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Scuba diving at Francesca da Rimini in Kornati Islands
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Francesca da Rimini

GREAT
Kornati IslandsBoat
About This Site
The Francesca da Rimini is the signature deep-wreck dive of the Murter-Kornati fleet and one of the best-preserved wrecks in the whole Adriatic. A 42 m Italian-built armed cargo ship, seized by the German Navy and used to run weapons and ammunition, she was torpedoed by British aircraft on 22 March 1944 while anchored off Kaprije island with engine trouble, and sank in the deep channel on the southeastern edge of the Kornati diving area, just outside the national park proper. She now rests almost upright on a sandy bottom, leaning slightly to port: the tip of her one standing mast reaches up to about 28 m, the deck begins near 40 m and the hull lies to roughly 52 m. The stern still carries its anti-aircraft gun, and scattered ammunition boxes and mines litter the wreck, which is draped in sponges and soft corals and circled by fish. A demanding, atmospheric deep dive for experienced wreck divers only.

Difficulty

Advanced

Max Depth

52m

Type

Boat

Typical Visibility

15m

Conditions Summary

Best time today

1PM - 7PM

GREAT

Best day in forecast

Today

GREAT

2026-07-11

Community-reported visibility

n/a

Warnings for today

None

The wreck lies in the open Murter-Kornati channel off the northwestern tip of Kaprije, which sits immediately to the south and southeast and blocks that whole sector — importantly shielding the site from Jugo/Scirocco, the SE wind that has the longest fetch and builds the biggest Adriatic seas. The exposed window is the open channel to the N-NW-W, where the Maestral (NW) afternoon breeze and any northwesterly chop come straight in, and the NE-facing side has a moderate fetch across the channel toward the distant mainland for the gusty Bura. The outer Kornati islands to the SW give partial shelter from that quarter. Being a deep wreck, the site feels surface weather mainly as channel current and as boat-handling/entry difficulty rather than swell on the wreck itself.

NNEESESSWWNW
Protected
Partially Exposed
Exposed
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