The Beauty and Legends of Plitvice Lakes in Croatia

The Plitvice Lakes are part of a National Park that is well-known for natural beauty and harmony of shapes and colors… The region is called the Devil’s Garden on some maps.

16 cascading lakes that create over 90 waterfalls… The lakes are famous for the minerals and sunlight causing changing colors of the water – bright green, deep blue faded grey… They are all gradually lined up and separated by natural barriers formed over the last few thousand years. These barriers have been formed by travertine forming plants, algae and mosses – a very sensitive biodynamic system… and very prone to destruction due to natural changes and human actions. It has been declared by UNESCO as the World’s natural inheritance.

I will not go into verbal raptures over the sublime beauty of this place since whatever I say will not be sufficient to fully describe this – you must check it out for yourself…

Again, such beauty cannot go without legends… Here are some…

The Legend of the Black Queen

The legend of the Black Queen, ‘Prošnja’, talks of a major drought in the region when the inhabitants called upon the magic queen to help them, to which she responded by creating the Plitvice lakes, Prošćansko jezero being the first and largest one.

The Legend of the Gavanovo Treasure

The Lower Lakes in Plitvice are inside a canyon with an accessible boardwalk between Gavanovac and Kaluđerovac lakes. From the boardwalk, one can see lots of fish swimming around in the ultra clear water. Gavanovac Lake takes its name from the Gavanovo treasure, which is allegedly still hiding somewhere in the lake.

The Legend of the Wise Monk

The humid Šupljara Cave has a constant temperature of about 10.5°C, which creates unique conditions, that are perfect for specially adapted cave creatures like pseudoscorpions, crickets, and millipedes.

According to the legend, the monk either lived in the Šupljara or Golubnjača Cave amidst the creatures that lived there… People apparently used to come to the Plitvice lakes and visit the monk to ask for advice. For more details on how to get there, https://beyonder.travel/tour/croatia/.