Karlovac. Things to do, map and hidden gems

Zvijezda is the historic core of Karlovac and one of the few fully preserved examples of a Renaissance ideal city in Europe. Building began on 13 July 1579 by order of Archduke Charles of Habsburg, after whom the town is named; it was to be a fortress of the Military Frontier against the Ottoman push toward Zagreb and Ljubljana. The plan is a six-pointed star, with bastions at the corners and a regular grid of streets dividing the space within the walls into twenty-four blocks; the shape is not ornament but calculation, because from the bastions cannon covered every part of the wall without blind angles. The ramparts were pulled down in the 19th century and turned into green ditches and tree-lined walks. A tour of Zvijezda takes an hour; the shape is best seen from the air or on a town plan.

The old town of Novigrad on the Dobra stands on a rock above the river Dobra, west of Karlovac, and belongs to the series of fortifications the counts Frankopan raised across this region. It is mentioned from the 13th century, and it took its present form through later additions: a defensive wall with towers surrounds the inner courtyard, and the position above a meander of the river made attack from three sides nearly impossible. Through the centuries it changed owners, and in time it lost its military purpose and decayed. The remains can today be toured from outside, and part has been made safe; around the fortification are riverside paths and places to swim in the Dobra. From Karlovac, Novigrad is a twenty-minute drive to the south-west.

The old town of Dubovac stands on a hill above the Kupa, west of the Karlovac Zvijezda, and is older than Karlovac itself: the fortification is mentioned in the 13th century, and it took its present form in the 16th, when its owners rebuilt it into a Renaissance castle with an inner courtyard and a square tower. Through the centuries it was held by the noble families Frankopan and Zrinski, and after them by Habsburg administration; when the star fortress was built on the plain in 1579, Dubovac lost its military role and became a country residence. Today it holds part of the town museum and a lookout from which all of Karlovac, the course of the Kupa and the surrounding hills are seen. From the centre Dubovac is a half-hour walk uphill, or you come by bus.

Ban Jelacic Square is the main square within Zvijezda and the centre of the regular grid on which the town was conceived in 1579. The square is rectangular and open, and around it stand Baroque and Neoclassical houses built after Karlovac grew from a fortress into a trading town; in the 18th and 19th centuries the route of salt and timber toward Rijeka passed this way, and in the houses around the square were trading and craft premises. On the square is the church of the Holy Trinity with the Franciscan monastery, and in the middle a well. Today the square is pedestrian, with cafes and benches, and in summer events are held on it. The space feels larger than it is, because all the streets of Zvijezda flow toward it; it is covered in a few minutes.

The Church of the Holy Trinity stands on the main square of Zvijezda and is the oldest church in Karlovac: it was raised at the end of the 17th century beside the Franciscan monastery, at the time when the town began to grow from a military fortress into a settlement with civilian life. The facade is Baroque and plain, with two bell towers, and the interior has marble altars, a pulpit and an 18th-century organ. The monastery keeps a library with old editions and an archive that is an important source for the history of the Military Frontier, because the Franciscans kept the registers for the whole area. The church is still a parish church and open around masses and during the day; entry is free. It stands in the very centre of Zvijezda, so a visit combines with a walk through the core.

The music pavilion stands in a park at the edge of Zvijezda and was raised at the end of the 19th century, at the time when towns in the Habsburg Monarchy were getting such round covered stages for Sunday concerts. In Karlovac there was an additional reason: the town was a military seat, and military bands played regularly in the parks, which for the citizens was a free concert and a social event. The pavilion is of cast iron and wood, with a decorative railing and a roof that carries the sound toward the benches in a semicircle. Today concerts of brass orchestras and events are still held in it, mainly in summer. It is seen from outside at any time, and the surrounding park with its avenues arose on the site of the former ramparts.

