Rastoke waterfalls

Slunjčica or Slušnica is a short karst river and the left tributary of the Korana river. It is a most beautiful river showing abundance and magnificence of the nature in its flow making the karst rivers of Croatia a unique natural phenomenon of global importance. From its source deep in the lake-like well at the bottom of the low basin beneath the Slušnica village, with its flow it pierces a deep canyon covered in mixed oak and hornbeam forest then expanding widely and suddenly causing stronger ventilation of the water leading to a more intense sedimentation of the tufa deposits ending with a view before your eyes. It is water splendour with 23 waterfalls over which Slunjčica flows into the Korana and above Rastoke, hovering above it on water abundant in stories and legends.

HRVOJE’S WATERFALL – In a spring night of 1914, during the time of strong melting of snow remaining from the winter, the people of Rastoke were awakened by a strong sound which they thought was an earthquake. Actually, the nature somehow destroyed overnight something it had been creating for years, once again showing its unforeseeable temper. Huge travertine boulders created a landslide, which had an impact on the movement and appearance of Hrvoje’s Waterfall and Vilina kosa (Fairy’s hair) and the water level at the Korana riverbed. Hrvoje’s Waterfall then dropped out from its earlier place, lost its recognisable fan pattern view, and two huge broken travertine barriers in front of it continued to halt the flow of the Korana until today. These two forever-separated boulders symbolically tell a story on the creation of the name of the waterfall. The moving story about the love of two people who were not destined to be together realised itself in a legend, the last leap of Hrvoje, a jumper unhappily in love, into the depth of the water just like into an abyss of feelings leading to the desired love.

VILINA KOSA (FAIRY’S HAIR) – The last waterfall through which Slunjčica dives into Korana reminds of a shiny, thick, untangled hair that in the Slavic mythology decorated the fairies whose home was on the banks of the river that the old Slavs respected and presented sacrifices to. These mythical beings of magic abilities drank water only from pure sources beside which they would comb their long hair while seducing men with their singing.

BUK (WATERFALL) – This thick and veil-like waterfall is the biggest waterfall in Rastoke. The Rastoke buk would be even bigger and more remarkable had there not been a collapse of huge travertine barriers in 1914 that elevated the flow of the Korana river, thus reducing its height. Its very name brings to mind the noise created by the falling water. Buk is almost a synonym for the word ‘waterfall’, in particular in karst and Dalmatian regions of Croatia.

PRVI SLAP (FIRST WATERFALL) – Only a brief stay near the waterfall, nowadays flowing beneath the tourist facility, a former mill, just like in the past the noisy water flew beneath the Mlinica bedrooms, is an ideal opportunity to check the old Rastoke ‘truth’ that you sleep the best beneath the waterfall and the calming noise created by water.