Plitvice Lakes - a cascade of karst lakes on the Korana River, in the middle part of Croatia, on the border with Bosnia. Plitvice Lakes Park is one of the few places on the planet where new waterfalls appear every year. A unique work of nature.
largest national park Croatia is located in the northwest of the Dinaric Highlands, in eastern Lika. Indicated on the maps of the XVII century. The Devil's Garden, this lake district is now a real Paradise with a peaceful atmosphere and landscapes, whose total area is 29.5 thousand hectares, of which over 13 thousand hectares are occupied by virgin forests, interspersed with fields, water meadows and several villages. The main attraction of the park, main task which is the protection of a unique landscape, natural vegetation and geological formations, is a cascade of 16 picturesque karst lakes in the upper reaches of the Korana River, interconnected by 92 waterfalls.
A diadem of sixteen lakes shines in a high mountain valley surrounded by dense forest. Each lake flows into the next, forming foamy, rumbling waterfalls.
Over thousands of years of existence, the flows of these lakes have dissolved the limestone rock and filled the valley.
The stairway lakes, the steps of which form barriers of limestone tuff, are rightfully considered a real treasure of Croatia.
The highest and second largest Proshchansky lake with a depth of over 37 m lies at an altitude of 636 m above sea level, and the lowest Novakovitsa-Brod at around 503 m amaze tourists with its grandeur and majesty. The beginning of the lake chain is given by two small rivers - Crna and Bela. On the slopes of the wooded mountains, they merge into the Matitsa River and form the first waterfall.
Every year new waterfalls are born in Plitvice. Scientists have found that this is due to calcephiles, Cretaceous plants.
The mountains in Plitvice are composed mainly of limestone, so the waters of rivers and lakes are rich in dissolved lime. Calciphiles extract calcium oxide from water and, dying, form solid deposits. Branches and leaves that have fallen into the water become petrified after a year.
Limestone dams grow several centimeters a year. Over time, they block the river. Water breaks through porous, fragile chalk dams, and waterfalls arise.
Nestled in the surroundings of picturesque mountain slopes covered with dense beech and spruce forests, which are home to martens, squirrels, bears, forest cats, wolves, Plitvice Lakes amaze with the purity and transparency of their emerald waters, teeming with various fish, including trout.
Tourists will also get an indelible impression from the contemplation of the Plitvica waterfall with its streams and cascades in the town of Sastavci, which means "the confluence of the waters" and the large lake Kozjak.
Tourist routes, laid on bridges and wooden decks right above the lakes and small waterfalls, fascinate with their unpredictability and beauty. The program of excursions in the Plitvice region, which became a national park in 1949 and was included in the list in 1979 world heritage UNESCO, includes a "cruise" on a boat on the water surface of the lake, which in one of the films plays the "role" of primeval Indian territories.
However, the lakes are not all the sights of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, an important component of which are the mysterious caves in the amount of 36 caves, the most famous of which are Golubnyacha and Mracna, where you can see sinter-architectural decorations, as well as get acquainted with the specific cave fauna of insects, crustaceans and bats.
The Public Group for the Protection of the Plitvice Lakes has existed since late nineteenth Art. Its members took care of the preservation of this unique natural monument.
On the territory of the park it is forbidden to have picnics, make fires, you can not come with dogs and swim in the lakes. All pleasure boats are powered by electric traction, so the waters of the lake are protected from the release of gasoline. The lakes themselves are not cleaned, they are not cleaned fallen trees striving to preserve the natural balance of nature.
The water in the lakes changes color from grayish brown to blue-green and turquoise. At the bottom through clear water fallen leaves and trunks of mighty trees are visible. Through the largest lake Kozjak, whose area is 82 hectares, and the depth is over 45 meters, tourists are transported by ferry.
The lakes are surrounded by mountains covered with spruce and beech forests. In ancient times, the locals called the dense thickets the devil's garden.
Croats were very reluctant to visit, cut wood and hunt around the Chernaya River, as the place was considered enchanted. There are in the national park brown bears, and one of mountain ranges even called Medvedzhak.
According to legend, Plitvica will exist as long as at least one bear remains alive. In addition to bears, martens, badgers, squirrels, forest cats and wild boars are found in the forests.
Birds feel at ease in the park: woodpeckers, thrushes, jays, nuthatches, hawks, white-tailed eagles.
