In the course of preparing a brochure aimed at helping visitors and tourists explore the natural assets of the landscapes of Gorski Kotar, we visited, and classified, a number of lovely and interesting scenic overlooks in the Kupa River basin…. “AERIAL”, “BALCONY”, “WINDOW”… OVERLOOKS ABOVE THE KUPA RIVER Overlooks can be classified in various ways. For our brochure on scenic overlooks in the Kupa River basin, we made several classifications. One classification referred to the position of the micro locality in space and the breath of the view provided. Because of their canyon position, most overlooks belong to the balcony type. They are usually located on the outcrop of a cliff, high about the canyon. The forest surrounding the cliff often provides only a partial view of the horizon. A typical example of a balcony overlook is the Orlove Stijene overlook (Photo 2). The second type is the window overlook. The views from such overlooks are constrained by the forest and trees that create a kind of natural frame for a “picture” featuring a section of the horizon. A typical example is the overlook in the park by the castle at Severin na Kupi (Photo 3). The third type is the aerial overlook, which provides the broadest views of the landscape because the vista is not constrained by trees, forests or other obstacles (Photo 1). Aerial overlooks can be found on the western slopes of Skradski Vrh. We also came across a fourth type – the woodland overlook. This type of overlook is fairly frequent but provides a somewhat limited view obstructed by trees, although here and there splendid vistas can be glimpsed through tree branches. Woodland overlooks are particularly appealing in the colder part of the year, when trees lose their leaves. While our brochure will not features this type of overlook, a lovely example can be found in the Strma Rebar area above Razloge in the Kupa River source area on the edge of Risnjak National Park. Marko Randić i Ivana Rogić
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