Špilja Pijavica nekad i danas
The Pijavica Cave in the Past and Now

Summary/Abstract: About 2 kilometres from Senj, along the seaside, is a little cave named Pijavica. It can be seen that the cave has significantly changed its size, form and function. Stjepan Vuksan was the first who described the cave in 1907 as a gorge. There seawater mixes with freshwater of the cave and the water comes out as two undersea sources. He noticed that the cave has an undersea and underground entrance to the hall the size of 18m x 15m. Josip Poljak confirmed the source of the freshwater in 1914. He measured the size of the cave hall as 26m x 15m and the depth of the brackish water as 3.4m. He found a strong source of freshwater in the cave but he did not find where the sea disappeared underground the cave. Vlado Božić entered into the cave for the first time in 1985 through the cave entrance, using a rope and he found the cave hall, which was already filled with some material from the surface and it had the size 20m x 10m. An undersea entrance was visible in the hall with a specific blue effect during afternoon as the undersea entrance is facing southwest towards sized 30m x 3m. The potholer Branko Jalžić organised a few diving actions. The divers entered from the seaside through a channel into the cave hall from the seaside. Anđelko Novosel, a member of the team, noticed in 1993 that someone was throwing building material through the ground entrance of the cave, which could cause the backfilling of the cave. He organised an action to protect the cave but without any success. At the beginning of April 1994 someone threw a large quantity of building waste, which completely closed the ground entrance of the cave. The undersea entrance to the cave was also closed. This destroyed a cave with a specific blue effect like the Blue Cave on the island of Biševo.

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