Netretić is a small community on a hill in Pokuplje, between the Kupa and Dobra rivers, and between the historical roads Jozefina and Lujzijana. The place is also known as Croatia’s ‘second entrance’, because of the roads that lead towards the Adriatic Sea, to Slovenia and also inland. You’ll best imagine the carriages that once passed through Netretić if you sit on the edge of the old Lujzijana road leading to Senj, and touch the inscriptions carved into the milestones.
If you start from Vukova Gorica, you will first be welcome by three connected villages: the so called Upper, Middle and Lower Prilišće. Here you can check if Kupa is still flowing downstream, and if you don’t have a sense of humor, just pay respects to the old parish and the 500 years old St. Leonard chapel. Continue your way through Ladešići, take a swim in the river, and wave to the Slovenes who live on the other side of the river. They are good neighbors. Now you are in the centre of Netretić and probably wondering which road to take from here. But you can’t go wrong, every road lead somewhere.
You can visit the estate and manor house at Mali Modruš Potok. Maybe one day you’ll decide to spend your golden years there, at the estate’s nursing home. Try to find out how Vinski vrh got its name and whether Goli vrh (goli means naked) is really naked. You haven’t visited Piščetke yet? Why not do it now? You’ve been to Hawaii but not to Piščetke? Why? You could freeze a bit in Mrzljaki (mrzlo means freezing cold) and wait for the night to fall in Mračin (mrak means darkness). Finish your trip at Završje. And don’t worry, all the roads will take you somewhere.
Finally, visit Novigrad on the Dobra river. This village really lies on the Dobra itself. The old stone bridge under whose arches the crystal-clear river water flows will clear your mind. Towards the end of the afternoon, when the sun begins to set, the elongated shadows of the old Novigrad castle will play the game of thrones, turning the shadows into the Frankopan dukes, whose ghosts still live in the old fort.
This is neither the Istrian Novigrad, nor the Dalmatian Novigrad, this is Novigrad on the Dobra river, with its old castle above the old bridge and its history reflected in the river’s surface.
