This is the fifth time the Donauinseln blog starts its poll for the Danubian Island of the year. You can vote for the three nominated islands between 13th October and 31th December 2015.
The aim of this poll is to focus attention on the mostly unknown islands of the Danube. Most of you probably visited the Seychelle Islands before any Danubian Island. As we stated this is the fifth poll, and we hope we have started a tradition and more-and-more people will learn about these islands across the Globe.
The winners so far (you might noticed this is a Hungary-based blog):
2013. Kompkötő Island, Vác
2014. Helemba Island, Esztergom
2015. Kismarosi Island, Kismaros
2016. Szalki Island, Dunaújváros
This year our readers have selected two islands in the qualifying rounds. Through our choice, the Babakai-rock we expect a David and Goliath struggle between the largest Danubian Island, the Slovakian Žitný ostrov/Csallóköz. We start the introduction in alphabetical order, with the island we thought worthy enough to participate in the poll.
Babacai-rock, Coronini, Romania
The Babacai rock is not only the smallest among the three nominees, but the smallest of all Danubian Islands. It is located at the entrance of the Iron Gates gorge, near Coronini, Romania, facing the Serbian Golubac castle. There are only a few other places along the Danube which captures the human imagination so much. The locals, the soldiers passing by and the travellers also poetized this piece of rock with griping tales and legends. Most of the legends have been lost, but some of them are still with us. The purpose of the nomination was a recent article by the blog on the correction of its height on wikipedia.
Žitný ostrov/Csallóköz, Szlovákia
The largest inland island of Europe is also known as the Golden Garden of the Danube. It has an area of 1886 square kilometers and contains 150 settlements out of which Komárno is the largest at the confluence of the Váh/Vág river. The Žitný ostrov is located in Southern Slovakia, but exept for a minor western part it has a majority of Hungarian population. A future enviroment protection cooperation between Hungary and Slovakia to create a joint national park in the region can be a good purpose of the nomination.
Prímás Island, Esztergom
It is quite hard to catch the essence of the Prímás Island on a photograph. The northern side of the island, under the castle is urbanized with parks, bridges, recreational areas, and a concrete-torso of a hotel, while the other side towards Tát is a flood plain wilderness with unaccessible riverine forests. A famous feature of this 2.7 km long island is the reconstructed Maria Valeria bridge to Párkány/Stúrovo. Originally it was two islands, named after the archbishops of Esztergom. The Prímás Island is a floodplain often flooded by the Danube.
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