KUPA RIVER, CROATIAN – SLOVENIAN BORDER

Part of the natural border between Croatia and Slovenia, the Kupa river has an ambiguous character: it both connects and separates people. The turbulent past of the region has seen many deaths, and even today people have to struggle to survive in an extremely unfavourable economic situation.

Due to its geographical location, Croatia was dubbed the ‘Gate to Western Europe’. This is why many nations and religions saw Croatia as a strategic and indispensable place to own. The country had to deal with countless rulers and uninvited visitors over the years. Its culture and territory are strewn with the traces of Ottoman, Avar, Habsburg, Venetian and Austro-Hungarian rulers and the scars of the two World Wars, the Yugoslav Republic and the 1990s’ civil war.

However, the harsh conditions have forced people living along the river, but officially in different countries, to stick together, avoid conflict and help each other.

But, since 2017 the community has been torn apart due to a fence erected by the Slovenian authorities to prevent refugees from entering the Schengen area