Inside the park, there are eight forest reserves, whilethree trees are protected by the law as natural monuments – Gupčeva lipa (linden tree) in Donja Stubica, old yew tree on Šupljak and old yew tree next to Horvat’s steps.
Medieval towns of Medvedgrad and Susedgrad, the mine Zrinski from the 16th and 17th century, and the castles Gornja Bistra and Golubovec represent some of the heritages of this nature park. There are also numerous mountain lodges, chapels and the cave Veternica – natural habitat of several types of bats. The visitors can adopt a bat for 150 kn.
Besides numerous hiking, walking and cycling paths, in the Nature Park Medvednica there are also several educational paths, such as Miroslavec, Bliznec, Horvat’s 500 steps and Bistra.
According to the criteria of the guidelines for the birds of the European Union, the park belongs to the category of important habitats for birds (Important Birds Area – IBA). Among other species, there are white storks, spoonbills, white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetusalbicilla), wild ducks, buzzards, corn crakes (crex) and small cormorants (Phalacrocoraxpygmaeus).There are also some endangered species, such as prairie falcons (Falco cherrug), ferruginous ducks (Aythyanyroca), and others. In the park, there is the village Čigoč, where almost every house has „its own“ nest of storks, which is why the village was declaredthe „European Stork Village“ in 1994.
Velebit Nature Park has its own separate, underground story. It is exciting to replace the daylight with caves, overhead landscapes with underground ones. Cerovac caves are the largest in Croatia. The complex consists of three caves, Lower, Middle and Upper, 5,5 kilometres of which have been examined.
Stalactites, stalagmites, columns, curtains, cascades and cave pearls are all fascinating decorations of the underground that cannot leave anyone indifferent. Even when you leave the cave, the impression remains, there, in the fascinating, underground world of the Nature Park Velebit.
The marine pearl of the Park is the Bay Zavratnica, always at the top of the list of Adriatic’s most beautiful bays. The Nature Park Velebit is a place where you can go high in the sky and deep in the underground.
In this nature park it is possible to scuba dive in several, attractive locations near the cliffs and walk around some interesting places, while the beautiful view from the Grpašćak cannot be missed. This and many more has been attracting and continues to attract visitors to the Bay of Telašćica, Nature Park of the Republic of Croatia which falls into the category of highly protected parts of nature. Surely, it deserves it.
