fuzine

Daily Travel Updates

Friday, 28 January 2022

PHOTOS: Snowy Riversides and Magical Mountains of Croatia in January 2022

January 28, 2022 – The snowy riversides and magical mountains of Croatia in January 2022 show a spectacular and all-natural winter wonderland.

Snow finally stuck to the streets of central Zagreb for a couple of days this week. Early morning temperatures dropped to the lowest yet of this winter. Despite the chill, clear skies and sunshine days were enough to see the snow soon melt away.

But, far from the city, the snowy riversides and magical mountains of Croatia in January 2022 have kept their white blanket for longer. These all-natural landscapes look epic after the snowfall. For winter walkers and climbers – or even just lovers of photography – these images are way more spectacular than the bright lights and theatre of the Advent season.

Let's take a closer look at the winter wonderland of snowy riversides and magical mountains of Croatia in January 2022.

Gorski Kotar

Delnice, Lokve, Fužine, Stara Sušica, Ravna Gora

From above, Dvorac Stara Sušica © Vladimir Franolić

Jezero Bajer near Fužine © Marino Kirinčić

Another view of Dvorac Stara Sušica © Branko Lautar & Višnja Bolf

Risnjak National Park and Snježnik Hrvatski

Snježnik hrvatski © Ivan Ćuća-Žentil

For more about Risnjak National Park, look here

Velebit

Northern Velebit National Park

For more about Northern Velebit National Park, look here

Velebit Nature Park

Ljubičko Brdo © Ivan Ćuća-Žentil

Paklenica National Park

Bojinac © Ivan Coric Photography

For more about Paklenica National Park, look here

Kloštar Podravski, Podravina and Koprivnica-Križevci County

For more about the Drava river in Koprivnica-Križevci County look here. For more about the area of Podravina containing Kloštar Podravski and Đurđevac, look here

Slavonski Brod

The wetlands and ponds in Oriovac near Slavonski Brod are not only home to fish - over 50 species of birds visit these waters © Antun Lukšić

For more about Slavonski Brod, look here

Žumberak-Samoborsko gorje Nature Park

The high peak of Sveti Gera, on the western edge of Žumberak-Samoborsko gorje Nature Park © Domagoj Novosel

The author would like to thank each of the photographers who kindly loaned their work to him for this article

Wednesday, 29 December 2021

Fuzine Property Becoming Hit in Croatia as Asking Prices Increase

December the 29th, 2021 - Fuzine property might not be the first on your list when it comes to purchasing real estate or land in Croatia, with the glitz and glam of the Dalmatian coast being most people's first port of call. Could things be altering?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a mere two kilometres from gorgeous Lake Bajer in Fuzine, four building plots are currently up for sale. The current owner bought them all twenty years ago, each of them covers over a thousand square metres, one just one euro 50 purchased a square metre in this location back then.

"Now there's a road and a water connection and an electricity connection and the price is now 75 euros per square metre, but I'd now give a Christmas discount until the New Year - 65, 60...'' the current landowner Renata Juricic told RTL.

Before the global coronavirus pandemic struck, the largest amount she received was 37 euros per square metre for this piece of Fuzine property, and she's also selling a complex covering a massive 22 thousand square metres. Ever-rising price increases are now the trend.

"Prices have jumped and I'm happy because of that as it proves that this sort of land is as valuable as land located down by the sea, I don't know why there's always been such a difference," said the mayor of Fuzine, David Breglovac.

The owner of Rijeka's largest real estate agency, Branko Papes, also noted that before the coronavirus pandemic in Gorski Kotar, they sold a dozen properties a year, now they're averaging about 50.

"Everything is being sought, from small plots of land for the construction of cottages, apartments, to ready-made houses, and we can say that we're selling real estate worth 15, 20 thousand euros and over 50 thousand euros," said Papes.

These cheaper ones mostly need some serious renovation doing and a lot of them are in pretty bad shape. This sort of story happened with this fairytale house built next to the Risnjak National Park. The owners are from Krk, and they hope to return their investment in a maximum of ten years.

