Laudonov gaj (Laudon's Grove)

Laudonov gaj (Laudon's Grove) is a stand of oak woodland near Udbina in Lika-Senj County, on the Krbava plain in the interior of Croatia. It is a small forest park with a big history, because the trees are not natural woodland but the result of a deliberate planting made to solve a practical problem: the sandy soil of this part of Krbava was unstable, and wind and moving sand were a serious nuisance to farmers and travellers.

The grove takes its name from Ernst Gideon von Laudon, the Habsburg field marshal who was one of the most famous Austrian commanders of the eighteenth century. In his career he served in the Military Frontier, the defensive zone that the Habsburgs maintained along the border with the Ottoman lands, and in the late eighteenth century oak trees were planted on the sandy ground to hold it down. Contemporary accounts and local tradition connect the planting with his name, and the roughly 250 years that have passed since then have turned the young plantation into a mature wood. Laudon was an Austrian officer, born in Livonia.

Today the wood is made up of several hundred oaks, many of them very large, and it has the feel of an old parkland more than a managed forest. The ground beneath is open and shaded, with grass and fallen leaves, and in the middle of a landscape of open plain and karst the effect is striking. Designated as a forest park in the twentieth century, it has legal protection, and it is the kind of place that shows how human work can shape a landscape in lasting ways. The village of Šalamunić lies nearby, and the grove is an easy detour for anyone travelling through the area.

The surroundings add to a visit. Udbina is best known for the Battle of Krbava Field of 1493, a major defeat for the Croatian nobility at the hands of the Ottomans, and the Church of Croatian Martyrs, a modern memorial church, stands in the town. The wide plain of Krbavsko polje stretches below the mountains, and on the horizon rise the Plješevica range and the long wall of Velebit. The area is thinly populated and quiet, with big skies and cold winters.

The grove is suited to a short, relaxed walk or a picnic, and it is especially pleasant in late spring and autumn. Visitors who enjoy botany, trees or rural history will find it rewarding, and it combines easily with a drive to Plitvice Lakes or the Zrmanja country. Bring insect repellent in summer and sturdy shoes if the ground is wet.