Prezid Border Village

Prezid sits at 780 metres altitude directly on the Slovenian border in the extreme north-west of Croatia — for centuries it was the last outpost of Habsburg Croatia before you crossed into Habsburg Slovenia, and the village is named after the customs wall (prezid = 'preserved wall') that once ran through the middle of its main street. Today the border has vanished thanks to Schengen but the village retains an atmospheric frontier feel: many houses are literally built with their front door in Croatia and their back garden in Slovenia. The lovely 17th-century parish church of St. Barbara has a fascinating interior with folk-baroque frescoes, and the small ethnographic museum in the village hall has excellent displays on the traditional shepherding culture of these highest Croatian mountain villages. Just outside the village a signed 40-minute walk leads to Kalčeva vas viewpoint with a stunning view over both the Croatian Delnice basin and the Slovenian Bela Krajina — one of the few spots in Europe where you can look at two countries with a single glance. In winter Prezid regularly records the coldest temperatures in Croatia; –32 °C in January 1963 remains a national record.