Witnesses of the Past
Witnesses of the past of the Northern Velebit National Park
Witnesses of the past are visible today in the wide expanses of the Northern Velebit National Park. Visitors today can see many traces left by those who lived here. Over the past millennia and centuries the size of shepherd’s huts, building methods, stone, metal and wood processing techniques changed. How much the way of earning a living (and thus the life itself) has changed in essence over the time is a question that still remains unanswered.
Ruins of human and animal stone dwellings, water cisterns, stone water pans, ponds, terraces with gardens and small fields can be encountered in almost every valley, doline or small depression. The roads and pathways leading to these areas are often very well built. Each new generation of Velebit inhabitants added something new, and yet everything had essentially remained the same. The migration cycle depended on the vagaries of mountain environment, weather, vegetation, location of dolines and depressions, water sources etc. Naturally, in this interaction and coexistence of man and the environment, different traces remain in the environment. These traces must be taken good care of, they must be preserved, but also explored.
This is why research of Velebit’s cultural heritage is still continued by experts in different fields: anthropologists, ethnologists, historians, archaeologists, art historians. This research has a long tradition, especially dating back to the time of the so-called “scientific mountaineering” during the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. Other researchers continued along the paved way, discovering little by little the wealth that still lies hidden in Velebit.
Velebit is thus unique not only for its natural values, but also for the immensely rich cultural heritage, parts of which still remain to be discovered. This unity of nature and cultural heritage requires a unified multidisciplinary approach to research and conservation. For instance, preservation of Velebit grasslands is important for the survival of numerous animal and plant communities that live there, but also as a memorial of human presence in the topmost parts of the mountain. It is our responsibility to ensure that human traces engraved in the mountain are not lost and that they continue teaching us about man’s coexistence with nature, but also about the hard, everyday struggle for survival.
The cultural heritage of the Northern Velebit National Park is still being researched. For more information on the Park’s cultural heritage, refer to the Cultural Heritage Protection and Conservation Background (in Croatian), prepared for purposes of developing the physical plan of the Northern Velebit National Park.
Source: NP NORTHERN VELEBIT