photo Kei Nagayoshi
Nikola Loncar, a Serbian pensioner, is the only man living in Loncari village, Croatia. In 2009, along with his wife Bosiljka, he returned to the abandoned village, one without electricity, water or road. Although he has repeatedly asked the local authorities to provide him the basic infrastructure requirements for life, ones that existed before the ’91 – ’95, nothing has been done. Whenever he goes to the supermarket, about 4 km away, he regularly takes his shovel to bury holes and landslides on the macadam that were caused by the rain.
600 meters above sea level, and about one kilometre from Nikola Loncar’s home, is the Orljak plateau, the location of one of the largest wind farms in Zadar County. Built two years ago, in cooperation with the Swiss partner Korlea Invest Holding, 19 power units of 2.5 MW with a total installed capacity of 47.5 MW were placed here.
Thanks to a solar panel donated to Nikola Loncar by a Croatia humanitarian association, his house now has limited electricity.
Loncari village is 365 meters above sea level, near the Bijela river-one of the cleanest mountain rivers in Croatia, the natural park of Bijela canyon, as well as the remains of the Turkish prison Pržun dating from 1400 AC. In addition, only 2 km away are the Karin and the Novigrad Seas, belonging to the second largest bay in the Adriatic Sea. Also, from the top of the village is a panoramic view that reaches as far as the islands of Pag and Kornati.
This area is well known thanks to the Zrmanja canyon which is the most beautiful natural park in Croatia and the Velebit mountain. Also, it was here the western movie Winnetou (1962) was filmed. A new tryilogy of this movie was filmed during 2015 and will be in cinemas at the end of 2016.
During the ’91 – ’95 war many houses in this area were destroyed and some of them are still in ruins.Loncari village is located only 30 kilometers from Zadar, one of the most developed cities in Croatia. Furthermore, it offers many touristic centers such as Biograd on the sea, the islands of Nin and Vir, Kornati natural park, Krka waterfall and much more.