Rastoke

Rastoke sits where the Slunjcica river drops into the Korana, and the drop is not a single fall but a spread of them, over travertine terraces that the water itself builds. Houses were put up directly on the barriers to use the power, so mill wheels turn under floors and streams run between garden walls. The scale is small - you can walk the whole thing in half an hour - but the arrangement is unusual: it is a working village layout rather than a park, with several properties opened to visitors individually and each charging its own entry. Most people see it as a break on the drive to Plitvice, which is exactly what it is best for.

History

The name Rastoke refers both to the branching of rivers - the Slunjčica here splits into many streams that fall over cascades into the Korana - and to the porous travertine, rastok or sedra, that the water lays down as it flows. The town of Slunj grew around the place, and its mills were the base of its economy as the centre of Kordun. For a long time the falls were little known, in a border region that in the Middle Ages was a no man's land between Europe and the Ottoman Empire; Slunj became a stronghold of the Military Frontier around the Frankopan fortress, which was wrecked in 1578 and rebuilt. After the Treaty of Sistova in 1791 the area was resettled and prospered, and from 1809 to 1813 it was under French rule, when the governor general of the Illyrian Provinces, Marshal Marmont, had a house in Slunj that still stands. Electric mills ended the importance of the water mills, and in 1969 Rastoke was protected as a national monument (Wikipedia, Rastoke).

What's there

• The mill houses - stone and timber buildings standing on the travertine with water running underneath them.
• The main cascade - the widest fall where the Slunjcica drops into the Korana below the village.
• The wheels and channels - working and restored mill machinery, some still turning.
• The bridge viewpoint - a free vantage point from the road bridge above the confluence.

When to go

Spring for the fullest water, autumn for colour and space. The falls shrink noticeably in a dry August. Coach groups arrive mid morning and mid afternoon on the Plitvice run, so early or late gives a very different experience. Some properties close outside the main season and in bad weather.

Practical notes

It is genuinely small, and if you have already seen Plitvice or Krka it can feel like a miniature version of the same thing. Several separate owners charge separate entry fees for overlapping views, which irritates people. Parking is tight and paid. The village sits beside a busy main road and the traffic noise carries.

Nearby

Plitvice Lakes is about half an hour south, and Barac's caves are just off the same road.

Key facts