Croatia June 2017: Part 3

Out and about today for a trip to the hill town of Groznjan. Once a strategically important fortress town, over the centuries it suffered a decline in both its importance and population. However, in the 1960s its fortune was revived and the depopulation reversed when a group of artists began setting up studies in the abandoned buildings. Today there are many craft shops and galleries distributed throughout the disarming jumble of crooked cobbled lanes and leafy squares. A place for wandering around and just enjoying.

The old town gate.

Narrow lanes and stairs everywhere.

The view over the open countryside to the north of Groznjan, definitely not a touristy area.

A courtyard with the evidence of buildings from previous eras. Look closely and you can make out a few artistic additions.

A rather ornate door to a very narrow house.

It always pays to look down and up when walking around old towns. Look down and you'll see some very nice manhole covers, cast in a bronze like metal and engraved with the coat of arms of the region. Perhaps I ought to send this photograph to Jeremy Corbyn? He likes manhole covers by all accounts.

Look up and you'll see unusual objects such as this mask.

I don't know what this is and none of my field guides seem to be able to pin it down. At first glance, I thought it was a Hummingbird Hawk Moth but it obviously isn't. Looking at its head parts (where are the antennae?), I don't think it's a moth. Something to investigate when I get back home.

Another Common Blue Butterfly. I'll confess that getting good images of  butterflies is not easy.  They seldom seem to alight on anything for longer than a few milliseconds and I've got a camera memory card almost full of useless shots.