SOURCE OF THE BUNA

The site of the Buna spring (Vrelo Bune) is beautiful: waterfalls, a footbridge, old mills, the Blagaj tekké and the Green Cave from which pure, cold, tumbling water emerges at the foot of the steep 200 m high cliff of Orlovača hill. When the current is not too strong, it is possible to enter the first part of the Green Cave (Zelena Pećina), 10 m deep, by dinghy. This cave was used as a shelter by the Neolithic people. It owes its name to the aquatic vegetation reflected on the walls. The second part of the cave is dark and dangerous: the spring gushes with force from the depths of the earth. In reality, it is not a "spring", but an exsurgence. The waters of the Buna come from an underground network in the karstic massif of the Velež mountain. It is one of the strongest karst exsurgences in Europe with an estimated flow of 43,000 liters per second. This network has been explored since 1996 by French divers. During different campaigns, they went up to 400 m length at depths ranging between 65 and 90 m, with strong currents and lack of visibility. It is in these conditions that a French diver died here in 2008. Much less frightening at the surface, the Buna then draws a series of beautiful meanders over 9 km through Blagaj and up to the village of Buna where it joins the Neretva in a very surprising way at the "Buna channels".