Kozjak

How it formed

The Plitvice Lakes exist because of tufa, or travertine: limestone that the water deposits as barriers across its course. The barriers slow and hold the water, and they keep growing in height, so the lakes are arranged in cascades. Kozjak is itself the result of that process: a few centuries ago two lakes lay where it is now, and the older barriers have since been drowned by the rising water, among them a high underwater barrier that must once have been a large waterfall.

History

The name Plitvice was first written down in 1777 and refers to the shallow basins the water formed. The national park was founded in 1949 and the lakes were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1979. Travellers have been accommodated here since 1861, and in 1888 the lakes and their surroundings were first laid out for visitors, for the visit of Crown Princess Stéphanie of Belgium.

The Black Queen

A legend tells how villagers suffering from drought prayed to a magic queen, who brought water, and that is how the lakes were formed. The story is told about Prošćansko jezero, the largest of the upper lakes.

Silver Lake on screen

Between 1962 and 1968 several Westerns based on the novels of Karl May were filmed at the lakes. In Treasure of Silver Lake, which was partly filmed in the park, the lake Kaluđerovac stood in for Silver Lake. In March 1991 the park was also the scene of the first deadly armed clash of the Croatian War of Independence, known as the "Plitvice Bloody Easter".

Nature

The colour of the water changes constantly with the minerals and organisms in it and with the angle of the sunlight. Brown trout are native to the lakes, and a form of them that lives in lakes rather than in streams is found mainly in Kozjak.

Wildlife of the park

The park is home to brown bears, grey wolves, lynx and wildcats, and to the capercaillie. About 50 mammal species and roughly 157 bird species have been recorded, 70 of them breeding, and about 20 species of bats. The lady's-slipper orchid grows here. Most of the large animals are shy and keep away from the busy paths.