Bilogora tourist path is located about 100 km away from Zagreb and 10 km from Bjelovar, in the area of the Veliko Trojstva borough. It stretches across mild and attractive slopes of Bilogora. The pathway is made up from 19 points with various offers and content. It includes ethnographic collections, traditional crafts, hospitality facilities, accommodation capacities, original products from small family agricultural estates such as wines, snapps and juices, traditional dishes, homemade cheese, cakes and honey. The Bilogora tourist path offers the possibility of overnight stays on country estates, numerous possibilities for various recreation, such as horseback riding, hunting and fishing, walking and cycling tours and a string of sports activities in the open air sports grounds and a sports hall.
The sites that should not be missed on the Bilogora tourist path are the Baroque church of the Holy Trinity from 1779, the ethno park, the local ethnographical collection, the open air gallery of wooden sculptures - «Svijetle pruge», and the Romany Gipsy house, opened last year during the World Romany Gipsy day. This is a traditional wooden house of Croatian Gipsies. This house is an example of historical traditions of this indigenous Gipsy group. Another point of interest is lavender from Bilogora which is planted there and the possibility of tasting traditional Gipsy cuisine and products from Bilogora agricultural family estates.
If they want to visitors can arrange in advance to hear some traditional Gipsy music as well. The largest tourist and hospitality facility on this path is the mounteneering `hut ` Kamenitovac. It is surrounded by cycling and walking trails and is the perfect spot to start off the tour of the Bilogora area. For example, during the hot summer days, the beautifully decorated swimming pool in the nearby Šandrovac can be reached in no time. It is surrounded by dense forests and Bilogora slopes.
Some of the paths of Bilogora can be toured on horseback or old carriages which serve for that purpose.
A network of marked riding trails stretches between Bjelovar and Grubišno Polje and is more than 100 km long. It connects all the cultural, historical, sacral and hospitality facilities in the mentioned areas.
There is a new project that has been introduced in the tourist offer and is based on the legend from this area, which speaks about mythological creatures called Vedi that escaped into the forests when Bilogora became inhabited. Suppossedly they liked to help people out and it was believed that each household had its own Ved. There is also the story about the threasure that they left in the hidden forested areas of Bilogora. This hidden treasure must be searched for by tourists. Every treasure hunt begins with a story told by an old woman about the legend of the Vedi, in the ethno house in Veliko Trojstvo.
She gives tourists instructions and a secret treasure map, and the whole event finishes with tastings of traditional Vedi dishes made from recipes of the Bilogora giants, with the burning of a bonfire and an original ceremony with music, which is partly created by the tourists themselves.
The path of the Gipsy Tent Carriages is also a new tourist product, and it is a parade of horse pulled tent carriages which signifies what the original Gipsy tents looked like. Tourists travel in the parade through smaller village and field roads and tour all the important destinations. At the same time they learn about the traditions of the nomad life of the Romanies and during the trip participate in fun games, workshops, setting up camps and tents, lighting fires, and feeding and grooming horses.
The Tourist Board of Bjelovar-Bilogora County
www.tzbbz.hr
The Borough of Veliko Trojstvo
www.veliko-trojstvo.hr