Historically and culturally speaking, the Gacka region is best known for the Japod culture. It was a significant, impressive, and wealthy society that flourished constantly beginning in the 11th century BC and lasted for more than a millennium. It is assumed that it continued to function during the time of Roman rule in parallel with the culture of the Roman conquerors of the century after Christ.

 The Japod culture, which contemporary research increasingly distinguishes from the Illyrian culture by seeing the Japods as a distinct entity and ethnicity, is prehistoric and suggests that a civilization older must have existed from which such a tremendous culture emerged. The older era, which can also be considered ancient because there are no written records, came before the Bronze Age and started the Younger Stone Age. The so-called Mesolithic was a transitional period that existed between the Older and Younger Stone Ages. The Mesolithic in the area of ​​the current region of Gacka covered the period from roughly 10,000 to 6,500 years before Christ.

As shown by Pećina (which in literal translation means the cave) in the Gacke area, it was a time when man was still a hunter of wild animals.

Pećina is not a general name for every cave area, but the name for the Pećina site near the Pećina spring in Ličko Lešće, near the source of Kostelka, a tributary of the Gacka River, and that part of Lešće bears the same name. Lešćarska Pećina is really impressive, it has a large opening, its floor gradually descends slightly into the depth.

Charred animal bones from the Mesolithic age (man hunters) have been found in some excavations. On the bones, there are signs of tools, although evidence of this culture has also been discovered from the later Japod period. As a result, the Cave attests to its extensive use over a long period of time, both constantly and irregularly.

Visitors are given access to this archaeological site near at hand. You only need to walk 100 meters down to the other side of the cave from the Pećina spring, or the Croatian Center for Indigenous Species of Fish and Crabs in Karst Waters, switch on your imagination, and try to travel back several thousand years in time to smell the aromas of the past. All the conveniences of prehistoric life are present here, including the cave-like shelter in the rock, a forest, a body of water, and springs.

 Enjoy untouched environment, a trip back in time, and learn about the Pećina at Ličko Lešće, a magnificent tourist destination of the highest caliber!