Devil's pass - croatian Dante's way to hell

ivona-stajduhar
4. stu 2015.
3 min čitanja

After our summer on Long Island we still had a pretty long summer ahead of us. A few days after we came back home we got a phonecall from Andrei's mom, who was, at that very moment, on a holiday in Crikvenica. She told us they had extra room for us and invited us to come over for a few days. Ofcourse we had to say yes to another, but this time, payed vacation! We packed our bags and left but along the way stopped at this place that we said we would visit when we were still on Long Island. Remember Ante and his library? Well, it was where we got the inspiration for our next adventure from! It was a sunny day on Long Island when we were passing by and,attracted by music from the library, decided we will sit down on one of the sofas in front. Then we spotted a book that immediately dragged our attention with it's title. We opened up ''Natural beauties of Croatia'' and started reading. We ran into a picture of ''Vražji prolaz'' (''Devils pass'').The name is interesting isn't it? That was when we decided we wanted to explore the place and bring that picture alive. Considering we were going through Gorski kotar, where Devil's pass was situated, ofcourse we couldn't let the opportunity of making this summer even better escape. We came to the city of Skrad and found wooden signs of Zeleni vir where the Devil's pass was.We followed the signs that lead us to the curvy, downhill narrow roads. So, if you decide to visit this place, make sure the driver has a few years of experience behing him. After wandering through narrow streets we started to think we got lost, but then something similar to an excursion site appeared before us. The excursion site is called ''Zeleni vir'' and it's a protected area. It has two sites to see. The right way, where we went, leads to Devil's pass and the left way leads to Zeleni vir, which we still haven't gotten to exploring yet. We saw a few houses, a bridge and a stream that was rolling over the stones under the bridge. We parked by the side of the road , took necessary things and started the adventure. We knew you have to pay for an entrance ticket but we didn't feel like paying.Then we made a plan. We will act like we just want to see the entrance and that we were thinking about going in or not. AND we pretended to be italian tourists. We passed by the ticket office and slowely moved on forward deeper and deeper into the canyon, looking back from time to time to make sure nobody was chasing us. And nobody was. BINGO! We were soon certain that this really was one of the best sceneries in Croatia. **The Devils's pass is a 800 m long canyon. It is known as one of the most beautiful sites in Croatia. Among the cliffs that are about 100 m high, flows a stream called Jasle, that was shaping the rocks for milleniums. That's how Devil's pass was made. There are wooden bridges above the canyon that follow you along the way. But, don't think you've gotten away easy. It's a little bit harder to walk on places where there are no bridges but hiking ropes are here to help you hold yourself. Devil's pass was know before as Devil's chasm, and the poets used to call it Dante's way to hell. There is a cave at the end of the canyon called Muževa hižica, where, according to local legends, locals used to hide from Turks in the 1525. It was allegedly called after the man (husband) that lead the group of locals that were hiding there. The cave is 200 m long, rich with stalactites. At the end of the cave is a little lake that still hasn't been explored that much. For exploring the cave you will need a flashlight. The entrance ticket to the canyon is 15 kn, the route isn't demanding so it is also convenient for kids.

*We returned to visit the other part of Devil's pass, Zeleni Vir, in January 2016 so you are looking at exclusive pictures of the Devil's pass during winter!