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25-522: Its highest peak is the Vaganski vrh at 1,757 m. Major mountain passes on Velebit include the aforementioned Vratnik or Senjsko bilo at 694 m.a.s.l., where the Josephina connects Senj with Josipdol ; Oštarijska vrata at 928 m.a.s.l. that connects Karlobag and Gospić ; and Prezid at 766 m.a.s.l. that connects Obrovac and Gračac . Velebit is characterized by its simple, solid form, stiff cliffs,

50-583: A Romance-speaking ethnicity. Planine , the first Croatian novel by Petar Zoranić , was inspired by the Velebit mountain. Literature about the Velebit that is available includes: Josephina (road) The Josephina ( Croatian : Jozefina or Jozefinska cesta , German : Josefiner Straße ) is a historic road in Croatia that connects Senj and thus the Adriatic coast and Karlovac and

75-465: A former military facility. There is also a smaller peak of Pljišivica in the north of Velebit (1560 m). In the categorization of 113 of the highest points of Croatia by professor Vladimir Volenec, first published in 1990 and revised in 2015, there are 76 peaks from the Velebit. There are hundreds of "holes" on Velebit. It has the largest and deepest caves in Croatia. The three-part "Lukina jama" cave

100-433: A handful of golden apples (the symbol of a literary piece), the fairy Croatess is poor and makes a complaint on the small number of literary pieces written in folk language. The sixth day Zoran heads for home, but on his way he meets Dinara's daughter, fairy Krka, which drives him across Knin , Skradin and Šibenik down to the mouth of Krka (where she makes her disappearance). Thence, fairy Grace returns him back to Zaton ,

125-541: A new species, genus and family; it has been named Erpobdella mestrovi . List of potholes on Velebit deeper than 500 m : It is also home to Degenia velebitica , an endemic and protected species of plant in the mustard family discovered in 1907 by the Hungarian botanist Árpád von Degen . The imposing nature of the Velebit mountain has made it something of a national symbol in Croatian folklore. There

150-472: A unique piece of its kind in Croatian literature , with motifs borrowed from Latinate and Italian literatures, with clearly discernible influences of Virgil , Ovid , Dante , Boccaccio , Petrarch , Jacopo Sannazaro , as well as domicile writers such as Marko Marulić and Croatian začinjavci . Planine are in fact an allegory : they are a dream, transferred to the alleged Zoran's path from Nin across

175-422: A well a fairy Zorica (Napeja) appears, advising him to go for the mountains to find a particular plant which will cure his love pain. Then on a golden apple he makes a notice of a beautiful fairy Grace (Milošća) which transfers him across the seas to Podgorje, where he continues the journey by himself. But, soon he runs into a beast, from which Grace saves him and leads him by safer pathways. Afterwards, he arrives to

200-403: Is 1392 m deep, making it one of the deepest caves in the world, and the deepest in southeast Europe, while the "Slovačka jama" is 1320 m. What makes it unique is that it is completely vertical, steepest in the world. At the bottom of the pothole is a water course or siphon with branches that are still unexplored. A kind of leech was discovered in the pothole, which has been ascertained to represent

225-647: Is a patriotic folk song " Vila Velebita " that personifies a fairy in Velebit. In the Republic of Venice , Velebit was known as Montagna della Morlacca ("Mountain of the Morlach"), named after the Morlachs , an originally Romance ethnic group that eventually got assimilated into the local Croatian population, a generally socio-cultural and professional segment of the Slavic-speaking population rather than

250-692: The Northern Velebit National Park and the Paklenica National Park . The Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service has a permanent measurement station at Zavižan. Velebit is usually divided into three regions: Velebit as a whole is a nature park , from which two national parks have been carved out: Paklenica and Sjeverni Velebit (Northern Velebit) A further category of even more careful nature preservation exists within Sjeverni Velebit,

275-764: The Pannonian plain . It crosses the Dinaric Alps via the Vratnik pass (700 metres (2,300 feet) above sea level ) between Senj and Brinje and the Kapela Pass between Brinje and Josipdol . Vratnik pass, currently a part of the D23 road , was already in use during Roman time as a salt road , and it became important for timber and other goods in the Middle Ages. However, the first well documented road built along

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300-499: The Gates of hell ( Paklenica ), where the fairy tells him a tale on a young maiden Bura . The next day Zoran meets a company of shepherds with whom he spends the next three days. On the fifth day, Zoran hears from shepherds a story on the origin of Velebit and heads further to the east. There he discovers a small group of shepherds that complains of being attacked by the wolves from eastern sides (i.e. Turks ), which has caused many of

325-419: The call of fairy Croatess in the gardens of glory (chapter 20): she objurgates Croats who "many sapient and lettered are, who thyself and their tongue joyously appraise and deck apt are" ( mnozi mudri i naučeni jesu, ki sebe i jazik svoj zadovoljno pohvaliti i naresiti umili bi ) but are ashamed of their Croatian ( jezika hrvackoga ) and rather prefer to write in a foreign tongue. So Zoranić, three centuries before