Nature, untouched by man, attracts migratory geese, mallards, bean goose. BUT transparent lakes rich in excellent trout.
The park is famous for its caves, there are 36 in total. Most of caves is concentrated in the eastern part of Plitvice. Golubnyatsa Cave, 165 meters long, is decorated with stalactites. Within the territory of national park there is protected area, to which access is denied to everyone except rangers.
In Croatia, we traveled on our own, slowly moving from place to place. One of the attractions that we definitely wanted to visit was the Plitvice Lakes. They are located in the center of the country, quite far from the resort coast. I filmed the surroundings through glass, which they did not have time to wash off from any flying muck that hit it and stuck tightly. I put this garbage only to show you a little road scenery.
The lakes are located in Northern Dalmatia, and this is quite far away, for example, from Western Istria and Dubrovnik, the road to Plitvice Lakes will take at least 5 hours one way. However, thousands of travel agencies and travel agencies, both in Croatia and in other countries, sell excursions from them to the Plitvice Lakes.
Travel agents advise to allocate about 8 hours for a walk in the park, that is, to go through the longest route laid in the park, route K. This time will be enough to form your own idea of \u200b\u200bthe reserve, but it should be noted that in this situation you will have to stay in Plitvice for the night. There are three hotels in the vicinity that offer rooms at very serious prices, by Croatian standards, from 70 EUR per night. It will be cheaper to stay overnight in an apartment.
Here we stopped and walked around the neighborhood. This place is located near the town of Slun. This city, according to legend, was founded by the Croatian king Zvonimir.
Slunj was first mentioned as a feudal fortification in the 12th century. In Slun we visit the ruins of an old Francophone fortress built in the 15th century together with a Franciscan monastery during the war with the Turkish kingdom.
In the 16th century, the city was destroyed by the Turkish army and turned into an outpost of the Military Frontier. At the end of the 17th century, this place began to look like Slunj looks now. The village of Rastoke, where we stayed, is part of the town of Slunya.
This is an amazing place. The village itself is located at the confluence of the Koran and Slunitsa rivers, which forms big number waterfalls. Here, houses, many of which were once water mills, stand right on the water. The noise is incredible. And how the locals manage to sleep here at night is not clear.
This area is often referred to as the "Small Plitvice Lakes" due to its resemblance to a national park.
People have long settled in these places, according to some sources, the first houses appeared in the 17th century, but the most active period construction fell on the XIX-XX century. The village is located on main road, connecting southern and northern Croatia, and thanks to this, trade has never been a problem here. Unfortunately, where there is a person, there are often conflicts: in the 1990s, the war reached Rastoke. The village was completely destroyed and subsequently reconstructed
Because apart from beautiful scenery and there are no more houses here, then I photographed everything that fell into the lens.
Plitvice lakes- a national park in Croatia, located in the central part of the country, in Lick-Senj (90.7%) and Karlovac counties (9.3%). The waters of the Korana River, flowing through the limestone, over the course of thousands of years, have inflicted barriers of travertine, forming natural dams, which in turn have created a series of picturesque lakes, waterfalls and caves.
The name "Plitvice Lakes" was first recorded by Dominik Vukasovich, a priest from Otočac, in 1777.
On April 8, 1949, Plitvice Lakes received the status of a national park, and since 1979, the Plitvice Lakes National Park has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage Register.
Until 1958, the park was inaccessible to tourists; only clearings were laid in it. In 1958, Josip Movchan, the director of the park, began the construction of footpaths, and today, in addition to a wide network of decks, there are routes for diesel and environmentally friendly electric road trains, ferries and electric pleasure boats. It is strictly forbidden to swim in the lakes of the park, and in the park as a whole - to have picnics, make fires, walk dogs without a leash. Such a strict order is due to the preservation of natural balance, which for many years has been carefully guarded by local ecologists.
In 1979, the Plitvice Lakes were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
In the spring of 1991, the territory of the park became the site of events called Plitvice Bloody Easter - the first armed clash of the war in Croatia, which led to casualties. During the Yugoslav wars, Plitvice Lakes became the scene of battles more than once. To date, the park itself has been completely cleared of mines, and the tourist infrastructure has been restored and is being intensively developed, but mines are still sometimes found in the vicinity of the park.