The Museum of the Homeland War in Turanj is laid out on ground that from 1991 to 1995 was the front line: Turanj, a suburb of Karlovac, lay exactly at the contact of the two sides and was almost completely destroyed. The display is under the open sky, along the road, and consists of armoured vehicles, guns, an aircraft and improvised vehicles used in the war, exhibited on the very ground where they were. Beside them stand boards with explanations and testimonies. Part of the ruins was deliberately left unrestored, as part of the display. The museum belongs to the Karlovac Town Museum, entry is free, and the visit takes half an hour. It lies five kilometres south of the centre, on the old road toward Plitvice.

Klek is a peak above Ogulin, one thousand one hundred and eighty-one metres high, recognisable by the rocky head that from the road looks like a human profile turned toward the sky. It was precisely that shape that made Klek, in folk tradition, the place where witches gather; those tales were recorded in the 19th century and are tied to the whole Ogulin region. Klek is also a mountaineering peak with a tradition: the climb to it was one of the reasons for founding the first Croatian mountaineering society in 1874. A marked path leads to the top from Bjelsko, the climb takes two hours, and the last section crosses rock and calls for care. From the summit you see Gorski kotar, Velika Kapela and, on a clear day, the Kvarner.

The lookout by the old town of Dubovac stands on a hill some seventy metres above the Kupa, and from it the position of Karlovac is best understood. From above you see Zvijezda as a regular shape on the plain, the course of the Kupa skirting it to the north, and on a clear day the slopes of Zumberak to the north and Petrova gora to the south. The town was raised in 1579 precisely on the plain between the rivers, because that way it could control the crossings; from the hill that logic is seen in a single glance. By the lookout is the castle with its courtyard, and around it paths through the woods leading back toward town. The climb from the centre takes half an hour and ends with a steep section up steps; the evening light is best, because the sun sets behind the hills to the west.

The Karlovac Town Museum was founded in 1904 and is housed in the Vraniczany palace, an 18th-century Baroque building within Zvijezda. The collections cover the whole area: archaeological finds from prehistory and the Roman period, weapons and equipment from the time of the Military Frontier, guild objects, furniture and portraits of Karlovac families, and ethnographic material from the Kupa valley and Kordun. A separate section is devoted to the building of Zvijezda and to life in the fortress, which for centuries was the first line of defence toward Ottoman territory. The museum also keeps a collection on the rivers and on rafting, because timber from Gorski kotar was floated down the Kupa toward Sisak. The display is chronological, the visit takes an hour, and the ticket is cheap.

Foginovo bathing place was laid out on the Korana, not far from the centre of Karlovac, and is the oldest town river bathing place still in use. Bathing in rivers has a long tradition in Karlovac: the town lies on four rivers, and the Korana is the clearest of them, because it comes from the karst and carries little silt. The bathing place has grassy terraces, concrete platforms, showers, a diving board and a bar, and in season lifeguards. The water is colder than the sea and in summer comes as a relief; the depth is small by the bank and greater in mid-current, so one watches the flow. Because of water quality Foginovo regularly meets bathing standards. From Zvijezda it is a fifteen-minute walk; the best part of the day is late afternoon.

Zorin dom is the theatre building in Karlovac, opened in 1892, and one of the oldest purpose-built theatre houses in Croatia. It bears the name of the singing society Zora, founded in 1858, which for decades collected funds for the building; at a time when Karlovac was a military and trading town, musical and theatrical societies were the main form of civic life and the way in which the Croatian language was cultivated. The building is Historicist, with a horseshoe-shaped hall, galleries and boxes, and it was restored at the beginning of the 21st century. Today theatre companies from across the country perform in it, and concerts and festivals are held as well. The programme is published by season; tickets are considerably cheaper than in Zagreb.

Karlovcanka is a department store in the centre of Karlovac, raised in the second half of the 20th century, in the period when Croatian towns were getting large retail buildings with several floors and escalators. For Karlovac this was a novelty: until then people shopped in small shops within Zvijezda and at the market. The building is a typical example of the architecture of its time, with a flat facade, wide display windows on the ground floor and a regular grid of floors. Today shops, services and catering work in it. For a visitor it is interesting as a document of a period: such buildings changed the look of town centres as much as the older layers did. It stands in the pedestrian zone, a few minutes from the main square.