Lokve, Croatia

Lokve is a Croatian municipality in the Primorje–Gorski Kotar County. With an area of 42 km², it had a population of 850 in 2021.

Lokve
Municipality
Lake Lokve in Gorski kotar, Mt. Risnjak in the distance.
Lokve Location of Lokve within Croatia
Coordinates: 45°21′29″N 14°44′53″E
Country	Croatia
County	Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
Government
• Mayor	Nevio Mihelčić
Area [1]
• Municipality	42.0 km2 (16.2 sq mi)
• Urban	4.7 km2 (1.8 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]
• Municipality	850
• Density	20/km2 (52/sq mi)
• Urban	464
• Urban density	99/km2 (260/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	51 316
Area code	051
Website	lokve.hr

The municipality is located in the mountainous region of Gorski kotar. The Lokvarsko Lake (Lokvarsko jezero) is located between the settlements of Homer and Mrzla Vodica.

Climate

Between 1960 and 2016, the highest temperature recorded at the local weather station was 33.3 °C (91.9 °F), on 27 July 1983.^[3] The coldest temperature was −26.0 °C (−14.8 °F), on 8 January 1985.^[4]

Demographics

In 1870, Lokve općina, in Delnice podžupanija, had 291 houses, with a population of 2173. Its 8 villages were divided into 2 porezne obćine for taxation purposes. Lokve had its own parish.^[5]: 9

In 1895, the obćina of Lokve (court at Lokve), with an area of 42 square kilometres (16 sq mi), belonged to the kotar of Delnice (Delnice court and electoral district) in the županija of Modruš-Rieka (Ogulin court and financial board). There were 389 houses, with a population of 2363. Its 6 villages and 2 hamlets were divided for taxation purposes into 2 porezne obćine, under the Delnice office.^{[6]: iv, v}

In 2021, the municipality consisted of the following settlements:^[2]

• Homer, population 225
• Lazac Lokvarski, population 18
• Lokve, population 464
• Mrzla Vodica, population 14
• Sleme, population 88
• Sopač, population 27
• Zelin Mrzlovodički, population 14

Municipality of Lokve: Population trends 1857–2021

v

population	2070	2061	2278	2363	2007	1972	2152	2087	1762	2516	1850	1522	1290	1255	1120	1049	850
	1857	1869	1880	1890	1900	1910	1921	1931	1948	1953	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001	2011	2021

Note:Split from the old Delnice općina. Sources:Croatian Bureau of Statistics publications

Town of Lokve: Population trends 1857–2021

v

population	1123	1231	1430	1442	1131	1022	1181	1050	989	1106	960	848	741	748	659	584	464
	1857	1869	1880	1890	1900	1910	1921	1931	1948	1953	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001	2011	2021

Sources:Croatian Bureau of Statistics publications

Economy

There was a sawmill in Lokve.^[7]

Governance

National

At the 1920 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Constitutional Assembly election in Modruš-Rijeka County, Lokve voted mainly for the Communist Party and to a lesser extent the Croatian Union and Croatian People's Peasant Party.^[8]: 602

Results at the poll in Lokve^[8]

Year	Voters	Electors	NRS	DSD	KPJ	HPSS	Independent	SS	HSP	HZ
1920	412	301		14	144	53	5	2	2	81

History

Lokve was first mentioned on 22 February 1481 in a document freeing the citizens of Grič from tariffs in Lokve and elsewhere.^[9]

In 1860–1879, Matija Mažuranić wrote a 62 folio manuscript today titled Writings on the Building of Roads in Gorski Kotar and Lika (Croatian: Spisi o gradnji cesta u Gorskom Kotaru i Lici), today with signature HR-ZaNSK R 6424. A 21 folio manuscript dated 1872 titled Darstellung der Entstehung des Baues ... der Luisenstrasse together with a translation by I. Mikloušić is kept as HR-ZaNSK R 4572.^{[10]: 223 [relevant?]}

The volunteer fire department DVD Lokve was founded in 1905, and is today part of the Požarno područje Gorski Kotar I. Its current commander is Lordan Štokan.^[11]

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

A 22 December 1939 decision as part of agrarian reforms by Ban Šubašić to confiscate the local forest property of the Thurn and Taxis family, Kálmán Ghyczy and Nikola Petrović resulted in a legal dispute known as the Thurn and Taxis Affair, in part because of the relative status of the family and in part because of the proximity to the Italian border.^[12][13]

WWII

In the morning of 13 April 1941, the bus carrying Ante Pavelić stopped in Lokve together with a throng of Ustaša followers. He went to the post office in Lokve for a telephone call to Zagreb.^[14]: 347

At 6:30 on 10 June 1942, Partisans intercepted an armed patrol from Lokve of 2 at Homer, heavily wounding Ivan Matijević in the battle, capturing and disarming Petar Ivićević and letting him return to Lokve. After disarming Matijević, a villager took him to Lokve where an Italian military doctor administered first aid and then transferred him to the Italian military hospital in Delnice.^[15]

On the 11th, an Italian train was attacked with rifle and machine gun fire between Lokve and Delnice, wounding a number of Italian soldiers.^[16]

On 15 July, a train encountered an improvised explosive device between Delnice and Lokve. There were no victims, and transport was restored shortly after.^[17]

Recent

From 31 January to 2 February 2014, while S and SW geostrophic wind dominated,^[18] freezing rain fell on Gorski Kotar, glazing the entire region. It wrecked roofs, power lines an forests, causing power loss for about 14,000 households households in Gorski Kotar, or about 80% of its population. Because of power lines falling on the A6, the highway was closed in of Rijeka between Bosiljevo and Kikovica, and between Kikovica and Delnice in the direction of Zagreb.^[19] It took about 10 days to restore essential infrastructure to the region, and within months electricity was back in most of its former range, but at a cost of about 84.4 million HRK to HEP. At the time it was the largest peacetime damage since its Secession from Yugoslavia, even without counting the forestry losses. The Šumarija Lokve lost 23% of its wood mass.^[20] Clearing blocked forestry roads and forest paths would take years, and thanks to the declining population some were never cleared.^[21]

Culture

Since 1974, Lokve hosts the festival Žabarska noć.^[22]

Sports

The 1st Underwater Orienteering World Championships was held in Lokve in 1973.^[23]

Cycling

Beginning in 2013,^[24] the 7 stage 260 kilometres (160 mi) long Cycling Trail of Gorski Kotar (Croatian: Goranska biciklistička transverzala) passes through Lokve.^[25]

The "Gorski Kotar Bike Tour", held annually since 2012,^[26] sometimes goes through Lokve, such as in the first leg for 2022.^[27]

Mountaineering

The local HPS chapter was called HPD "Runolist",^[28]: 214 but it was liquidated on 7 October 1936.^[29]: 227

Infrastructure

Judiciary

In 1875, the kotar court of Delnice encompassed a population of 28,347, being responsible for the općine: Delnice, Lokve, Fužine, Mrkopalj, Ravna Gora, Brod, Skrad, Vrbovsko.^[30]

Notable people

• Ivan Furlan (1920 – 2000), psychologist