Baraćeve špilje

First written material describing the area, including Barac’s caves, can be found in Povjesti kartografije na području Krajine (The History of Cartography in Krajina Region) oby Marsiglia from 1699. During his stay within the area he made the first known topographic mapping of the Croatian -Turkish border in 37 sections and in 1:30 000 scale. First article on the caves dates back to 1874 and was written by I.T. Bunek as a part of Die Wassernoth im Karste. Prof. D. Sc. Mijo Kišpatić paid special attention to paleontological and archeological research on caves and he published it in Viestniku Hrvatskog arheologičkog društva (The Croatian Archeological Society Magazine) in 1885 as well as in his book Slike iz Geologije (Geology in illustrations). D. Sc. Kišpatić wanted to preserve paleontological and archeological finds at the cave entrances so he gave initiative for setting up of a Board for exploration and arrangement of Barac’s caves. Supported by the Municipality of Ogulin, this idea soon became reality. The board was set up on 20 February 1892 and it had 14 members (Ante Biljan, Lazo Odanović, Franjo Marković, Josip Radaković, Pero Radaković, Franjo Brajdić, Vjekoslav Cindrić, Željko Šebalj, Pavao Šebalj...). They initiated closing the cave entrances with railing, setting the trails in order, building of bridges and putting up railings at dangerous spots. The caves were opened for public on 14 August 1892, a day before the Feast of the Assumption. A nobleman Josip Sugh described his trip to Barac’s Caves in a more popular way in Obzor dated 4 August 1898. He described Barac’s caves in an almost fantastic manner and so did Dragutin Hirtz in his books Lika and the Plitvice Lakes from 1900 and The Natural Geography of Croatia from 1905. In his book The Plitvice Lakes and the Surrounding Area from 1910 Prof. Dragutin Franić gave a description of caves mentioning among other things the Third – New Barac’s cave, as Hirtz had already done in his work. In 1913 an estimated paleontologist and speleologist Prof. D Sc. Josip Poljak together with Prof. Koch explored the caves in the vicinity of the Plitvice Lakes. In 1914 he published his work The Caves of the Croatian Karst II (caves in the vicinity of the Plitvice Lakes, Drežnik and Rakovica). The research was carried out as a part of Natural scientific exploration of Croatia and Slavonija for the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of JAZU (Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts) from Zagreb. That was the first time that the plans and photos of Barac’s caves - the Upper and the Lower - were published. According to their description, the caves were in a rather bad condition – broken dripstone formations, a knocked down wall, scattered bones... The last article on the caves before World War II was written by D. Ivan Krajač, a well-known mountaineer and explorer of our caves. In May 1925 he visited Barac’s Caves and described his visit in Hrvatski planinar (Croatian Mountaineer) No. 7 of the same year. It can be clearly seen from his article that he visited the caves accompanied by a local inhabitant of Kršlje who was well acquainted with the caves. He noticed that nobody took care of the caves at that time. According to his words, the caves had been massively visited 30 years before, which was obvious from a great number of coaches standing below the Barac’s hill. Visitors used to come from Plitvice, Rakovica and Senj. Only after World War II the caves were mentioned again in an article by D. Sc. Srećko Božić, an outstanding speleologist and hydrogeologist, in Naše planine (Our Mountains) No. 4 of 1956 (in an article on Mountaineers in Croatia and Speleology), and on the Second Congress of Speleology in Yugoslavia held in Split in 1958, when Božičević published his work Preservation of caves in Croatia and their adjustment to the purposes of tourism. Academician D.Sc. Mirko Malez in the 1960 yearbook of JAZU (Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts) published his work under the title Paleontological Research and Speleological Recognition in 1959. Our speleological ”historian” B.S. eng. Vladimir Božić wrote about Barac’s caves and published an article titled Barac’s Caves then and now in Speleologist from 1983. In 1960 the cavers of the caving group SOPD “Željezničar” from Zagreb, guided by B.S. eng. Ivica Posarić, carried out a research on the caves as a part of systematic exploration of Lika. In 1971 a group of cavers from “Željezničar” took photos of the caves, and during 1972 they explored them in detail and made detailed maps. Apart from the above mentioned groups of visitors, the caves were also visited by several people whose names and purpose remained unknown to the local inhabitants. In 1983 the interest in Barac’s caves as well as in the whole territory of the municipality of Rakovica in terms of speleology was aroused again. Cavers of SOPSD “Velebit” discovered a great cave system Panjakov ponor (abyss) – Varicak’s cave (Muškinja, Kršlje abyss…). They were joined by the cavers of DISKF who worked mainly on Varicak’s cave and on the territory of Mašvina (Volovska jama (chasm), Kojina jama and some other smaller caves in the territory of Mašvina, some springs towards the river Korana – Crno vrelo, Zečevac…), on the territory of Lipovača, the springs and caves in Stara Kršlja, and they dived in Panjkov ponor – Varicak’s cave system (I Main syphon, repeated several times due to lost rope, Green siphon – Crno vrelo (Black spring)). During the same period the team of “Velebit” giuided by B.Sc. Eng. Marijan Čepelak made a thorough speleologic and hydrologic research of a wider area of the municipality of Rakovica. In an article published in Naše planine(Our Mountains) No. 7/8 from 1984 and in The Speleologist No. 30/31 of the same year Marijan Čepelak gave a detailed survey of relations between the caves and hydrography and hydrology of the whole area together with the description of the research carried out. In the article published in Our Mountains he wrote about his visit and exploration of Barac’s caves. He also mentioned that they had made a new topographic map of the Upper and Lower caves and that they had determined their position within the area. . After World War II Barac’s Caves were almost forgotten and rather devastated in terms of tourism, although some signs of their tourist purpose in the past could still be seen. On 31 August 1999 the Municipal Council of the Municipality of Rakovica established the Board for revitalization of Barac’s caves. The following members were appointed: Franjo Franković, B.Sc.econ. Mira Bićanić, B.Sc.eng. Tihomir Kovačević, D.Sc. Mladen Garašić, Dr. Juraj Božičević, D.Sc. Matija Franković, B.Sc.eng. Antonija Dujmović, B.Sc.eng. Nikola Magdić and Ivan Bertović. The Board had one meeting and passed several decisions. The most important decision was that the Municipality of Rakovica was in charge of the complete programme on the revitalization of the caves. In the meantime several major international speleological expeditions have been organized with a great success as they discovered and explored a substantial number of new caves. The first Caving Club of the Republic of Croatia was set up in Nova Kršlja, entrance to the Upper and Lower caves was closed with railing, the surrounding area of the spring Baraćevac was cleaned, a feasibility study on the protection of the caves has been initiated and the activities on opening the caves for tourists visits have been started. The Third – New cave, which had kept its secrets for more than a hundred years, was rediscovered. There is also a new map of all three Barac’s caves. After 112 years, in July 2004, the caves were reopened for visitors.