"We bought a cottage from the 1980's and we renovated it and turned it into a five-star house," says the owner of a holiday home in Crni Lug, Tatjana Isakovic.

Fuzine property prices increasing could mean that this often overlooked but truly gorgeous part of the country could become even more of a hit and spread not only tourism but wealth further into the country as opposed to it remaining firmly by the sea and in Zagreb.

For more on Croatian properties, check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

Sunday, 16 June 2019

Bajer Lake in Fužine Emptied, Shows Amazing Sites at Bottom

If you've ever traveled from Zagreb to Rijeka on the A6 highway, you'll probably have noticed that there are several lakes visible en route.

It's unlikely that any of the lakes are as impressive as Bajer lake, located in the centre of Fužine, a town in Gorski Kotar. It's an artificial, accumulation lake, created in the early 1950's as a part of the hydro-energy system Vinodol, using the water from the area of Gorski Kotar to create electricity. Bajer lake is just one part of the system, along with the Lokvarsko, Lepenica and Potkoš lakes which provide the water for several turbines, located at appropriate locations.

It's been 12 years since Bajer lake has been emptied, and the time has come for some maintenance work to be done on the concrete structures around it (which are quite close to the centre of Fužine). It took a while for the entirety of the lake to be emptied, but now that work has been completed, and if you find yourself going along the highway or visiting Fužine, you'll see that the lake is - gone.

The lake is located in the valley that used to be the river valley of the Ličanka valley, and believe it or not, you can still see where the banks of the river that has been gone for 60+ years used to be, now that it's dried out. The lake is not too deep, 2-7 meters when it's filled with water, It's strictly forbidden to walk on the bottom of the lake, as it is still quite wet, gooey and dangerous, but if the temperatures remain this high, it's imaginable that the soil will get firm enough to be able to walk on it.

The Lynx and Fox tourist guide, who we've already recommended if you wanted to go on personalized tour of Gorski Kotar, visited the lake and have allowed us to use the photos they took.

On their Facebook page, Jelena from Lynx and Fox also answered the question I've been wondering about since the first time I heard about the emptying of the lake: what happened to all the fish? Bajer lake is a well known fishing location, and there was quite a large population of fish in the lake - and they were moved, as much as they could've been to the nearby Lepenica lake, located just a couple of hundred meters away from Bajer.

If only there were videos available of the human relocation of the fish! Lepenica is much bigger and deeper than Bajer, it's a favourite location for swimming in the summer, and was quite popular for underwater orienteering. Once Bajer lake is up and running (floating?) again, the fish will probably be returned to it again.

Bajer lake will be empty until late July, as the planned re-filling is supposed to start on July 27th. One other amazing fact is that it's expected that the process of getting the lake back to its usual water content will take two days! Much less than the process of the emptying took... (More photos of the empty lake in the Večernji list gallery)

Monday, 31 December 2018

Farewell Parties for New Year's Eve Held at Noon Throughout Croatia

ZAGREB, December 31, 2018 - The traditional farewell party for the New Year's Eve was held in Fužine at noon on Monday, and a few thousand revellers gathered in that town in the Rijeka hinterland on this occasion.

Apart from Fužine, some other municipalities and town organised open-air parties at noon on the last day of 2018.

Thus, the coastal town of Novi Vinodolski saw a five thousand guests swarming the squares and streets for the noon party at which 2018 was seen off and the new 2019 was welcomed a few hours before the formal beginning of the New Year Eve.

The noon parties, which especially attracted children, were organised in the capital city of Zagreb, and Ogulin.

Revellers enjoyed local cuisine and wines, and entertainment programmes were prepared for the youngest audience.

In Novi Vinodolski, the local meat stew was served to guests.

Events such as a balloons release were organised in Fužine and in Ogulin where children could ride free of charge a special children train.

For more news, visit our Lifestyle section.

Saturday, 30 December 2017

Ring In 2018 at Noon: Daytime Celebrations in Croatia

Leave the champagne to cool, and warm up for New Year's Eve with one of the attractive daytime parties taking place all over Croatia