Rastoke Slunj

Rastoke is a small village at the point where the Slunjčica river, running over a series of tufa barriers, drops into the Korana river, and the village is built directly over and around the waterfalls, its old watermills straddling the streams. It sits just outside the town of Slunj, on the main road between Zagreb and Plitvice, and it is one of the most photographed villages in inland Croatia.

The waterfalls of Rastoke are formed by the same tufa process as those at Plitvice, the gradual build-up of limestone in the flowing water, and the Slunjčica produces a chain of them as it drops the last few metres to the Korana. The old houses and mills of the village are built directly onto the tufa, with the streams running underneath and between them, and several of the mills still turn.

Because Rastoke sits on the road to Plitvice, it is often visited on the way, and it is a calmer, more human-scaled alternative to the great lakes for a stop. The village was badly damaged in the 1990s war and has been substantially rebuilt.

For photographers, the watermills over the falls are the shot, best in the morning before the day-trip crowds. Combine it with Plitvice as a natural pair, and take the short walk along the Slunjčica to see the full chain.

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