Zelenjak Treetop Path (Staza kroz krošnje Zelenjak)

The Zelenjak Treetop Path (Staza kroz krošnje Zelenjak) is a wooden walkway through the forest canopy in the Zelenjak valley, on the Sutla river between Kumrovec and Klanjec, near the Slovenian border. It is 125 metres long and climbs to 5 metres above the ground at its highest point. A lift platform at the start makes it usable for people with reduced mobility and wheelchair users, and the texts on its panels are also in Braille.

Twenty educational panels along the route explain the plants and animals of the area. The path was built under the EU-funded project Zagorje abeceda prirode, run by the public institution that manages protected nature in Krapina-Zagorje County. Along the walk is a sculpture of a trumpet, inspired by the place and by the nearby monument to the Croatian anthem. Irises grow at the foot of the path.

The walkway lies inside the Zelenjak - Risvička i Cesarska gora significant landscape, a protected area of 287 hectares declared in 2011. The Zelenjak valley itself was first protected in 1949. The area takes in the Cesarska and Risvička hills and the Sutla river, which is part of the Natura 2000 network for its protected fish and freshwater mussels. Its oak, hornbeam and beech woods are home to protected plants such as the Croatian iris, and surveys have recorded 68 species of butterflies, 522 moths, 71 birds and 37 lichens.

There is plenty to see within a short walk. The 13.2-metre obelisk to the Croatian anthem, raised in 1935 by the Družba Braće Hrvatskog Zmaja, stands at Zelenjak, near the spot where Antun Mihanović is said to have written the words of Lijepa naša domovino. Above the valley are the ruins of Cesargrad, a fortress from the late 13th or early 14th century, and on Risvička gora is the chapel of Our Lady of the Snows, known locally as Majka Božja Risvička.

The path is free and open around the clock. Combine it with the open-air museum Staro selo in Kumrovec, a few kilometres up the valley.