Category: Did you know?

Brothers Mirko and Stjepan Seljan from Karlovac were the leading Croats researchers of unfamiliar places. In the period from 1899 until 1913 when Mirko died under mysterious circumstances in Peru, they had been leading a scientific expedition in Ethiopia (in particular around the areas of Lakes Rudolf and Stefania) and South America (Brazil, Uruguay, Peru …). Stephen then settled down in the Brazilian town of Ouro Preto, where he died in 1936. The Seljans and conducted ​​a number of geomorphologic, geological, mineralogical, hydrological, climatological, and ethnographic research.

The fortified Town of Ozalj sitting on a cliff above the Kupa River is one of the most picturesque places in Croatia. Archaeological findings testify of the settlement long before 1244, when the name of the town was first recorded. In the mid-17th century, it was the unofficial capital of Croatia; the seat of ban Peter Zrinski, and it was the Ozalj literary-linguistic centre. Today, there is a Heritage Museum with priceless archaeological, cultural, historical, sacred and ethnographic collections. As a whole building complex, the city is marked as a single complex by the old Romanesque tower (Babonić Tower), bulwark with semi-towers, a Gothic-Renaissance palace, which was built in the 16th century by Ban Nikola Zrinski (one of the largest Croatian heroes, killed in battle at Siget in 1566) and it also has spacious baroque wings.

The greatest pre-Romanic city on Croatian territory, the Iapodian Metulum capital (on Viničica Hill near Josipdol) was captured by the Romans led by Octavian (later the first Roman Emperor Augustus) 35 years before Christ. According to the Roman historian Appian, the Iapodians committed mass suicide to avoid enslavement, just as in the year 73 the Jewish defenders of Masada, the fortress near the Dead Sea had done.

The entrance sections of a cave system, Đula’s abyss – Medvedica, known also as the caves Đula, Medvedica and Badanj are located in the middle of town. Ogulin along with Pazin, is the only city in Croatia and among the few in the world that is literally built over cave caverns and passages. The longest cave passage extends below Ogulin’s main Bernardin Frankopan Street.