The territory of the Plitvice Lakes National Park is 29,482 hectares (19,479 hectares according to UNESCO), includes 16 large and several smaller cascading karst lakes, 140 waterfalls, 20 caves and a unique beech and coniferous forest preserved from ancient times and has the ability to self-repair. Bears, wolves, many species live on its territory. rare birds and other animals.
The total difference between the level of the upper and lower lakes is 133 meters. The uppermost lake of the cascade is fed by two small rivers called Crna and Biela ("Black" and "White"). Plitvice Lakes is one of the few places on our planet where new waterfalls appear every year, which is due to the limestone origin of the local mountains. Leaves and branches from nearby trees that have fallen into the water are quickly covered with calcephils (the so-called "chalk plants"), which, when dying, turn to stone and form solid deposits that block rivers. Water, gradually washing away such "dams", forms new waterfalls.
The park is located in a mountainous area high point- Mount Mala Kapela (1280 m).
The lakes of the park are divided into two groups: Upper and Lower. total area lakes - 217 ha. They are fed by five rivers: Korana, Crna, Bijela, Plitvica and Riecica. There are about 30 waterfalls; due to the erosion of the rock and the formation of new sediments, lakes and waterfalls gradually change their configuration. Most lakes are named after the people who drowned in them. In 2008, it was still allowed to swim in Lake Kozjak, but a large number of drowned people led to total ban for bathing.
The biggest upper lakes :
Proshchansko Lake, Proshce, 68 ha, depth 37 m, length 2.5 km;
Cyginovac, 7.5 ha;
Roundwood, 4.1 ha;
Batinovac, 1.5 ha;
Vir, 0.6 ha;
Veliki Jovinovac, or Big Lake, 2 ha;
Mali Jovinovac, or Small Lake, 2 ha;
Galovac, 12.5 ha;
Milino lake;
Gradinsko lake, 8.1 ha;
Veliki Burget, 0.6 ha;
Kozyak, 81.5 ha, depth 46 m, length over 3 km;
The largest lower lakes:
Milanovac, 3.2 ha;
Gavanovac, 0.7 ha;
Kaludjerovac, 2.1 ha;
Novakovic Ford, 0.4 ha.
The main waterfalls on the Upper Lakes are Batinovachki, Galovachki, Kozyachki; on the Lower - Milanovachki, Milka Tarnin, Great Cascade. The most beautiful and well-known is the Sastavtsi waterfall, overthrowing the water of the Korana and Plitvica rivers from a height of 72 meters.
The park has two entrances and is connected by two routes - long and short. You can park on either side, follow the selected route and return back by bus or train, or vice versa, go and return to the car.
The national park strikes, first of all, with a riot of colors and shades. The lakes themselves, which are located in steps, demonstrate all conceivable shades of blue, blue and turquoise. The foliage of trees has all sorts of shades of green. Having got to the observation platform above the valley of the Koran River for the first time, not a single person could resist admiring this colors that nature has created. Going down to the lakes, you can see how the shade of the water changes. But the most surprising thing is to find that near the shore the water has a serious depth, although this depth is not felt at all by the eye, the water is so clean and transparent.
We walk along these wooden paths. The water strikes with purity and all shades of blue and green.
In order not to fool around with changing lenses, I took two cameras and simultaneously shot everything I saw, and when I dumped everything into the computer, there were so many photos and everything was so similar that it was simply impossible to remember what and where was taken. The only thing I did was partially separate the photos of the waterfalls from the photos of the lakes.
Attracting tourists to the Plitvice Lakes began in 1983. Specialists have developed a development program focused on attracting European tourists to these beautiful places countries. Within the framework of this program, steamboats and boats for water excursions were purchased, trails for tourists were laid, recreation areas were equipped, the first hotel was built, and advertising was placed in the press. different countries. This approach turned out to be correct, interest in the lakes flared up, the park was visited even by an Austrian imperial family led by Emperor Franz I and Empress Augusta Caroline.
In 1991, Plitvice Lakes experienced one of the most tragic events in its history - the national park became the site of repeated armed clashes during the Yugoslav war. One of these clashes is called the Bloody Easter, it became one of the tragic pages modern history Croatia. There is nothing special to write about the lakes, I will tell you about what happened in this territory.
