Land of eternal soldiers

Slunj and Rastoke geologically belong to the shallow karst area and rest on a huge travertine deposit of dissolved limestone in Croatian also called ‘bigar’ or ‘travertine’, and locally also tufa. Through such a soil base passes the Slunjčica river carrying with it the dissolved limestone rocks and with its flow impacting the tufa plateau becoming bigger, while at the bend of the river there is the mediaeval town of Slunj. The water fortress was built in order to defend against the Tatars back in the mid-13^th century serving for a long time as a somewhat efficient defence against the Ottoman conquerors. Within the kernel of the burg having a shape of a polygonal seven-angled structure, there was a palace, possibly also with auxiliary rooms. At the end of the 16^th century, the town was additionally fortified from the eastern side with an external defence wall ring with semi-towers and protective moat.