Kopački rit

Kopački rit Nature Park is one of the largest preserved natural wetlands in Europe. Lying where the Drava meets the Danube, this inland delta is home to more than 290 species of birds, such as the white-tailed eagle, white and black storks, herons, cormorants, swans and wild ducks.

The park is also home to dozens of species of other animals, such as red deer, wild boar, badgers, beavers, foxes and martens, as well as various lizards and snakes – none of which in the park are venomous. Hidden deep in a dense forest of oak and maple is Tikveš hunting lodge, once a well-known imperial residence of the Habsburg family and later of Tito, the president of communist Yugoslavia.

The boardwalk, raised on wooden logs above the marsh, will take many history lovers on a journey back to the time of the battles against the Ottoman Turks, because it was built on the model of the "Magnificent Bridge" of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, which was set on fire in battle by the Croatian commander Count Nikola Šubić Zrinski.

Lake Kopačko lies level with the geographical centre of the European Danube region, halfway along the Danube, which flows 2,860 km from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. In certain weather conditions, when the water level is right, the lake takes on the shape of a heart. That is exactly why Kopački rit is called the "Heart of the Danube".