across Prološko blato all the way to the eastern side of Imotsko polje.

Directly below, Lake Galipovac is visible, along with many other smaller ponds. Within a span of a few kilometres there are 12 geomorphological depressions, three of which are continuously filled with water.

During late autumn, and all the way into spring, the water level of Prološko blato tends to rise and a large area of the field becomes flooded, while in the middle of that watery expanse rises the picturesque islet of Manastir. The island got its name from a Franciscan monastery from the first half of the 17th century, where the Franciscans took shelter from the Turks (probably during the Cretan War). The monastery was abandoned in 1715, and now only its remains are visible.

Of the 12 geomorphological depressions, three are continuously filled with water.

The sight of a string of lakes with a little island in the largest of them is truly fairy-tale-like, and many who see it in photographs cannot connect it with the Imotski region at all. If you are passing through this area, by all means turn off and stop. Every season has its own scenery.