Natural heritage

THE LIVING TUFA FOUNTAIN

This fountain is a great curiosity even on a global scale. In the 1920’s, when the area of the former cemetery, in front of the church of Our Lady Outside the City, was turned into a park, a piece of tufa was brought from the Skradinski buk waterfall and placed in the centre of the fountain. Since then it has been constantly growing thanks to complex physicochemical and biological processes. Tufa, a rock formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate dissolved in water, was often used as a building material in this region, but today it is strictly protected and it is prohibited to remove tufa from the waterfall. However, despite the prohibition, this natural phenomenon of the Krka National Park lives and grows in the very heart of Šibenik. Apart from being an attraction, tufa is also an indicator of a clean environment, because it can only grow in the strict conditions of unpolluted water. Along with algae and bacteria, aquatic mosses are extremely important for tufa, and the appearance of tufa depends on the moss type.

Over time, the fountain was enriched by new residents – redeared and yellow-bellied pond sliders (lat. Trachemys scripta) and freshwater fish, among which the goldfish (lat. Carassius auratus) prevails. Some of them are former pets that theirowners could no longer keep in aquariums, but they are not allowed to release them into nature since they are invasive species. Hence, the fountain has become an animal shelter.

SIMON’S MULBERRY TREE

The white mulberry tree (lat. Morus alba) is considered to be the oldest tree in the Old Town of Šibenik. It is estimated to be 150 years old and its girth is now over 300 cm. The tree is known as ‘Simon’s Mulberry Tree’. Legend says that Simon the Sailor, a member of the St. Nicholas Fraternity, a fraternity of sailors and shipbuilders, brought its seed all the way from China and sowed it next to the church of St. Nicholas as an act of expiation. Although, according to the legend this mulberry tree was planted in the 17th century, it is actually the only surviving tree of an avenue of mulberry trees from the former Fruit Square that was destroyed in the Allied bombing on December 13th, 1943.

In the past, mulberry trees were favourite trees to provide shade all over Dalmatia where they were planted as avenues of trees in squares and along coastal promenades. Therefore, old mulberry trees like this one are considered heritage trees.

pdf   |   Živa sedrena fontana / The living tufa fountain (644.24 KB)

pdf   |   Šimunova murva / Simons Mulberry Tree (819.65 KB)