Description

Limski kanal, also known as Lim Bay or the Lim Fjord, is a marine reserve on the west coast of Istria, between Rovinj and Vrsar, protected since 1964 as a significant landscape. The bay is about 10 km long and on average 600 metres wide, with steep slopes rising up to 150 metres on both sides. It is part of the 35 km long Lim Valley, which reaches almost to Pazin in the heart of Istria, and stretches across the areas of Rovinj, Kanfanar, Vrsar and Sveti Lovreč.

Although everyone calls it a fjord, it was not carved by ice. Lim is a submerged karst canyon, the old valley of the Pazinčica river, which once flowed into the sea here and today disappears underground into the Pazin Cave. When the sea rose, it flooded the riverbed and created the bay you see today. The name comes from the Latin limes, meaning border, as a boundary ran here in Roman times.

The fjord nickname comes from the cinema. In the 1950s, Lim stood in for a Norwegian fjord in the Hollywood film The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, and a Viking village was built at the head of the bay for the shoot.

Lim is also a rare natural contrast: deciduous forest covers the southern slopes, while evergreen vegetation grows on the northern ones. Underwater springs make the sea less salty and rich in plankton, which is why the bay is known for farming fish, oysters and mussels. A boat trip along the channel is the best way to see it.

High on the slope, 120 metres above the sea, lies Romuald’s Cave. According to legend, the Benedictine monk St. Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese order, lived here as a hermit in the 11th century. The entrance is only half a metre high, but the main hall rises to six metres, and the cave is home to one of the last colonies of protected greater mouse-eared bats in Europe. Traces of Palaeolithic hunters from around 20,000 years ago were also found here, including the tooth of a Homo sapiens child.

Along the northern edge of the bay lies the Kontija Forest, a special forest reserve of about 65 hectares, also protected since 1964. It is known for its remarkably well-preserved old trees, with hornbeams over 140 years old alongside downy oak, manna ash and Turkey oak. Walking and cycling trails lead through the forest to the prehistoric hillfort of Mukaba and its viewpoint, and to the Kontija Science and Education Centre. Designed as a solar-powered “house in nature”, it is an info point for visitors and runs nature and science programmes for schools and groups.

Along the banks you can still see old quarries, where the white Istrian limestone known as biancone was cut for centuries.