And so, what is the Yugoslav war and, in particular, the war in Croatia. Don’t ask anyone, no one really knows, but all thanks to the way these events were covered in our press, at that time we had enough of our own problems. The war in Croatia lasted from March 1991 to November 1995, it was a military conflict on the territory of the former Socialist Republic of Croatia, caused by the secession of Croatia from Yugoslavia. After Croatia declared independence, the Serb population of Croatia tried to create their own state on its territory in order not to secede from Yugoslavia . This was regarded by Croatia as an attempt to include the territories of Croatia into Serbia.
Initially, the war was fought between Yugoslav People's Army forces, Croatian Serbs and Croatian policemen. The leadership of Yugoslavia, with the help of the federal army, tried to keep Croatia within the country. During the collapse of the country, a self-proclaimed state of Serbs, the Republic of Serbian Krajina, was created on the territory of Croatia. Then the struggle began between the Croatian army and the army of the Krajina Serbs.
In 1992, a ceasefire was signed and Croatia was recognized as sovereign state and UN peacekeeping troops were brought in, as a result of which the conflict took on a sluggish, focal character.
In 1995, the Croatian army carried out two major offensive operations, as a result of which a significant part of the territory of the Republic of Serbian Krajina came under Croatian control. The conflict was accompanied by mutual ethnic cleansing of the Serbian and Croatian populations.
As a result of the war, Croatia achieved independence and maintained its territorial integrity, but during the fighting, many cities and villages were badly damaged or completely destroyed. Damage national economy Croatia as a result of this conflict is estimated at about $37 billion, and total number more than 20,000 people died during this war.
With the beginning of the conflict, problems began for the inhabitants, in 1991-1992 the Croats were expelled from the territories controlled by the Serbs, and the Serbs were expelled from the territories controlled by the Croats. By 1993, 251,000 Serbs had been expelled from the territories under Zagreb's control alone. The second major flow of Serbian refugees, about 230,000 people, was recorded in 1995 after Operation Storm. Many of them settled in European countries After the end of the war, only 115,000 Serb refugees returned to Croatia.
In Croatia, the term " Patriotic War", in Serbia, this conflict is most often called the" War in Croatia "or" War in Krajina ". In Russia, this conflict was combined with Bosnian war and used the faceless term "Yugoslav crisis".
AT this moment relations between Serbia and Croatia are generally of a partnership nature, but they regularly file lawsuits in international courts against each other.
In general, the conflict between Serbs and Croats is a very bloody and difficult story, not without the "wise leadership" of the USSR. More than 20 years have passed and this story has repeated itself, only in different scenery.
And this is a monument to the first Croatian victim of the war - Josip Jovic, who died in clashes on the Plitvice Lakes, I found this photo.
What happened here...
On March 29, Croatian police suddenly met with a serious rebuff from the Serbian territorial defense forces, which were located in the park.
Therefore, on the night of March 31, it was necessary to urgently convene a meeting of the Presidium of the Federal Government of Yugoslavia and discuss the situation on the Plitvice Lakes. Discussed and the Yugoslav People's Army was ordered to intervene to create a buffer zone between the two sides, and thus put an end to the fighting.
On March 31, Easter Sunday, the Croatian police entered the national park to drive out the Serbs. But Serb units ambushed a bus carrying Croatian policemen on the road north of Korenice, resulting in a firefight. During this clash, two people, one Croat and one Serbian policeman, were killed, 20 people were injured, and 29 Serb militias and policemen were captured by Croatian forces. Among the prisoners was, in particular, Goran Hadzic, who later became the President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
Then on April 2, the command of the Yugoslav People's Army ordered special units Croatian police leave the national park, which they did.
They fought, what they achieved besides the fact that they laid people down is not clear.
This is how things happened here.
The park is located at an altitude of 400-1200 meters above sea level, so the air here is clean, fresh, transparent and saturated with the aroma of virgin forest. There are many routes of different lengths in the park: the shortest is 2 hours, and the longest of them is designed for a 7-8-hour walk, that is, it requires good physical shape. Some of the routes can be traveled in a tourist electric train. It is impossible to get lost on the route, at every turn of every path there is a sign or a navigation poster.
In total, on the territory of the protected park you can see 16 very beautiful lakes, 140 waterfalls, the real beauty of which cannot be conveyed even by the most best photo, more than two dozen caves, beech and coniferous forest.
The park is a unique self-healing ecosystem. Every year, old trees, dying, sink to the bottom of the lakes, turn into white fine-grained silt.
