Kaluđerovac

Directions

Kaluđerovac is one of the Lower Lakes of Plitvice, in Plitvice Lakes National Park in central Croatia, on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Plitvice Lakes are a chain of tufa-barrier lakes arranged in cascades and joined by waterfalls, and they have been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1979.

How it formed

The four Lower Lakes lie in a canyon cut into permeable limestone, with steep cliffs on both sides, and are held back by barriers of tufa that the water itself builds as it flows. They end at the Sastavci waterfalls, where the Korana river emerges. Kaluđerovac lies in the steepest part of the canyon, below a rock face more than 40 m high: the Velike kaskade, the Great Cascades, bring the water down from Gavanovac, and at its lower end the water spills over a low, reed-grown tufa barrier into Novakovića brod.

History

The lake takes its name from a kaluđer, a hermit monk who, local tradition says, lived in the Šupljara cave in the cliff above the water.

Nature

The lake is rich in fish.

Visit

Swimming

No reliable information

Tips

A boardwalk runs along the tufa barrier at the lower end of the lake, and an upper path along the cliff tops gives views over Kaluđerovac and back towards Gavanovac.

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.