Krka – Croatian National park

More than eight thousands years ago, this part of the Earth was rapidly changing. A product of that big change can be seen every day; it is just that we are not aware of the ages of the scenes surrounding us. Just a small peaces of the Earth managed somehow to stay unaltered through all the millenniums, and National park Krka is such a piece of paradise even today. There a some evidences of human activities though, and that is what makes this area even more interesting.



Krka is a 75 kilometers long karsts river, running through the rough cascading terrain, passing over seven beautiful waterfalls and drains into the Adriatic sea near the Medieval town Šibenik.

If You are heading to the South of Croatia, driving on the highway, it is best for You to get down of the highway at Skradin exit near Šibenik, to reach this piece of paradise. The area of 109 square kilometers accompanying Krka on its path from spring near Knin to its estuary, is today one of the seven Croatian National parks, visited by numerous tourists every year from all over the globe. The seven waterfalls of river Krka are Bilišića buk, Manojlovac, Brljan, Rošnjak, Miljacka and the most visited Skradinski buk and Roški slap. They all are famous of the travertine barriers passing through, made by a perfect bond of chemical, physical and living forces of water.

There is more than just natural beauty that makes this area so incredible.

• the flow of the Krka river is decorated by twenty something archeological sites from different time in past
• a few old Mediaeval fortresses are scattered around the area with the most beautiful and largest Ključice from 14^th century
• numerous watermills are there to testify about ancient and now abandoned traditions of effective economy
• hydroelectric power plant from the beginning of the past century which started to produce electricity just two days after Tesla’s power plant on Niagara falls. Thus is why Šibenik is the first town in Europe with street-light.
• a few interesting sacral objects, from which the most beautiful and intriguing is an island on Krka, Visovac, which became a synonym for monastery and church from 15^th century on it. They can be reached by boat. The tours are well organized in summer season, whilst out of peak months, the tour can be arranged with the local carters. Monastery keeps imposing archeological, ethnographic and book collections.

The National park Krka has well designed tourist infrastructure; restaurants with good traditional food, educational multimedia contents and ethno village on Skradin buk which was rewarded by European Association for Flowers and Landscape in the year 2006. among 27000 competitors, towns and villages of Europe.

Maybe the best way to experience the spirits of this place is to find an accommodation in some private house in villages surrounding the park like Drniš and Knin. Or you can rent an apartment in Šibenik which is just 10 kilometers away, or Vodice, Tribunj, Pirovac, Skradin, Raslina, Zaton, Bilice which are all small towns few kilometers away from National park Krka. That will allow You to enjoy the scents of Adriatic coast and relax in mild Mediterranean climate enjoying warm summer days, clean refreshing sea or sunny springs and autumns.

You can swim at Krka’s waterfalls, too; abandon yourself to a millions of little drops dandling your skin and making You shiver of pleasure. The only thing You’ll have to worry about is to follow the simple rules about the sites where you can swim and walk alone. National park Krka is the home to over 800 plant and animal species and four animals, protected in whole Europe, live here. Those are greater horseshoe bat, otter, wolf and wild cat, and I believe You wouldn’t like to meet them face to face alone.

So, check the working hours, make all the reservations, download the maps and hit the road. And have a splendid vacation!