Freshwater Aquarium Karlovac is an attraction in every sense: ecological, educational, tourist, scientific or simply because of its originality and the fact that freshwater aquarium does not exist anywhere in the wider region, except in the heart of Croatia, surrounded by four rivers - in Karlovac. Through its work, besides the function of the aquarium, it has the task to present the traditional culture, the geological past and the way of life along the rivers and is available to the scientific sector. No European country has such diverse and preserved rivers as Croatia. Our rivers are vast, but still insufficiently discovered treasure.
The aquarium setting in Karlovac aquarium tracks the flow of the typical karst river, providing a detailed, interesting, instructive and exciting view of the miraculous freshwater world. Each visitor can thus experience a river flow from the source to the mouth. Aquariums in Aquatika are biotopic, which means that we wanted to show more credible the typical karst river, and we therefore planted plants from our rivers in aquariums.
Aquatics's specialty is its contemporary design, which was designed by experts from the award-winning 3LHD Studio in Zagreb. The Aquatika is designed on a 8327 square meter building block as a two-story building with a ground floor and an underground floor. The facility has 2781 square meters, and the aquarium is be able to receive 150 visitors at once.
Additional facilities
Aquatika also has many additional features. Firstly, the congress hall with a capacity of 120 people in the cinema setting and is located in the aquarium part of the complex, with a special entrance for those who just want to rent the hall without entering the aquarium. It is a special due to the two aquariums in it. Then there is an educational hall / playroom equipped with children's furniture and surround sound.
Also in its complex, Aquatika offers a souvenir shop with local products from local craftsmen and family farms at very affordable prices. Furthermore, we need to mention the reading room where from the opening there is a collection of "Speleoteka in guests". This is a fund of books from the speleologists from the speleological associations in Karlovac and consists of books, magazines, thematic separations, brochures and parts of audiovisual material and it counts about 5000 single titles. The topics are related to the scientific areas of geology, archeology, geomorphology, speleology, speleoclimatology, hydrogeology, paleontology, geography, biology and biospeleology, and protection of karst and nature. Part of the publication is related to speleophotography (monographs), speleology, history of karst research and so on. Ultimately, Aquatika will equip its own science reading room in the field of natural sciences.
And finally, Aquatika has a coffee bar with a full-time working hours from 8 am to 9 pm every day (and Friday from 7am to 9pm), a square as a public space and two playgrounds for children on the outside of the complex overlooking the Korana. The doors of the aquarium exhibition are open to all visitors in summer time from 10am untill 8pm, and in winter from 10am untill 6pm.
Kaquarium project
Public institution AQUATIKA – FRESHWATER AQUARIUM KARLOVAC has been created within the project under the name „FRESHWATER AQUARIUM AND THE MUSEUM OF RIVERS – KAQUARIUM“ which was cofinanced by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Regional Competitiveness Operational Programme 2007-2013 in amount 36.222.282,45 kn, and total value of the project is 36.691.939,25 kn.
