A border and a crossroad

In its history, no other Croatian city has ever divided and at the same time connected its surrounding area to the extent that Karlovac has. This town was built on the edge of the Pannonian valley when the border between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy was formed along the rivers Kupa and Korana - the south-western tributaries of the Danube basin.

It is situated near their confluence and on the edge of Kupa’s waterway, while being no more than a hundred kilometres away from the Adriatic coast via road; thus it became even more important in terms of transportation as some of the earllier ancient roads connected the coast and the interior were cut off.