Lonjsko Polje – Nature Park

I presume that You’ve heard, or already have been in Croatia. And I bet, when You hear the word Croatia, You think of silver beaches gently touching bluish ends of the sea, whispering the sweetest song of the summer.
But many of us don’t know that Croatia has diverse and intriguing rural tourism offer, scattered all over the country. Many rural tourism households can give comfortable and accessible accommodation, accompanied with rich gastronomy experiences around the house tables. And many of them are yet to be discovered. They are mainly in inland, in vicinity of some greater tourist destination, such as is a National Park or a Nature Park.


This is a story about one such destination – Croatian Nature Park Lonjsko polje.

It a place spreading on 50650 hectares which makes it one of the largest, as well as it is one of the most jeopardized moors of the world. Nature Park is distanced just about 70 kilometers from the main city Zagreb and is merged by few cities; Sisak, Kutina, Nova Gradiška and a river Sava. Intersected by hers three left runoffs, Lonjsko polje is awash almost a hundred days in a year.
Yet, it is a home to a great number of animal and plant species, as well as people who have inherited traditional ways of life in accordance with the nature.
The area of the Park is a home to a 239 breeds of birds, many of which are jeopardized, so the Park is considered one of the Important Bird Areas – IBA, according to the standards of European Union.

People living in the area of Nature Park are still mainly dealing with agriculture and, nowadays, with tourism. Agriculture, though, is not of greater size, so the animals of the Park do not have to fear of pesticides or the machinery for big fields processing. They usually practice open type of animal keeping, so the visitor of the Park should not be surprised or terrified if runs to a free animal such as a horse or a pig. Although they seem unconstrained and wild, they are harmless and know where their home is and who is actually taking care of them.
Another example of people living in accordance with the nature is village Čigoć, the administrative center of the Park with modern multimedia info center in it. Almost every house in Čigoć has a nest of a stork on its roof. Storks are coming back every spring somewhere in the middle of the March and leaving their nests by the end of August. They travel a long way from South of Africa to come back to the same nest each year. In 45 nests there is about 200 storks and in 70 something houses live 120 people, so the truth is that in Čigoć lives more storks than people. The nests are heavy around 500 kilos each, and pretty hard for one roof to carry, but people of Čigoć are proud to welcome their guests year after year, preparing numerous festivities in their honor. Those parties have more and more visitors from year to year; many of them come by special excursion train lines which drive only on particular days such as The Day of Storks. The area is suitable for walking, tracking, biking and exploring the traditional ways of living and food preparing. Rural households are offering comfortable and pretty lodging along with dishes prepared with homegrown products in the manner their fathers and grandfathers did it. Those households are the leaders of rural tourism in Croatia. Cities surrounding the Park offer more urban ways of fun, and since they are only few kilometers away, You can find all the amusement You need in short notice.

With the misty beauty of the moor, vivid ecosystem, festivities and races such as cycling through the Lonjsko field,  where everyone can participate, and the kindness of local people who are always ready to tell You a story with the glass of homemade brandy, You will have a holidays to remember. The only thing left for You to do is to check the working hours of the Nature Park Lonjsko polje, book an apartment and hit the road carrying good mood and charged camera along with You.