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Caves
[Lower Barac's cave] |
[Upper Barac's cave] |
[New Barac's cave] |
General information about the caves in Croatia ''Our beautiful”, as the Croatian citizens popularly call their homeland, is a speleological paradise. There are only a few countries in the world with such a vast territory covered in karst. Over fifty percent of the Croatian territory, even seventy percent if the off shore is included, is made of calcareous rocks. One of their most important characteristics is that they are easily soluble in water. Interference of water and limestone makes a very specific and distinctive relief with a number of karst forms. In Croatia the karst extends from Istria, over the Croatian Littoral, regions of Gorski Kotar, Kordun, Lika and Dalmatia including islands all the way to the Montenegro border. It is the integral part of the Dinaric karst, named after an extremely impressive and exceptional limestone mountain – Dinara Mountain, spreading along the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dinara karst spreads from Soča, along the Adriatic Coast all the way to Albania.  The karst phenomena on the surface are characterized by: karst valleys, sinkholes, clints, lost rivers, debouchures, mountain eyes, estavels… Hydrology is very specific in karst. Rivers and streams make deep beds in limestone and usually disappear underground and then continue flowing. This results in creation of the underground karst forms equally interesting and specific as the forms on the surface. Speleology, a science on natural underground cavities, deals in exploring underground phenomena. In Croatia there are over 8000 caves. Less than half of them have been completely or partially explored. Various scientists have played great roles in the natural underground secrets exploration, mostly geologists, hydrologist, biospeleologists, meteorologists and especially paleontologists and archeologists, as we now know that in the nearer past the caves were used as dwelling places by various kinds of animals, early humans and newage people. Evidence has been found in deposits located at the entrance to the caves and even deeper in the cave passages.
 There is a number of well known caves in Croatia, rich in cave ornaments and endemic species of cave fauna (such as olm, also known as human fish or white salamander), as well as important paleontological and archeological finds. However, there is a small number of show caves. Well- known show caves are the Upper and the Lower Cerovačka Cave near Gračac in Lika. Furthermore, there is a cave Vrelo in the vicinity of Fužine and Lokvarka near Lokve in Gorski Kotar, Vrlovka near Ozalj, Grgas cave in the vicinity of Samobor, Veternica on the slopes of Zagrebačka Gora, Vrnjača near Split, Biserujuka on the island of Krk and the only show cave – Baredine chasm near Poreč. Besides the show caves, there is a great number of semi show caves, dating from the 19th century. Some of the best-known caves of this kind are Samogradska cave in Perušić and Barac’s caves in Nova Kršlja near Rakovica in the region of Kordun.
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Barac’s caves are located approximately six kilometres east of Rakovica (main road: Zagreb – Split), a little more than 500 m west of the centre of the village of Nova Kršlja. The entrance to all three caves is located on the north side of Barac’s Brina (mountain). At the very foot of Brina, between the two entrances, there is a spring Baraćevac forming a stream Kršlja together with two other springs without names. Some 20 meters lower the stream becomes united with another stream called Suvaja. Kršlja flows for several kilometres through the field and on its east side, forming a number of small abysses, it enters Varicak’s cave, giving it a majority of water.
