We try not to stay home on beautiful autumn weekends. So, few weeks back we invited wife’s cousins from Split to join us on a small “hiking expedition” to the spring of beautiful Krupa river. By some, this is the most beautiful river of Croatia.
We took the small road from Benkovac to Medviđa and then took the white road for some “off road” drive down the hill to Žegar. From there, we climbed up again following the main road and parked our cars just bellow the water filling plant “Santa”.

From there, we just walked by an old mill up the river. There were several watermills just bellow the spring but only one is still working. Since 1913. Krupa is very pretty river with deep canyon and numerous waterfalls but the very spring is not that impressive.

It is just a pile of big rocks with water coming at the bottom. Sweet, refreshing water straight from the Velebit mountain! The nearby area is quite rocky and very few spots for picnic but one fenced “island”. So we enjoyed the moment right bellow the spring. And forget about your cell phone signal! Beautiful!
It is amazing how river starts and what it does to landscape!

Since the spring area is not that nice to enjoy for longer time, we headed down to the famous Krupa Monastery. Located in a beautiful valley, this is one of the prettiest places in the region!
The monatery is in great shape but they only recently cut down ancient trees next to it and it lost part of it’s charm.

This is what the Serbian Orthodox Church’s site says about it:
“Monastery Krupa was built in 1317 as an endowment of the Serbian king Milutin. This monastery was founded by the Bosnian monks who were forced to leave their monastery, because of the Turkish invasion. Latter on, monastery Krupa was endowed by tzar Dusan and St. Mother Angelina, Serbian despot.
During its long history, this monastery experienced great disasters. In 1855, thanks to the precious help that came from Russia, Serbia and Austria, it was completely renovated. The church of monastery Krupa is dedicated to the Feast of the Dormition of Theotokos. Its beautiful wall painting, dating back to 1622, is the work of the well known monk from monastery Hilandar George Mitrofanovic. Also, in monastery Krupa there is a valuable collection of icons and a famous treasury.”

This time we did not go inside so these paintings are from some 4 years ago when I was here last…

We enjoyed the monastery grounds that are perfect picnic area and are very crowded for religious holidays.

The area is perfect for day in the nature but we had to go and we, of course, took the different way home: up the serpentine! VERY scenic! But don’t try this with big bus as I saw one struggling for minutes to get pass one curve! But the view of the monastery and the entire Krupa river valley is stupendous!

Although this is definitely one of the must see views in Dalmatia missed by many, just on the top of the hill another spectacular view hides! It is marked only by several rocks and small seating area (quite recent but great effort) so pull over and walk to it.
You will be rewarded with a view of 600 meters long river Krnjeza that comes out a huge cave! The cave you cannot see since you will be looking from a 408 meter high view point!

No photo can ever give you the sense of the place so, when in the area, hop in a car or contact us for private tour of the region. It is breathtaking!

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