Regions in Brief

Podravina & Bjelovar- Bilogora

The north-to-southeast strip of territory from Hlebine to Daruvar runs through the Podravina and Bilogora regions of Croatia, where some of Croatia's richest farmland and most provincial towns and villages lie, each with its own claim to fame. This area is the equivalent of any stretch of small-town America and is just as colorful. You can buy big loaves of still-warm, crusty bread from the back of a bakery truck that makes early morning rounds of village streets. You can watch a twice-daily parade of farmers with metal cans full of fresh milk rushing to the dairy co-op station to have their creamy yields weighed and credited to their accounts. In this part of the country, you still can see elderly goat herders using their staffs to urge their charges toward home. You can fall asleep to off-key group renditions of national songs filling the night air during almost weekly celebrations at the local church, an institution that marks life's defining moments. Here all get up with their roosters and go to bed before the 10pm news; and no one ever completely retires from his or her day job. This is the land of bountiful harvests and the heartbreak of war; of artists who interpret the vagaries of everyday life based on real people, and of men who gather each day to talk about what was and what might still be in Croatia. The towns in Podravina and Bilogora are segments of Croatia's solid backbone, independent but interconnected, and the people who live there are the salt of the earth.

Visitor Information -- The Durdevac Tourist Office is at S. Radica 1 (tel. 048/812-046). Hlebine does not have its own tourist office, but information is readily available from the Zagreb tourism bureau.

Getting Around -- Hlebine, Durdevac, and Cazma are easily explored on foot. Bjelovar and Daruvar are a little larger, so a car is handy for those with limited time and endurance.

Eastern Slavonia

Venture across the fertile expanse that stretches northeast from Nova Gradiska to Ilok, and you'll eventually see evidence of the violence that affected almost every town and village in the region. Skeletal remains of hothouses once filled with lush greenery, as well as the burned-out Borovo tire plant stand silent witness to the conflict that left Vukovar and other eastern cities bullet pocked and destitute. As of summer 2009 most land-mine warnings had been replaced by red plastic strips on the ground, indicating removal is in progress. But the chilling skull and crossbones signs indicating land-mine danger still confront visitors occasionally, as if to reassert war's horror. Many jagged, more obvious scars from the violence are constant reminders that inland Croatia still is suffering from the effects of the Homeland War. However, there is good news. Besides broken glass and burned-out factories, you'll see new shoots of hope sprouting, growing, even flourishing -- proof that the indomitable Croatian spirit is alive and well across the Pannonian plain.

Western Slavonia: Lipik, Pakrac & Pozega

Western Slavonia has its feet in two worlds: Its relative proximity to Zagreb provides a link to modern city life, while it also is part of the country's breadbasket, which stretches all the way to Croatia's eastern border. Farmland flows across the flat, fertile Pannonian plain as far as the eye can see. Here and there the endless horizon is broken up by a marshy nature area, national park, or steeple rising from one of the villages, towns, and cities that are Croatia's main agricultural producers. This part of Croatia once had thriving industries that included flower-growing and a Lipizzaner horse farm, but years of war and ethnic animosity sent the region's economy reeling, and it is just now starting to recover.

Essentials

Visitor Information -- Personnel in Pozega's Tourist Office at Trg Svetog Trojstva 3 (tel. 034/274-900; fax 034/274-901; www.pozega.hr) do not speak English, but they can provide English-language brochures and maps. Pozega isn't worth an overnight, but if you must stay, accommodations are mostly B&B style and can be arranged at the Tourist Office. Lipik's tourist office is small but personnel are very willing to help. Lipik's tourism office is at Marija Terezija 27 (tel. 034/421-530; grad-lipik@po.htnet.hr). Pakrac was on the front line during the Homeland War, and there isn't much left for a tourism office to talk about, but people there will be happy to tell you the town's history and what happened to it in the war. The Pakrac tourism office is at Trg Bana Jelacica 18 (tel. 034/411-454; fax 034/411-081; www.pakrac.hr).

Getting There -- Pakrac is 27km (17 miles) south of Daruvar, and Lipik is just 5km (3 miles) south of Pakrac. Pozega is 51km (33 miles) east of Pakrac. There is local bus service to Lipik, Pakrac, and Pozega, but Pozega has the only frequent service, with links to Osijek and beyond. Pozega is also served by trains; both the bus and train stations are on the north side of town, a short walk from the center. All three towns can easily be reached by car from Osijek or Daruvar.