350-564: The incident is impossible to verify, the town of Josipdol to the east of the mountain pass is named after the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1775, Joseph II indeed commissioned construction of the route, exactly 100 kilometres (62 miles) long, from Vincenc Struppi , a military engineer, and the road, named after the Emperor, was completed in 1779. The original route comprised very steep sections and 20% inclines were not uncommon. There

375-552: The lack of vegetation on the seaward side (towards the Velebit Channel ), and the wood-covered slopes of the Lika side. The basic geological characteristic of the mountains is karst; flora and fauna are abundant. The whole mountain range is protected as a nature park . The most popular spots on Velebit are: the peak of Vučjak (1,644 m) above Zavižan, the botanical gardens and caves , Hajdučki and Rožanski kukovi , Štirovača ,

400-536: The place of his departure. There he finds a grave of Juraj Divnić , the bishop of Nin, and swears to follow the path of Lord's love. Zoranić lived in times of a great danger from invading Ottoman Turks, and that consciousness has inspired his work; it pervaded it with patriotic fervour, against which all poet's personal sufferings, wishes and troubles pale and retreat. It is a pastoral-allegorical novel (a very common type of prose in that period), written mostly in prose but with many passages in verse. Typologically it's

425-428: The principal line of the story is patriotic in character. It is composed of 24 chapters, and the introductory contains a dedication to Matej Matijević, the canon of Nin . The hero is the shepherd Zoran (i.e. Zoranić himself), who for seven years has been suffering from unrequited love towards a maiden Jaga. One morning, wandering around, he arrives to a well called Vodica, having gotten bored with his life. Suddenly from

450-504: The route was Via Josephina named after Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor who commissioned its construction in 1775. Latin inscriptions carved in rock along the original Via Josephina route completed in 1779 testify that the Emperor travelled through the Vratnik pass on horseback when he realized that the route between Senj , as a major fortress on Adriatic coast, and the hinterland was nearly impassable. Legend has it that this happened when he fell from his horse near Vratnik Pass. Even though

475-521: The sea to Starigrad under the Velebit , and thence uphills, over Paklenica , across the Velebit , and from Lika to Dinara , where he would by the river of Krka settle down to Šibenik and thence by the sea back to Nin. Accompanied by stanzas of Petrarchan and pastoral voice, Zoranić's novel, imbuing with life an Arcadian idyll, echoes with "sorrowful shepard's tune of dispersed legacy" ( tužbenim pojem pastirov od rasute bašćine ), but it also answers

500-425: The shepherds to flee those areas. The next day Zoran is contacted by a fairy Consciousness (Svist) who directs him to the fairy Dinara . Dinara frees him by her magic powers from his love sufferings. Then Zoran dreams a vision of four fairies in a "gardens of Glory" ( perivoj od Slave ). These are the fairies Latinness (Latinka), Helleness (Grkinja) and Croatess (Hrvatica). While the first three hold in their arms

525-404: The special reservation Hajdučki i Rožanski Kukovi, under the highest nature protection available in Croatia. Officially no human activity is allowed there (except research). These are the mostly still unexplored and wild places and probably will stay that way in the future. A pathway called Premužićeva staza (Premužić's pathway) leads through the northern and middle parts of Velebit. This pathway

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550-522: Was built between 1930 and 1933 and it connects northern and southern Velebit. Its length is 57 kilometres (35 mi). Many parts of Velebit would not be reachable without it. The Velebit mountains are transversed by the A1 through the Sveti Rok Tunnel . Some 45 peaks exceed 1600 m. Plješivica or Velebitska Plješivica is a peak in the north of Velebit (1654 m) that hosts a communications tower and

575-537: Was destroyed during World War II , but it was rebuilt in the 1950s. Planine Planine (English: The Mountains ) is a work of prose fiction , generally considered to be the first Croatian novel . It was written by Petar Zoranić in 1536 and published posthumously in Venice in 1569. The story tells about a poet's imaginary seven-day journey across Croatian mountains on which he embarks in order to forget his love miseries. Although pastoral in form,

600-414: Was even one climb at a 30% grade. Because of this the road was modified and extended by 15 kilometres (9.3 miles), in order to remove such steep sections. The first reconstruction was carried out as early as late 18th century, and another one between 1833 and 1845 managed by Field Marshal Josip Filip Vukasović and Josip Kajetan Knežić respectively. Subsequent modifications were not as significant. The road

625-595: Was paved in 1950, when the last minor modifications of the route were executed. The route was distinguished by mile markers along the route, an obelisk in Karlovac marking the beginning of the road and a specially built gate in Senj marking its end. Most remarkably the original road included a stone bridge across three spans in Tounj , which was expanded during the reconstruction of 1845 and now has two levels. The upper level

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