Vrulje Undersea Springs

Why it is worth your time

The vrulje are the least known and most singular phenomenon on Brela's beaches: undersea freshwater springs bursting straight from the sea floor, the remnant of rain that fell high on the Biokovo, sank through limestone and reached the sea underground. A bather recognises them without instruction: in the middle of warm August sea a cold belt suddenly appears that feels like a current from another season, and on the surface a light shimmer is seen as if the water were boiling. Hence the name, vrulja from the verb to boil. Most of them lie along the shore below Punta Rata and Berulia, and a diving mask shows the places where the shingle on the bottom trembles with the spring.

For the visitor three things are interesting: the cold, which in summer comes as refreshment, the explanation that the same water feeds the springs of the Cetina, and the reminder that these shores live off the mountain behind them. Children most enjoy hunting the cold belts under supervision; parents should know that the vrulje are the reason the sea at Brela never overheats in summer.