Every year new waterfalls are born here that fill the lakes. the purest water. Until now, scientists are arguing about the nature of the origin of these lakes, they have not come to a consensus.
Unfortunately for all tourists, swimming in the lakes is prohibited here, but this has its advantages, for many years the lakes have remained unsurpassed in purity, brightness and beauty - despite the fact that many thousands of tourists come to their shores every day. In addition, you can’t put up tents here, kindle fires, fish, tear plants, the administration is doing everything to preserve this natural beauty for the next generations. But you can take as many photos as you like.
Well, that's about all there is to tell and show. It’s good that we didn’t go a long route, there were quite enough impressions here. The beautiful nature here is beyond doubt, but you start to get tired of some monotony.
About lakes | How to get there | Routes on the Plitvice Lakes | All about Croatia
The Plitvice Lakes are located in the central part of Croatia, which allows them to be visited by tourists vacationing in Northern Dalmatia, Istria and Central Dalmatia. Although the distance from the popular resorts of these regions to the beautiful oasis is quite large (150-300 km), the Plitvice Lakes are still on horseback. A whole complex of lakes with magnificent waterfalls and lush vegetation formed the Plitvice Lakes National Park. This place looks like a scene from a movie fairyland where the elves live, so don't miss the chance to see them with your own eyes when you are on holiday in Croatia.In this post, I will tell and give useful links on how to get to the national park, how much it costs, whether there are excursions and, of course, I will post many, many photos.
The Plitvice Lakes National Park is surrounded by forests and mountains, which used to be called the "devil's forests". locals they were afraid of these places, tried not to hunt there, not to cut down trees. And who would have thought that 16 beautiful lakes are formed in the alpine valley, and even with magnificent waterfalls? Unreal blue water with green shades, rough vegetation and noisy waterfalls look so hard to believe that all this was created by nature, all this is real, without 3D graphics and special effects.
Plitvice Lakes National Park is the largest and most popular in Croatia, it is even listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cascades of lakes form two large groups: Upper Lakes and Lower Lakes. The mountains in this part of Croatia consist mainly of limestone, so a large amount of this element is dissolved in the mountain river and lakes. By the way, amazing bright color water in the Plitvice Lakes is precisely because of the limestone. In addition, there are many calcephiles, Cretaceous plants that naturally form dense calcareous deposits. It is not for nothing that branches, sticks and plants that have fallen into the water are not removed on the territory of the Plitvice Lakes, this is prohibited. After all, thanks to a natural process, they petrify and form growths of several centimeters per year.
And as soon as this outgrowth becomes a decent barrier on the path of a mountain river, the power of water makes small holes in the porous rock, and a waterfall is obtained. In the park great amount waterfalls of different heights and power, no one even counts them, because almost every year nature forms a new one.
The Plitvice Lakes National Park is spread out in steps on a hill. The highest lake (Proshchansky Lake) is located at an altitude of more than 600 meters above sea level, and the lowest (Novakovitsa-Brod) is 133 meters below sea level. The largest lake in the park is called Kozjak. It will take about two hours to get around it on foot (which is why, in the routes along the Plitvice Lakes this lake cross by boat).
The park of Plitvice Lakes begins from small mountain rivers - Crna and Bela, which merge into one river Matica and form the first waterfall.
In addition to lakes in the park, there are many mysterious caves, the most famous of which are Golubnyacha and Mratsna. During the Croatian War of Independence, there were fighting. The army of both sides used the caves of the Plitvice Lakes for shelter, many mines were hidden in the park. Fortunately, the mines did not damage such a natural wonder, but the sappers had to work hard before opening the reserve to visitors. They say that people still find mines in the surrounding forests, so from tourist routes I do not advise you to decline.
Surprisingly, brown bears live on the territory of the Plitvice Lakes Nature Reserve. This animal is held in high esteem here, because the legend says that the Plitvice Lakes will exist as long as at least one brown bear is alive. Scientists are engaged in the population of bears, there are zones on the territory of the reserve in which tourists are not allowed to enter.
There are strict rules for visiting Plitvice Lakes. Here you can’t make fires and have picnics, you can’t walk with dogs without a leash, you can’t throw anything into the water and deliver branches from it, etc. you can not swim, walk outside the paved bridges and paths. Lakes are not cleaned, fallen branches are not removed for the reason described above. And even a panoramic train and a boat moves on an electric engine so as not to pollute the environment.
