Nature Park
The Sava river dictates life and stops time
With the changing of seasons, Lonjsko polje changes its face. Therefore, if you have visited this nature park only once, it is definitely not enough because each face of this area tells a different story. In wintertime, when the snow falls, little villages such as Kratečko, Trebež and Krapje become pathways into a magical world and just like the closets in Narnia, lead you into a flake covered forest where each step takes you further away from the reality filled with stress and worry. Animals will be your only companions, maybe a Turopolje pig in search of a fallen acorn or birds that haven't fled to the warm south. Once the snow is melted, Lonjsko polje opens a new page filled with flowers. Springs brings back migratory birds, storks in particular which are the park's trademark. A short ride along a narrow road through Čigoč makes it clear why this place is named "The European stork village". In fact, there isn't a house roof without at least one nest that welcomes these birds, which have become the symbol of eternal love between two partners.
Summer, on the other hand, brings warmer weather and more opportunities to explore the park - by bike, on foot in hiking or tennis shoes, on a small boat, kayak, on a horseback, or maybe through binoculars.
These are some of the ways to discover the secrets of spacious plains and forests of Lonjsko polje. This leaves us with autumn, a season when the elderly recall the way life once was in this area. Reminders of those times are easily found in each step. In the fields where grandmas and grandpas accompanied by Posavina horses pick corn, in small houses with no chimneys, and
in national costumes, each unique in its own way. Several guardians of memories have turned their houses into an ethnological collection of objects which today seem like relicts to us and for previous inhabitants of Lonjsko polje they were everyday objects.
The only constant presence in these four stories is the river Sava which, in a way, rules the area. It has always dictated the way of life for people and animals here, depending on its mood reflected in different water levels and floods that may occur at any time of year. However, not even the Sava is immune to the fairies of the seasons so it always adds something new to the story of Lonjsko polje. After lyrical descriptions, it is time to touch on some of the facts that also tell us about this Nature Park. With the surface of 50, 650 acres Lonjsko polje is the
largest protected wetland not only in Croatia, but in the entire Danube basin, and is among the most endangered wetlands in the world. It is located in the alluvial plain of the river Sava in its central basin, between the towns of Sisak and Stara Gradiška. Although the name might indicate there is only one big filed, there are in fact three - Lonjsko, Mokro and Poganovo polje.
Just as there are three lakes, there are also three entrances into this Nature Park. One is in the village called Čigoč, the second in Krapje, and the third in Repušnica, each offering different experiences. Let's start with Čigoč, a village that in 1994 officially became the first European stork village. What is more, there are more white storks than there are inhabitants here and according to the number of nests, the area has the most numerous population of storks in the whole of Europe. Each of these nests weighs about a hundred kilograms. For instance, the house which is one of the info points of the Park used to be home to a nest as heavy as 900 kilograms! Looking at those small houses it is difficult to believe they can sustain such weight, but the wooden houses of Posavina hide many secrets in their wooden structure. Namely, the houses of Posavina have a very particular type of strucutre, they are made of common oak and are built as Lego cubes. If you take a better look, you will see that the boards, i.e. planks, are marked in numbers. This was done so that they could easily be disassembled and assembled in view of the flooded nature of Lonjsko polje which was constantly under water before the dams were built. The locals would then move their houses to higher altitudes and then return them to their original locations. This can be verified by house numbers because some of the houses have two addresses. Because some of the houses wouldn't be returned to their original locations, they would get a new house number.
The real secret of the durability of these houses is the lack of a chimney. The first houses were built during the Austro-Hungarian Empire when there were taxes on windows and chimneys, so less well-off inhabitants built houses with small windows and no chimneys. The absence of chimneys didn't mean there were no stoves. Villagers would release the smoke coming out of it into the attic where they would dry their meat, cheese and fish. The smoke would also destroy the wormholes on the roof and by doing so condense it making it even stronger for sustaining the nests of several hundred kilograms.
This type of construction is specific to a great number of houses in Posavina, but particularly in Krapje, the only Croatian village of architectural heritage, where the European Heritage Days have traditionally been marked since 1995. This small village is not unique only in Croatia, but in the rest of the world as well, due to its traditional wooden architecture in an environment of flooded plains with houses organized in lines. Although small, these houses could easily provide home for a family of 10. Actually, they had to. A hundred years ago all members of the family slept upstairs, and they dined on the ground floor. They spent very little time in the house, though.
They spent most of their time outdoors, in the fields. The only time they would spend days in these small houses with tiny windows was wintertime. What
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life was like at the time is known to the elderly in Lonjsko polje. In Čigoč there is the third greatest ethnological collection of traditional object in all of Europe, a testimony to the life once lived. There are over 700 objects, among which are forks from the World War I and wooden tools for removing boots without using hands. There is also the "feder vagl" - a horse wagon used only in special occasions such as christenings and weddings, along with other everyday objects like milk pots, small cannons, school wooden pencil cases and wooden weights.
During winter, men used to lift weights to stay in shape. When talking about Lonjsko polje, we must mention the rich fauna. The Park is habitat for over 250 species of birds, 134 of which nest there. Among the most famous ones is of course the stork, followed by the white-tailed eagles, saker falcons, ferruginous ducks, and many others. Two locations inside the Park, Krapje Đol and Rakita were declared reservoirs, Krapje Đol being the first reservoir in Croatia. Not surprisingly, the most
popular activity in Lonjsko polje is birdwatching. Repušnica has a special program dedicated to the corn crake bird - a tireless meadow singer, as the locals call it. Namely, it hides and nests in high grass, and its location can be detected by the gentle swaying of grass blades and a specific sound. Other than birds, Lonjsko polje is an area with the highest concentration of autochthonous breeds in Croatia. Here, you can still find the Croatian Posavac horse, a breed that was believed to have become extinct. There is also the Slavonian-Syrmian cattle breeds characterized by a grey coat and long horns which resemble the Istrian boškarin, as well as the Turopolje pig. They can all be seen on the endless meadows and pastures of the Nature Park, carelessly lying amongst the trees or bathing in the big puddles of water remaining after the overflowing Sava.
Actually, the entire area looks as if it has long been preserved under the glass bell, as if time has stopped. This is best seen in the symbiotic relationship between people, animals and nature
which nowadays is a phenomenon difficult to experience. That is why, apart from the day, one has to spend the night here in the traditional houses inhabited by the locals a hundred years ago. No matter what season you choose to visit Lonjsko polje, it will always welcome you with something fantastic.
| 1. Lonjsko polje Nature Park/ Zoran Jelača | 2. Lonjsko polje Nature Park / Zoran Jelača | 3. Lonjsko polje/ Bojan Haron Markičević | 4. Lonjsko polje/ Zoran Jelača | 5. Lonjsko polje/ Davor Rostuhar | 6. Krapje/ Roman Martin | 7. Lonjsko polje/ Zoran Jelača | 8. Lonjsko polje/ Ivo Biočina | 9. Lonjsko Polje/ Bojan Haron Markičević
Moslavačka gora