ENG:
In the area of the whole ex-Yugoslavia naturism, or as it is frequently called, “nudism”, had a special place. It was always tolerated on the beaches, even in the 1930s in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. People have simply marked off nudist beaches, where they could lose all their clothes without restraint.
It was a little different, though, in other places. Naturist centers were mentioned in writings already in the middle of the 18th century, mostly being called with different names, like "air baths" or "sunning areas" and were mostly meant for a small circle of similar minded people. In these times, naked bathing, even among a group of friends or family, meant breaching public order and peace regulations in almost every European country.
After World War II, people in love with naked bathing across Europe started to come together and started to organize international events, frequently also in the form of sports events. The biggest one was named "World Congress" which was taking place in September 1951 in North Kent Club England with an international conference of naturist organizations in the Cora Hotel, London, where representatives from seven countries came together. The second meeting took place in August 1952 in Thielle, Switzerland, where clubs from 16 countries were present and they came to a conclusion, that a set of ground rules will have to be met. Three persons were appointed at the meeting to take care of coordination and writing down the ground rules: Albert LeCocq from France, Dorothy Thornton from England and Erhard Wachtler from Germany. The results became evident on the third meeting on August 22 and 23, 1953 in Centre Helio Marin-Montalivet in France, where an association was founded under the name International Naturist Federation.
Since Yugoslavia had no particular rules that would require naturists to prove naturist club membership with identification, the path for opening naturist destinations was easier and because of that, many regarded it as an ideal destination for naturist tourism.
Rudolf Halbig
The view of old Vrsar in the late 1950s
In the late 1950s, a swimming instructor from München, Rudolf Halbig, was travelling the Adriatic coastline and couldn't stop admiring the beauty of this part of the Mediterranean. He was looking for an appropriate location for vacation of naturists from the Federal Republic of Germany. This is how he discovered Koversada, a lonely and uninhabited small island next to Vrsar in Istria. (You can also find a cache there - The Top of the Island). His tourist agency "Miramare" was founded in the 1950s and was the first in the world, specializing in naturist trips. When visiting Vrsar, he found the company called "LIM", ran by Mate Restović, a many year tourism employee and director of the Tourist society from Vrsar. They made a successful deal and the companies started to work together in 1960. The first guests were brought to Vrsar by Halbig's company in 1961, where they took the guests by boat to the island. This was the time Koversada was opened as the first open-type naturist camp in the world, not requiring a naturist club identification card to enter.
The excellent coastline of the island offered great bathing and its inaccessibility by road, far from eyes of curious onlookers, made the guests love the location. The first investment in Koversada was made in 1962, where a small kiosk was built, offering basic bathing supplies, and the water was transported with a water truck.
1962 - First kiosk with supplies for bathing guests
1962 - First transportation to the island
One year later a small shop was built, offering food and beverages. In 1964, 400 camping places were built on the island, covering the area of 5.5 hectares, thus enabling guests to also spend the night. The island soon became tight, so in 1965, the naturist paradise was extended to mainland and soon also the road from Vrsar to Koversada was built. In the same year also a bigger motor boat was purchased, which still presented the only connection from the island to Vrsar.
1965 - New, bigger boat for transportation to the island
1965 - A view to the island
In 1966, the island was connected to the water supply, that enabled building of a restaurant with kitchen and terrace and the first toilet facilities were built, that meant that staying on the island now was much more convenient. In the same year the first Koversada Festival was held and the first Miss Koversada was selected.
Koversada now had big publicity in local and foreign press, which brought in numerous new partners from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France and Vrsar became a well-known naturist getaway. The camp built for new toilet facilities in 1967 and the capacity of the camp was extended to 2000 guests per day, which meant that Koversada became the first and biggest naturist camp in Croatia. In the same year, a large pier and a small port for docking of small boats were constructed, which enabled further development. In 1968 the first village of bungalows was built and a central restaurant. Already in 1969, the capacity of the camp was 4000 guests. In 1972, a special event happened for Koversada, it held the 13. International INF-FNI congress, the first time the congress was held in a socialist country.
