Saborsko

Saborsko is a highland settlement on a plateau between the Mala Kapela range and the Plitvice Lakes area, in the south-eastern part of Karlovac County. It lies about 22 kilometres from the national park’s main entrance, yet its defining experience is not the busy lakeside circuit but a landscape of forests, meadows and the springs of the sinking Jesenica River. A seven-kilometre trail leads from the village centre to five springs that form the river, requiring roughly three hours in one direction. A shorter five-kilometre loop crosses Alan hill and the Way of the Cross before passing the medieval Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Church of St John of Nepomuk. Saborsko also carries a powerful memory of the Croatian War of Independence, expressed through local memorials and its restored sacred landscape. Wooden shingles are more than decoration here: a local workshop preserves a craft protected as intangible heritage. The D42 road links Saborsko with Plaški, Josipdol and the Plitvice approach, although its bends and narrow sections reward unhurried driving. With limited public transport, the area is most practical by car, bicycle or pre-arranged transfer.

Saborsko occupies a mountain plateau beside the D42 road, surrounded by the forests of Mala Kapela and meadows above the Jesenica valley. Its municipality also includes Lička Jesenica, Blata and Kuselj, and has been promoted within the Plitvice Valleys destination organisation since that body was founded in 2022. The village’s identity combines a karst river landscape, wooden-shingle craftsmanship and church heritage with the painful legacy of the 1991 destruction. Proximity to Plitvice Lakes drives many visits, but the paths towards the Jesenica springs give Saborsko a distinct reason to stop.