Plitvice Lakes National Park, which is included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Croatia. Other popular destinations include Dubrovnik and possibly Split. The national park is one of the oldest and largest in the country, and it can be found about 130 kilometers south of Zagreb. It is well-known for its picturesque lakes, which are grouped together in certain regions of the park and can be admired most effectively from above or via purpose-built wooden walkways that cut through and around the edge of the most accessible pools of water. The lakes are the primary draw for visitors to the park.
Even though we were only able to catch a glimpse of one of the lakes during our time here, contrary to the throngs of other people who were exploring the park at the same time, this was not why we came. After spending a relatively short amount of time at the park’s primary attraction, we set out along mountain roads in search of the reason we had traveled there in the first place: an abandoned villa hidden deep within the canopy of trees and high above the lakes.
It was not difficult to locate the Villa Izvor, as it is commonly referred to. The location of the villa is not a secret; all that is required is to type “Villa Izvor” into Google Maps. In less time than it takes to blink your eyes, a small red or orange marker will appear at the precise location of the villa. Even the little-used single-track path that wound its way through the woods on the final leg of our journey to locate the villa was fine and relatively free of potholes. In general, the roads in Croatia are in very good condition, and this is especially true for the majority of the country. We had not been in the area for more than an hour when we had already parked our vehicle in front of a building made of wood and stone that appeared to us to be rather sinister. We were getting ready to do some urban exploring.
An abbreviated history of the Villa Izvor
Marshal Josip Broz “Tito,” the leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as other members of the country’s political and military elite, commissioned the construction of Villa Izvor in order to provide a summer retreat for the group. As it turned out, Tito only stayed at the property a handful of times (between three and ten, according to the sources I have read), presumably preferring some of the other extravagant summer residences that he had scattered throughout various corners of the republic. His retreat on the Croatian Brijuni Islands, for example, where he frequently entertained a large number of foreign heads of state, celebrities, and other various dignitaries, or one of his villas near the central Bosnian town of Bugojno, which he would visit on a regular basis in order to go hunting (*).
(*) Take a look at this article on Balkan Insight for a thought-provoking read about some of Tito’s properties and what has become of them since he was in power.
There is a wealth of information about Villa Izvor on the internet; however, the sources frequently contradict one another. Therefore, it is possible that some of the information that is detailed below is not entirely accurate; however, it does help give an impression of the history that is associated with the property.
It is generally believed that construction on the villa began as soon as 1948, not long after the end of the Second World War, and continued through 1953, when it was finally finished and began welcoming its first guests. At least a couple of the articles that I have read suggest that hundreds of incarcerated people were used as laborers in the construction of the villa. To begin, I had the presumption that they were prisoners of war from World War II, most likely German or Italian; however, it does not appear that this is the case. The vast majority of the prisoners were political opponents of the Yugoslav regime, and many of the prisoners used were incarcerated at the infamous prison on Goli Otok. Goli Otok is a desolate island off the coast of the northern Adriatic Sea that served as a prison for political dissidents between the years 1949 and 1989. The prison on Goli Otok was referred to as the “Croatian Alcatraz” due to the harsh conditions that prevailed there as a result of its setting and the stringent security measures that were in place all around it.
