National Park Kornati

An isolated and in many ways special archipelago of small islands called the Kornati found its place in the central part of the Adriatic Sea at the confluence of Šibenik’s and Zadar’s islands.

Due to the exquisite beauty of its landscape, interesting geomorphology, great indentedness of its coastline and especially the rich biocenoses of maritime ecosystem, a large part of Kornati was declared a National Park in 1980.

Nowadays, NP "Kornati" occupies a surface area of approximately 220 km2 and includes a total of 89 islands, islets and reefs with about 238 km long coastline. Besides this relatively great number of islands, the land part of the park makes less than ¼ of its total surface area, while the rest is maritime ecosystem.



National Park Krka

The national park is a vast, mainly unchanged area of exceptional and many natural beauties, and it encompasses one or more preserved or slightly altered ecosystems. Its purpose is primarily scientific, cultural, educational and recreational and tourist activities accommodate visiting and sight-seeing.

It was declared national park in 1985 and is the seventh national park in Croatia. It is situated entirely on the territory of Šibenik and Knin County and it covers a surface area of 109 km2 along the Krka River course: two kilometres downstream from Knin to Skradin and lower Čikola River.

Including the flooded part of its mouth, it is 72.5 kilometres long, making Krka the 22nd longest river in Croatia The Krka River springs at the foot of the Dinaric Mountains, 3.5 kilometres northeast of Knin, below 22 meters high Topoljski Slap, Veliki Buk or Krčić Slap, which are noisy cascades in winter but run dry during summer.

The length of its freshwater course is 49 km and that of its brackish course 23.5 km. Significant confluents of the Krka River include Krčić, Kosovčica, Orašnica, Butišnica and Čikola with Vrb. With its seven travertine waterfalls and a total drop of 242 meters, the Krka River is a natural and karstic phenomenon.


Plitvice Lakes

The most prominent and visited among eight national parks in Croatia – the Plitvice Lakes, is the only natural treasure, among cultural treasures, in Croatia included in the World Heritage List (UNESCO) back in 1979, among the first ones in the world.

According to IUCN who defines eight categories of protection for nature reserves, the Plitvice Lakes belong to the second category - national park, marking a protected area governed precisely for the purpose of ecosystem preservation and recreation. The first cartographic records of the Plitvice Lakes can be found in the sketches from as early as the 17th century and they are mentioned in texts from the second half of the 18th century.

The name Plitvice thus first entered books in late 1777. As far back as the 20s of the 19th century, the first organized initiatives were emerging for declaring the Plitvice Lakes a protected area. In the 30s of the 20th century academician Ivo Pevalek was the first to scientifically elaborate on the reasons for protecting the Plitvice Lakes.

Studying moss and algae growth he concluded that the formation and expansion of travertine, which contributed to the creation of geomorphologic forms of the Plitvice Lakes, was the most important an the most sensitive biogenic process that was „the core of the Plitvice Lakes“.

This scientific knowledge and the efforts of academician Ivo Pevalek have lead to a historical day, April 8, 1949 when the Plitvice Lakes were established as the first Croatian national park. Even before, and especially after getting the official protected status, this area has been the subject of many scientific and expert investigations. Thus great knowledge has been collected on the natural treasures of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, which are not "only" travertine-creating waterfalls and the world-known sixteen cascading lakes.


Here we would like to introduce the reader to the abundance of geomorphologic forms, habitats, forests and meadows, flora and fauna, as well as the cultural heritage and finally the tourist offer of the largest and oldest Croatian national park.