Korana – Heritage

KORANA RIVER, AUTHOR OF THE PLITVICE LAKES

Korana is a typical karst river in central Croatia of a varied and winding flow, sinking from the waterfalls or lightly overflowing across the numerous cascades to disappear under the ground and appear on the surface once again. It emerges in the east of Lika and is considered as the start of Korana is the part of the Plitvice Lakes where the water precipitates down the highest Croatian waterfall, the Great Waterfall (Veliki slap) in Sastavci. With its downstream flow in the direction of Karlovac, it makes the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. From there it flows in the direction of North and near Karlovac it merges with the Kupa river.

Within the Natura 2000 area, on the territory of the Korana river, where its flow belongs to the ‘Slunjčica Protected Landscape’, the stone crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium) is mentioned as the target of protection.

NATURAL HERITAGE OF THE KORANA RIVER

The Korana riverbanks are characterised by a large precipice and hard soil, black earth with little clay where only certain plant communities succeed. Of trees, the hop-hornbeam, manna ash, whitebeam and Hungarian maple dominate. In the bush layer, there are the wayfarer, sumach and dogwood. Because of the mild climate, protection against the wind and sufficient moisture, the terrestrial plants are very lush and the vegetation is rich in species such as snowdrop, primrose, wood bulrush, violet, sowbread, horse-tail, fern and common polypody or ‘zekazula’ as it is called here. Along the above-mentioned species, the area is rich in mushrooms of which some are poisonous.