Croatia · Lika-Karlovac

Ciginovac

Directions

Ciginovac, also called Ciganovac or Cigino jezero, is the second-highest of the Upper Lakes of Plitvice, just below Prošćansko jezero. Its name comes from a local legend of a Roma man who drowned here while fishing.

How it formed

The Plitvice lakes are held back by barriers of tufa, porous rock laid down by mosses and algae as the water flows over them, so the lakes and the waterfalls between them keep growing and changing. The twelve Upper Lakes lie on impermeable dolomite, which gives them wider, gentler shores than the Lower Lakes in their limestone canyon. Ciginovac receives its water from Prošćansko jezero through a channel dug across the Labudovac plateau and over the natural tufa barrier of Labudovac; at its far end a barrier and a waterfall drop into Okrugljak. Collapsed tufa blocks lie in its south-eastern part.

Nature

The steep Stubica hill rises on the northern shore, and thick forests cover the slopes of Prošćanski vrh and Muratov rt to the west. The water is dark green in summer and mirrors the changing colours of the leaves in spring and autumn.

Visit

Swimming

No reliable information

Tips

Ciginovac lies on the walks of the Upper Lakes, and the Tomićev pogled viewpoint on Stubica looks down on it. From the peak of Tupi Medveđak, reached by trail no. 1 from the Hladovina car park at Entrance 2, it is one of six lakes in view.

The lakes lie in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia’s first, proclaimed in 1949 and on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979. Swimming is strictly prohibited, as are feeding animals, picking plants and leaving the marked paths and boardwalks. Spring and autumn, when the forests change colour, are the loveliest and quieter seasons.