1971 - Vilma Lazarević (standing on the right), the person, responsible for coordinating visits in Vrsar
1972 - INF Congress, the first INF congress held in socialist countries
1972 - INF Congress, the guests came from all over Europe
In 1977 a new breakthrough was made in Koversada - a bridge was constructed that connected the island to mainland, therefore the daily routine for many - morning recreation by swimming from mainland to the island for breakfast in the restaurant on the island - was no longer necessary. In the following years, the camp was extended to 120 hectares, since also the territory of the camp Petalon was included until 1986.
By walking to the location of the cache you can imagine all the historic pictures and enjoy the feeling of true naturism, which still remains here and in similar paradises on Earth, even with the quick tempo of our today's lives trying hard to cut in.
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The cache has been set up with permission of the land owner - the campsite management. All pictures are from the archives of the camp, their usage for the cache listing has been allowed and are © Maistra d.d.
SLO:
Na področju celotne bivše Jugoslavije je imel naturizem, oziroma pogosteje imenovan »nudizem«, vedno posebno mesto. Ob obali so ga od nekdaj tolerirali, tudi v tridesetih letih 20. stoletja v Kraljevini Jugoslaviji. Ljudje so preprosto označili nudistične plaže, kjer so brez zadržkov lahko odvrgli obleke.
Malce drugače je bilo drugod po svetu. Naturistični centri so sicer nastajali že precej prej, zapisi jih odkrivajo že sredi osemnajstega stoletja, a večinoma so zanje uporabljali drugačna imena, kot so “zračna kopališča” ali “področja za sončenje”, ki so bila namenjena predvsem majhnemu krogu somišljenikov. V tistih časih je bilo golo kopanje, tudi če je bilo zgolj v krogu prijateljev ali družine namreč označeno kot kršenje javnega reda in miru v skoraj vseh evropskih državah.
Po 2. svetovni vojni so se začele kazati želje po združevanju ljubiteljev golega kopanja po Evropi, zato so organizirali mednarodna srečanja, pogosto tudi kot kot športne dogodke. Največji je bil imenovan »Svetovni kongres«, ki se je odvijal septembra 1951 v North Kent Clubu v Angliji z mednarodno konferenco naturističnih organizacij v Cora Hotelu v Londonu, kjer so bili prisotni predstavniki sedmih držav. Drugo srečanje se je odvijalo avgusta 1952 v kraju Thielle v Švici, kjer so bili prisotni klubi iz 16 držav, kjer so se dogovorili, da bo potrebno postaviti neka osnovna pravila. Na srečanju so določili tri ljudi, ki bodo skrbeli za koordinacijo in zapis osnovnih pravil: Albert LeCocq iz Francije, Dorothy Thornton iz Anglije ter Erhard Wachtler iz Nemčije. Na tretjem srečanju 22. in 23. avgusta 1953 v Centre Helio Marin-Montalivet je tako nastalo združenje pod imenom Mednarodna Federacija Naturistov.
Ker v Jugoslaviji ni bilo posebnih pravil, ki bi zahtevala identifikacijo za naturiste, je bila pot odpiranju naturističnih destinacij lažja. Prav zaradi tega je marsikdo gledal Jugoslavijo kot idealno destinacijo.
Rudolf Halbig
Pogled na stari Vrsar v poznih 1950-ih
V petdesetih letih preteklega stoletja se je učitelj plavanja iz Münchna, Rudolf Halbig, odpravil na pot po Jadranu in se ni mogel načuditi lepotam tega dela Sredozemja. Iskal je primerno mesto za oddih naturistov iz ZR Nemčije. Tako je odkril Koversado, osamljen in nenaseljen otoček poleg Vrsarja v Istri (tudi tukaj lahko najdete geocache - The Top of the Island). Njegova turistična agencija »Miramare« je bila osnovana v 1950ih letih in je bila prva na svetu, ki je bila specializirana za naturistična potovanja. Ob obisku Vrsarja je našel podjetje »LIM«, ki ga je vodil Mate Restović, dolgoletni turistični delavec in direktor Turističnega društva iz Vrsarja. Dogovor je bil uspešen in že v letu 1960 se je začelo sodelovanje med podjetjema. Prve goste je v Vrsar Halbigovo podjetje poslalo leta 1961, kjer so goste s čolnom zapeljali na otok. Takrat se je kamp Koversada odprl kot prvi naturistični kamp odprtega tipa na svetu, ki za vstop ni zahteval izkaznice naturističnega društva.
