The Path Is the Goal

architects Ivan Juretić, Robert Jonathan Loher
written by Robert Jonathan Loher

 

Juretić would say that the fairies on Velebit awakened. The waking up from a dream is what a few enthusiasts did in several years in the incredibly wondrous Velebit nature reserve, the Rožanski Kukovi crags, below the Pasarić Kuk crag. Rossi’s Shelter is a stone cottage, a miniature floor area of some 12 square meters, made up of local materials. It was built in the early 1930s as part of the construction of the Premužić Trail, which extends over a length of some 70 kilometers from Zavižan in the north to Baške Oštarije in the south. The route of the trail was conceived by Ante Premužić, a forestry engineer from Senj, and his fellow citizen Ivan Krajač, a politician and a great devotee of Velebit, whose life path ended tragically at the end of World War II. The construction of the trail was taken up by concession by local craftsmen from the coastal region, a very scanty and underdeveloped area, who could only reach larger settlements through mountain paths or by boat. This kind of job seemed to them quite a lucrative bite, because it was financially well conceived. They were asked to apply only what they knew very well – to build a drywall. Apparently, in one week one could earn enough money to buy a cow.