Situated in a golden valley, which the Romans called Vallis Aurea, framed by the Slavonian mountain ring, throughout the centuries Požega has been a very vital centre for the population of the central Slavonia. Its location at the foot of Stari grad and the surrounding hills meant that it was able to create a medieval fortress around which the town grew.
Valuable historic monuments are proof of its rich history (the Franciscan monastery and church sv. Duha [St. Spirit] and Požega's Cathedral...). Here important cultural and entertainment events are held, the Croatian Film Festival of one minute films at the beginning of September and the Music Festival Golden Strings of Slavonia.
The features that visitors find most captivating are endless forests of Papuk, extending as far as the eye can see. These woods are mainly mountain beech, but there are also oak, fir and other types of trees. By far the most beautiful part of Papuk is Jankovan park-wood, one of Slavonia’s favourite excursion sites. In a magical valley up in the mountains there are several sparkling brooks surrounded by flowering meadows and dense beech woods. At the top of the mountains is the loveliest of all its adornments: the Jankovac waterfall. There is also a mountain lodge of the same name, regarded by many Croatian mountaineers as the most beautiful and the most comfortable of all of the Croatia’s mountain lodges. However beautiful the woods, brooks and waterfalls may be, what makes this mountain unique in Croatia is its geology. Here, one can see all the ages of rocks, from the Palaeozoic to the most recent Quaternary period. This is also the only Croatian mountain to have an abundance of volcanic rocks. Consequently, here near the picturesque village of Voćin, is where the first Croatian geological park Rupnica, known for the unusual strata it contains was founded. Due to its exceptionally interesting and valuable geology, Papuk has been included in the list of world geological parks, the first such park in Croatia.
The first geological natural monument in Croatia. It was pronounced protected in 1948 for the exceptionally rare morphological volcanic rock phenomenon. It is located within Papuk Nature Park. Thanks to this and other geological phenomena, in 2007 it has become the only Croatian member of the European Geoparks Network and UNESCO’s Geoparks Association.