Karlovac Parks
From the ancient times of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the philosophy of landscaping symbols tends towards attaining the spiritual peace of a divine garden. The Latin word parricus (from which the English word park originated) denotes an enclosure or a ‘defended space’. Do parks defend us from the alienated world of urban bustle? Is Karlovac a town with therapeutic parks or is it all one huge park with a town within? It seems that the historian R. Radovinović’s words ‘a town within a park‘ are best suited to describe the dominant impression of Karlovac.
The green vistas of the town are awaiting, regardless of the direction of your approach. And one of the approaches is the majestic Marmont Allée, where you’ll feel welcome in the embrace of the centuries old giant plane trees, or feel obliged to stop and have a break after seeing the playful red leaves of the maples. Your stress is probably going to be at risk, likely to disappear in all the greenery. We are not going to charge you for that.
The first parks in Karlovac were planned already during the construction of the fort itself. And that is how it all got started. We haven’t stopped doing this even to this very day, taking care of our parks, avenues, flowers and lawns. Our parks grow with the town. The town is a part of the park. We have flowers at our windows. Our river beaches are covered in lush and soft grass.
Take a walk around the town developed within a park. Your footsteps will be welcome by the Grand Promenade (Šetalište dr. Franje Tuđmana), with a five-fold alée, a flowering magnolia next to the ‘Small Gloriette’, the park vegetation in the moats, the Renaissance park next to the Polytechnic, the linden alée near the town walls remnants, the Black Promenade, the Arboretum around the Forestry School, the Modrušan Park with a playground near the Edison cinema, the Vrbanić Gardens along the Korana river… or a small hidden park within the Franciscan monastery.
Turn on all the five senses, as well as the sixth, the hidden one. Listen to the birds early in spring, or to the pine cones crackling in the summer heat. Feel the prickling of the winter frost and the smell of the flowering linden. Look at all the greenery! In winter, when the coldness takes away the greenery from the park and freezes the time, our parks are the pulsating heart of this town. Let your own heartbeats join this green rhythm.
