Zagrab lies near to the Save River whose banks are bordered by the lovely Uskok Hills crowned by the Castle ruins of Samobor. The train crosses the river and approaches, not far from Károlyváros, the spurs of the Chapel Range which belong to the Carst. Leaving the train to continue its route up the rocky valley of Mreznica, we make an excursion in the Mail-Motorbus from Károlyváros to the Plitvica Lakes, a distance of about 100 kilometres.

The drive itself offers little of interest, except the picturesque Waterfall at Sluin, but there however, where the road sinks into the narrow valley between the Little Chapel and the Plitvica Hills, a region of fairylike beauty is suddenly revealed. Between beautiful wooded hills which rise to a height of 1280 meters, is a cluster of 15 large lakes, and numerous small ones situated on terraces; their waters fall from one to the other over successive cascades.

The aspect of these lakes, whose surfaces vary from lightest blue to deepest green, and of the waterfalls, ranging from 3 m. to 50 meters high, connecting the lakes one with another, is a bewitching spectacle. The rushing waterfalls, the foaming cascades, the fjord-like creeks of individual lakes, the largest of which is 3 kilometres long, the lovely scenery of the delightful woods, reflected in the water, form a picture of exceeding beauty. The waters of all these Lakes unite in the wild rocky valley of the Korana, into which the Plitvica falls, from a height of 78 meters. This rocky basin with its terrace-like gradations is of a sublimity which one rarely finds in such comparatively small hills.

Table of contents    Previous    Next

Adapted from Illustrated Description of Hungary and its Capital