Emerald green,aqua blue, grey and azure- Plitvice Lakes Natural Park

A Croatian holiday must include a visit to the gorgeous park of Plitvice, the largest park of this country and one of the oldest in Europe.

 

Founded in 1949, the national park was includes in the UNESCO  world heritage in 1979. Modern road connections were established in the sixties in order to make this touristic objective, situated in the mountainous karst of central Croatia, more accessible to tourists  worldwide.

 

Plitvice means in the Croatian language shallow.  Nature forms shallow basins which have been filled with water. The 16 surface lakes are all interconnected and they follow the water flow.

There is a difference of altitude in the park, the highest point being 1280 m , while the lowest, only 380 m.

The fauna and flora of the park are of great importance. You can find here the brown bear, as well as other species of wolves, lizards , bats, deer, boars,eagles, owls, wild cats , butterflies, capercaillies,snakes and  almost 157 types of birds. And of course, the crystalline waters are full of fish.

As far as the fauna is concerned, the 300 square kilometers of the park hide forests of fir trees, spruce and beech. There are 55 different species of orchids.

 

You need 6 hours on foot to visit the 74 000 acres of this protected area.

More than 1 million tourists visit this natural park every year.

The colour of the waters change constantly  due to the minerals and organisms  that live there. Also, the angle of the sunlight gives differnt hues to these impressive lakes.

Hodoș Bodrog, the oldest monastery with uninterrupted monachal life of Romania

1177 is the year when this monastery ( 15 km away from Arad ) started its life. Legend says a bull ( named Hodoș, which means majestic ) found a magic icon of Virgin Mary while digging in the ground and , as a result,this was the place where the monstery  was built.

 

 

The church, dedicated to Saint Peter (originally a Roman Catholic monastery) was destroyed before 1293. It was rebuilt again in the 14th century from Roman and stone bricks. The interior fresco is made by Nicodim Diaconu.

 

The place was under Ottoman domination between 1556 and 1699.

In the 18th century, this place  was a studying center for priests, as well as a place where the poor children were taught to learn writing and reading.

Nowadays it has several buildings, a summer chapel, a baroque helmet, a new church and other new buildings.

The monastery possesses an interesting art collection, as well.