Getting Around -- You can see everything worth seeing in Pakrac on a drive-through and everything in Lipik by walking. Pozega is a much bigger town and you might need a car or other transport to get to the 'burbs and peripheral attractions.

Quick Startas

They aren't as pricey as Air Jordans and they don't have the cachet of Van's, but these sneakers that were all the rage in the former Yugoslavia are making a comeback in Croatia and fashion capitals around the world. Startas were the Yugoslav gym shoe of choice in the '70s, but during the Homeland War, they became scarce. But they never went out of production and today the trendy handmade shoes are developing into a cult brand thanks to designer Mauro Massarotto and some clever marketing. Startas are made at the former Borovo Tire building in Vukovar, thanks to a new push to market the retro, hand-cut, hand-sewn, and decorated foot coverings. Look for white canvas shoes painted with stripes, logos, or tie-dyed for about 30€ a pair at more than 30 Borovo stores across Croatia.

What To See & Do

The towns in this region are small and some are one-site wonders, but each has unique points of interest that might appeal to tourists intent on soaking up Croatia's history.

Lipik -- This quiet town is known for its medicinal spring and for the Lipizzaner horse farm that once flourished there. In the early 19th century, Daruvar's Count Izidor Jankovic built baths in Lipik to take advantage of the area's thermal waters. He also built a hotel to house the people who came to soak in them. The current spa buildings are part of a hospital that was built at the end of the 19th century, damaged in the 1991 war, and partially rebuilt in 2004. Several other nearby spa sites built by Jankovic are still undergoing repair. Right now the only thermal pool in town is at the hospital; there is also a public pool. The Lipizzaner farm has been totally renovated, and most of the horses that were moved to Serbia during the hostilities have returned to Croatia. Croatia got Serbia to return surviving kidnapped Lipizzaners by paying a $200,000 ransom. Even though very few tourists choose to stay in Lipik these days, the entrepreneurial town has found a way to take its mineral water to the people: The water is bottled and sold all over Croatia under the Studenac brand.

Pakrac -- Pakrac was on the front line during the 1991 war, but much of the damage done to the town was inflicted during its liberation. At that time, both armies on the front line went through the center of Pakrac with Serb forces on one side of the street and Croat forces on the other, shooting at each other. Today much of Pakrac is still in ruins, mostly because foreign aid to restore the town has dried up and war repairs have slowed. However, it is worth a drive-through just to see the devastation caused by the war. Many of the tumbled-down structures are still owned by Serbians, who once made up a large part of Pakrac's population, but most Serbs fled during the war and have not returned. If you do stop in Pakrac, be sure to see the palaces that belonged to Baron von Trenk, a Hapsburg officer who owned vast tracts of property in Slavonia. The exterior of his palace in town has undergone some renovation.

Pozega -- About 145km (90 miles) east of Zagreb and 34km (21 miles) north of the Nova Gradiska exit off the autocesta (toll road), Pozega is a busy market town in western Slavonia that was founded by the Romans in the 13th century, occupied by the Turks from 1536 to the last decade of the 17th century, and renovated in the Baroque style in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Today's Pozega is a combination of commerce and cafes, churches and memorials. Its Stari Grad (Old Town), on Trg Svetog Trojstva (Holy Trinity Square) in the southern part of the town, is the main tourist attraction. It has two churches on the south end of the square: the 14th-century St. Lawrence Church (Crkva Sv Lovre), which was redone in the Baroque style in the 18th century; and the Church of the Holy Ghost (Crkva Svetog Duha), which was built in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 19th century after being destroyed by a fire in 1842. Holy Ghost is flanked by a Franciscan monastery, which contains many rare books and historical documents related to Pozega. Archaeological finds dating from the Romans and beyond can be seen in Pozega's City Museum (Gradski Muzej) along with present-day exhibits. On the north side of the square you'll find an 18th-century Plague Column built in 1749 to honor the 798 citizens of Pozega who died in the 6-month-long plague of 1739. Pozega's Cehovska (Guild) Street is home to specialty shops and numerous cafes, as well as a gateway for visitors to Papuk Nature Park to the north, a 518-sq.-km (200-sq.-mile) area with diverse flora and fauna, the remains of seven medieval towns, and archaeological sites dating to the Bronze Age (700-200 B.C.).