Fringe Possibilities – Following The Drava (Lost Lands #86)

I just thought of a great title for a history/travel book, Between the Danube and Drava: An Intimate History. This book would be a travelogue covering the area between the Danube and Drava Rivers which includes a small part of the South Tyrol in Italy, most of Austria, western and southern Hungary, northern Slovenia, and the northeastern tip of Croatia. Not long after that title first came to me, I realized that the geographical area between the Danube and Drava Rivers includes several of the most prosperous regions of the nations it passes through. This is an idea in need of further investigation, but right now I am more concerned about developing my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders. That is what got me thinking about the Drava River and its place in Europe. If you are a traveler to the continent and not familiar with the Drava River, consider yourself part of the majority.?

Silent Waters - Quiet Flows The Drava

The Danube garners the lion’s share of attention for rivers in Eastern and Central Europe. The Blue Danube is the stuff legends are made of, even though the river waters are not blue. If Richard Strauss had composed the Blue Drava, I seriously doubt whether that river would have achieved the same level of fame. Mainly because few people other than those who live along its banks would have been able to locate it first. Austrians are most often connected to the Danube?though the famed river only flows along its northern frontier. The Drava runs along Austria’s southern fringes then weaves its way through northern Slovenia and onward along the Hungary-Croatia border for 133 kilometers. Its final stretch surges eastward away from the border, through the city of Osijek, before finally flowing into the Danube.

One of the reasons that the Drava does not get anywhere near the attention the Danube does is because of the cities it flows through. Linz cannot compete with Vienna for name recognition. The same is true for Maribor when compared to Ljubljana and Osijek to Zagreb. I am embarrassed to say that I knew next to nothing about the Drava before studying the Hungary-Croatia border as part of my lost lands itinerary. It was only when I came across Osijek, that I recalled crossing the Drava by train on a journey from Sarajevo to Budapest. This was during my first trip to Eastern Europe and the Balkans in 2011. ?I remember thinking the Drava was the Danube until my guidebook set me straight on the matter. My attempts at remembering the Drava have been clumsy. I have also got it mixed up with the Sava River which famously flows into the Danube in Belgrade. The Drava deserves attention and respect.?

Swift Currents – Wide & Watery

I have to imagine that when the border between Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929) was being drawn at the post-World War I Paris Peace Conference, the Drava set the negotiators at ease. This had nothing to do with the languid flow of the river, nor the serene beauty that can be found along its channel and banks. Instead, the river was a natural boundary that would also be useful as a political one between Hungary and Yugoslavia. Rather than trying to figure out how to draw lines on maps of distant countries where most of the negotiators had never been, the Drava did their work for them. The phrase “good fences make good neighbors” comes to mind. The Drava was a wide, watery fence that would keep two countries that would not be on the best of terms at a distance from one another.

Croatia fought for and won its independence when Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in 1991, Unlike its borders with Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina which had been riven by conflict, there was no need for Croatia to make any adjustments to its northern border. Peaceful coexistence was something that Hungarians and Croats could agree on. When it comes to the Drava there is something else they agree on. Though the two peoples speak very different languages, they both call the river by the same name. The Drava is full of surprises. One of the biggest is that its source can be found in the South Tyrol region of Italy. This region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of World War I. South Tyrol is a long way from Hungary and Croatia. That gives some idea of the Drava’s length and scale.

The river flows for 710 kilometers (441 miles) from the Dinaric Alps to across the Pannonian Plain. The Drava is one of Europe’s more important and lesser-known rivers. It is the greatest river of the lost lands, but rather than located beyond Hungary’s borders, the Drava is one of them. That sets it apart from the Danube. Despite the Danube being viewed as inextricably linking Austria and Hungary due to the Vienna-Budapest connection, at no time does it proscribe the border between the two countries. The Drava, on the other hand, is the defining boundary for half the frontier between southern Hungary and northern Croatia. Nonetheless, there are no Hungarian cities along the river. In Croatia, the lone city is Osijek which comes after the Drava has flowed away from the border.?

Ongoing Process – A Force of Nature

The Drava is an exciting change from Hungary’s other border area with countries that are now home to the lost lands. While I enjoy finding border markers and monuments, having a force of nature to follow makes orienting my travels much easier. There is no mistaking the Drava’s location, it is always there. The river is the one constant in a region defined by upheaval and change. Unlike markers and monuments which can easily be moved, vandalized or stolen, the Drava’s channel only shifts slowly over time. Paradoxically, the shift is ongoing and imperceptible. The Drava is a reminder that empire and nations come and go, but nature is a constant. The Drava will still be there long after we have left. At least, a few of us were lucky enough to experience it.