Metravel city quest

A Quest Through Ogulin: The Town That Invented Fairy Tales

City Ogulin: free walking route “A Quest Through Ogulin: The Town That Invented Fairy Tales” along the sights. 8 points. Approximately 2 h. Quests and legends

Ogulin is a small town in central Croatia, between Zagreb and the sea, where people usually stop for half an hour and get stuck for half a day.

There are two reasons, and both are rare. The first is that there is a hole under the town. The Dobra River, after racing through its canyon, disappears underground right at the fortress walls: there begins a system of underground passages more than sixteen kilometers long, the largest in Croatia. The town square stands, in effect, on a lid.

The second is that a woman who is called the Croatian Andersen was born here. Her book “Tales of Long Ago” is known to the whole country, and she took her plots from what she saw around her: from the mountain above the town, where, according to belief, all evil spirits gather, from the sinkhole in the middle of the square, from stories still told here today.

We will walk through this story on foot: we start in the center, look in at the sinkhole and the fortress walls, and finish at the museum steam locomotive by the bus station. The route links the town's literary memory, its fortress, the church of St. George and one more story, the story of journeys. Visiting Ivana's House of Fairy Tales inside the fortress is optional: the required questions are answered from the outside. To get to the church and then on to the locomotive, we follow Bernardina Frankopana, Petra Preradovića and Saborčanska streets, bypassing the construction area on Kovačića and Šenoina streets.

What to do: 1) Read the story and the task at every stop. 2) Find the place on the map. 3) Look around and answer the question.

The start is at the bronze figure in the square by the church. Let's go!

What is on the route

The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.

  1. The Woman Nominated for the Nobel Prize Four Times — The square by the church — the bronze figure of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić

    Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić was born in Ogulin in 1874, into a family where everyone wrote: her grandfather Ivan Mažuranić was a poet and the first ban of Croatia who was not a nobleman. In 1916 she published “Priče iz davnine” — “Tales of Long Ago”.

  2. The Church That Set the Day — Crkva Svetog Križa — parish church of the Holy Cross

    The parish church of the Holy Cross is the main vertical of old Ogulin. A white Baroque mass with a tower that can be seen from any street in the center, it has stood here since the 18th century, when the town was gradually turning from a border fortress into an ordinary civilian one.

  3. The First King and a Border Town — Park kralja Tomislava — the square in the center of Ogulin

    The small town park bears the name of Tomislav, the first Croatian king, who by tradition was crowned in 925 and united scattered lands into one state. Surprisingly little is known about him: almost everything we know fits into a few lines of chronicles, yet in Croatia everything from squares to railway stations is named after him.

  4. Where the River Goes — Đulin ponor — the sinkhole under the fortress walls

    Here it is, the main oddity of Ogulin. The Dobra River approaches the town through a canyon and right here, under the cliff itself, drops underground.

  5. A Fortress, a Museum and Cell Number Six — Frankopanski kaštel — Ogulin Local History Museum

    The fortress above the sinkhole was built around 1500 by Bernardin Frankopan, of the very family that held half of Croatia and was the first in the country to print a book in the native language.

    Opening hours: February–November: Mon–Fri 07:00–15:00, Sat–Sun 09:00–14:00; January and December: Mon–Fri 07:00–15:00, Sat 09:00–14:00, Sun closed · Ticket: about 2.20 €

  6. The Fairy Tale House Inside the Fortress (Optional) — Ivanina kuća bajke — visitor center in the kaštel (optional)

    An optional stop — and if you have come with a child, it was worth coming to Ogulin for it. In the same Frankopan kaštel stands “Ivanina kuća bajke”, Ivana's House of Fairy Tales, a multimedia interactive center devoted to the writer and her characters.

    Opening hours: Tue–Sun 11:00–18:00, closed Mondays; groups must book a time in advance · Ticket: adult 12 €, child aged 5–15 9 €, family 36 €, under 5 free

  7. Another Story of the Town — The street in front of the church of St. George, a view of the main entrance from outside the fence

    Now the route comes out at the church of St. George.

  8. Memory on Wheels — The area by the bus station, next to the displayed locomotive

    By the bus station stands a real steam locomotive from the collection of the Croatian Railway Museum. It is exhibited in the open air, so you can examine the big machine without entering a museum.

Where to go next

This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.

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