Grabovača is a

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

park located in

Perušić Perušić is a naselje, settlement and a municipalities of Croatia, municipality in Lika-Senj County, Croatia. In 2011, the municipality had 2,638 inhabitants, while the central settlement had 852. The municipality is within the mountainous Lika re ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. It is the elevation of the mid-Velebit, which is situated between the

Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by t ...

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

plains and fields in Perusic, 2 km from the center of Perušić. It is located at 770 m above sea level near the karst basin of the river Lika. With it on the west and south shoots wide panorama of the vast karst plateau with Lika River canyon, an artificial lake breads and green wall on the far horizon of Velebit. On the east side, historical monuments tower from the late 17th-century parish church, from the late 17th the century. On Grabovaca there is many underground karst forms, which make up a quarter of the total number of protected cave facilities in Croatia. The complex variety and abundance of calcite formations valuable speleological phenomena (six cave and a cave) is located at spatially restricted sites of only . The park features eight caves and a pit, all which feature calcite formations. The park is protected and managed locally. The caves are available to be seen in all the seasons except winter. The Grabovača cave is planning to connect to the existing lighting electricity as a source of power even in the current year, and the obtaining of financial assets and replace with a new lighting system that would be adapted to environmental standards in a way that the minimum extent color temperature lighting effect the existing microclimate of the cave. There are 24 fully or partially explored caves. Five caves are protected as geomorphological natural monuments: Samograd, Medina cave, Amidžina cave (1964), Budina ice cave and Petrićeva cave (1970). Caves Budina and Samogradić are sites protected under the EU eco network

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectiv ...

Cave Samograd

Length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with Dimension (physical quantity), dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a Base unit (measurement), base unit for length is chosen, ...

is 345,8m (1134 ft). It consists of several chambers: Frass chamber (named after

travel writer The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered ...

), Perušića chamber (honoring the lords of Perušić), Karlovića chamber (honoring the Croatian count) and Kukuljevića chamber (named after

Ivan Kukuljević Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was the Bu ...

). Human bones and

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

found inside the cave date from

12th Twelfth can mean: *The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution *The Twelfth, a Protestant celebration originating in Ireland In mathematics: * 12th, an ordinal number; as in the item in an order twelve places from the beginning, follo ...

1st century BC The 1st century Before Christ, BC, also known as the last century BC and the last century Common Era , BCE, started on the first day of 100 BC, 100 BC and ended on the last day of 1 BC, 1 BC. The Anno Domini, AD/BC notation does not ...

. The signatures of Austrian officers date from 1835. In 1886 Samograd Cave Development Committee () was established, the first association related to caves in Croatia. It was

illuminated Illuminated may refer to: * Illuminated (song), "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts * Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house * ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album) * Illuminated manuscript See also

in 1890. Trails and stairs were first constructed in 1903, for a planned visit of count Khuen Hedervary to Lika region. The first plan of Samograd was made in 1911, making it the first plan of a

tourist cave A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits. Definition A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to ...

in Croatia. "Špilja Samograd/Cave Samograd", in: ''Pećinski park Grabovača cave park'', JU Pećinski park Grabovača: Perušić. (In Croatian and English).

Cave Samograd

See also

References

Further reading