NATIONAL PARK - RISNJAK (C)

The Croatian Post has also issued the commemorative First Day Cover and a commemorative album. Motif: Mali Risnjak and Veliki Risnjak with the Schlosser mountain lodge, the lynx and autochthonous plants No more than 15 kilometres in a straight line to the northwest of the town of Rijeka we will find the mountain massif of Risnjak – the finest and most interesting part of Gorski Kotar. It represents a border area but also a link between the Alps on the west and the Dinaric mountain system on the east. It could be understood as a sort of «Croatian gates». Though the absolute height of Risnjak is not particularly great (1,528 m), observed from the sea it presents a strong impression. Owing to the special efforts of the phytocoenologist Ivan Horvat it was proclaimed a National Park in 1953, and presently the Risnjak protected park area covers 3 sq. km. Apart from the top rocky area of Veliki Risnjak, Mali Risnjak and Snježnik with Guslica, visitors will find other interesting parts like the deep sink-hole Viljske Stijene, the area of Smrekovac and Lazac, Bijele Stijene (White Rocks) and V.Bukovac, the quiet valley of the river Leska and the magnificent spring and canyon of the river Kupa. The greatest part of the park’s protected areas are the immense coniferous and deciduous forests of Gorski Kotar, only smaller parts belong to the rocky peak areas, without particularly expressed deep-cut waterways and mountain turf-covered clearings. Owing to the adequate forestry management in the past, the forest fund has been extremely well preserved and shows great wealth and variety of plant species and numerous plant communities. The area of the National Park has for more than a hundred years been subject to various scientific researches, on the most part undertaken by Croatian scientists, so it could be said that, according to the level of researching the animate and inanimate nature, it belongs among the best investigated parts of Croatia. On the one side the proximity of the sea, on the other the mountainous background, both have caused a forceful clashing of maritime and continental climatic impacts, all of which has a significant influence on the park’s animate world. In the overwhelmingly mountainous climate with frequent clashes of air currents, with an average annual precipitation of around 3,000 mm, the area of the National Park can be counted among the ones with the highest level of humidity in Croatia. The geological structure of Risnjak is made up of resistant limestone and dolomite rocks originating from the Jurassic period, while in the lower regions there are also silicate rocks to be found. Owing to this structure, most of the park area is a typical karst relief with a range of characteristic karst morphology. These ecologic factors have had a great influence, both in the past and the present, upon the maintaining of the exceptionally abundant and varied vegetation, with some thirty plant communities having been investigated so far. Round ten of these communities belong to forest communities, with many species, relics that at one time spread over significantly larger areas, and also those, like the endemic species, usually confined to a rather small area. This was exactly the reason this part of Croatia was proclaimed National Park. The far away geological past, as well as the diluvial thawing have left their stamp on the vegetation. Through these «gates» many plant species kept moving from the west towards the east and vice versa. Some eastern Illyrian species, like the large yellow ox-eye, have their western border of dispersion in the Risnjak area; the rare species of the hairy alpenrose, the finest decoration of Risnjak, has its eastern border of dispersion on the north-western Dinaric mountain range. Going up from the lowest altitudes to the highest mountain regions, almost like regular levels in altitude patterns, complete series of plant communities keep replacing each other. The most significant plant community in the whole park area are beech and fir communities, and on the highest parts, along with the abundance of floral communities of the mountain meadows, we find the well developed mugho pine that completes the belt of the forest vegetation. There is also the particularly interesting vegetation reaching to some 200-meter deep sink-holes where, due to the temperature inversions and severe frost, only specific vegetation and flora persevere. The fauna of the Risnjak region is both abundant and diverse. The most famous among the big game is the bear, lynx, wild boar and others. Other species of the animal world have not been researched so far. The relatively easy approach and accommodation at the mountain lodge situated on the Schlosser meadow, in the mountain lodge beneath Snježnik or the accommodation premises in Crni Lug, numerous trekking paths along the attractive parts of the Leska river valley, Horvat’s and other paths, the climb up the highest parts of Risnjak and Snježnik with the large grass-covered areas and a wealth of mountain flora, as well as the unique excursion starting from Razlog along the river bed of the Krašićevica to the spring of the river Kupa – all this will make the stay in the National Park Risnjak meaningful and will imprint wonderful and unforgettable memories on visitors.