Louisiana road (Croatia)

The Louisiana road is a roadway in Croatia, built between 1803 and 1812 by an association of noble families and designed by Josef Philipp Vukassovich. The road was finished by the French Empire. It is named after Napoleon's second wife Marie Louise.
It linked Rijeka with Karlovac through Grobničko polje, Kamenjak, Gornje Jelenje, Lokve, Delnice, Skrad, Stubica, Severin na Kupi, and Netretić. The length of the Louisiana road was 18 Austrian miles. It was about 8 m wide. It was the shortest route between Rijeka and Karlovac, and was one of the most modern roads in the empire. With the building of the Lujzijana, the Karolina road became less important.

History

After the Lujzijana was built, the Družtvo lujzinske ceste constructed a number of inns along it to provide it with the necessary infrastructure and maintenance income. The inns from Rijeka to Karlovac: Hrast, Zagradište near Kamenjak, Kamenjak, Škrobutnjak, Jelenje, Hundsberg by Bakar, Osoje, Mrzla Vodica, Mala Voda, Sopač, Delnice, Zalisina, Skrad, Vučinić Selo, Lovnik, Vučnik, Severin, Zdihovo, Bosance, Vukova Gorica, Stative, and Borlin. In 1874, the society would sell all its assets along the road, including those in Jelenje.
In 1864, a rinderpest outbreak in Bosanci and Kasuni caused the Lujzijana to be closed to horned traffic for 21 days in December.