think green
The story on the Jelov Klanac village originates from the distant past. It is a somewhat sad story, since similar to many other villages, people moved from Jelov Klanac to neighbouring towns, but as all good stories, this story has a moral and a happy ending.
Once upon a time, the Jelov Klanac village was densely populated and lively. However, due to the troubled past and migration to urban areas, the village was eventually left with nothing but the hearth traces. Nowadays, many years later, the beautiful Jela was born at the overgrown foundations of an old family house, in the fold of a 400-year old lime-tree. Jela is entirely made of wood, it is one-of-a-kind and fully original. Jela is a house in the woods, which "thinks green, brown and red", which are the colours of its suites.
Built with love and an ardent wish to attract people from that and other villages to return to their homes, Jela sowed in Jelov Klanac the seed of tourism and sustainable development.
The simple, but luxurious country villa at the area of 200 m2 started attracting some new people, who were coming to enjoy the silence, which was, as they say, the best heard over there, to indulge in dolce far' niente and to become a part of a story on sustainable development by collecting officinal herbs, photographing rare vegetal types, such as holly, picking wild strawberries and edible bolete. They were coming to taste the regional culinary specialties of Lika, to take pulse of the Plitvice Lakes in pure, but tamed nature, as well as to ride, walk, paint, mountaineer or only breath deeply.
In winter, the environment is dressed in snowy whiteness, fire is cracking in the fire-place and a wonderful view is reaching from the suite to the neighbouring hills. In summer, there are glow-worms flying all over Klanac, making the star-lit sky even more solemn; and after the nature falls asleep, the smell of immortelle, flax and chamomile sneaks into the suites.
The neighbouring forests are full of sources of drinking water, at which the early risers may often come upon the rabbits and does. The cat Kici and the dogs Miki and Dona live at the estate and you may see them eating from the same plate. You may be friend with the horses, giving drink and food to them or riding them. You may take long walks through the woods following the paths through the estate - from one valley to another, from one pass to another, from one belvedere to another, all the way to a little bank in deep shade of the pine-tree forest, covered with a pine-needles carpet and imbued by rosin smell.
A solitary forest wooden house, 12 km away from the first downpour of Plitvice, in a pass between two hills, fully void of any influences of civilization and pollution. In Jelov Klanac you may see some rare types of beech, such as golden beech. Furthermore, it is planned to plant there all 32 existing types of beeches.
There is some talk that Jela will not remain alone and that another wooden house will be built at the old foundations, followed by more and more houses, we hope. The Jelov Klanac story is the story on autochthony and getting life back to a village. It is also a story on drinking water, silence, firs, pines, beeches and animals - about a symbiosis between men and nature.
You may enjoy in silence, fresh air, walking, mountaineering, riding, picking wild berries, photographing rare plants and tasting Lika regional specialties.