Otok ima odlično obalo, ki je navdušila goste, hkrati je pa nedosegljivost otoka s ceste in odmaknjenost od oči pomagala, da so ga gostje vzljubili. Prva investicija v Koversadi je bila narejena leta 1962, ko so postavili kiosk, ki je ponujal osnovne potrebščine, vodo pa so dostavljali z vodnim tovornjakom.
1962 - Prvi kiosk s potrebščinami za kopalce
1962 - Prvi način za transport na otok
Leto kasneje so postavili še trgovino, ki je ponudila hrano in pijačo. Leta 1964 pa so na otoku uredili 400 mest za kampiranje na področju 5,5 hektarov, s tem so omogočili bivanje gostom na otoku tudi preko noči. Otok je kmalu postal tesen, zato so že leta 1965 naturistični raj razširili še na kopno, kmalu pa se je tudi začela graditi cesta iz Vrsarja do Koversade. Tega leta so tudi nadgradili način dostopa na otok, saj so kupili nov, večji motorni čoln, ki je bil še vedno edina povezava otoka z Vrsarjem.
1965 - Nov, večji transportni čoln za dostop do otoka
1965 - Pogled na otok
Leta 1966 so na otok speljali vodno napeljavo, zato so lahko na otoku naredili restavracijo s kuhinjo in teraso ter prvi straniščni blok, kar je močno olajšalo bivanje na otoku. Istega leta je bil tudi prvi Festival Koversada in prvi izbor Miss Koversada.
Velika publiciteta Koversade v tujem in domačem tisku je prinesla nove partnerje iz Nemčije, Avstrije, Švice, Italije in Francije in Vrsar je postal dobro poznano naturistično središče. Vodstvo kampa je leta 1967 uspelo zgraditi štiri straniščne bloke in sprejeti 2000 gostov dnevno, kar je takrat pomenilo, da je to postal prvi in največji naturistični kamp na Hrvaškem. V istem letu so zgradili privez za male čolne, s čimer so omogočili nadaljnji razvoj. Leta 1968 so tako izgradili prvo naselje bungalovov in centralno restavracijo. Že v letu 1969 je imel kamp kapaciteto 4000 gostov. Koversada je leta 1972 gostila, prvič na področju socialističnih držav, 13. mednarodni kongres INF-FNI.
1971 - Vilma Lazarević (stoji na desni), oseba, odgovorna za koordinacijo gostov v Vrsarju
1972 - INF kongres, prvič v socialistični državi
1972 - INF kongres z mednarodno udeležbo gostov s cele Evrope
Leta 1977 se je zgodila še ena velika prelomnica za Koversado, saj so otok z mostom povezali s celino, zato ni bila več potrebna dnevna jutranja rekreacija s plavanjem s kopnega na otok za zajtrk v restavraciji na otoku, kar je bil redni ritual mnogih. Kamp se je v naslednjih letih razširil na 120 hektarov, saj se je vključilo tudi področje kampa Petalon, ki je bil v Koversado vključen do leta 1986.
S sprehodom do zaklada si lahko v živo predstavljate vse slike zgodovine in začutite utrip pravega naturizma, ki kljub hitremu tempu današnjega življenja še vedno obstaja v tem in drugih podobnih rajih na zemlji :)
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Zaklad je bil postavljen z dovoljenjem lastnika - managementa kampa. Vse slike so iz arhivov kampa, njihova uporaba za opis tega zaklada je bila dovoljenja in so © Maistra d.d.
