A watermill uses the power of moving water to turn a heavy stone wheel called a millstone. As the water pushes the wooden paddle wheel round, it spins the millstone inside the mill, which crushes grain (usually wheat or corn) into flour. Before electricity, every village that needed flour had to build a mill near a stream or river.
The Pliva mills are unusual because there are so many of them in a row - about seventeen old mills clustered together. They were built by local families who each owned and operated one mill. Even today, a few are used to grind grain the traditional way, and visitors can watch the millstones turning and feel the flour dust in the air.
The lakes themselves are calm and mirror-like, reflecting the forests and sky above them. The larger lake is called Veliko Plivsko jezero and the smaller one is called Malo Plivsko jezero. They were formed naturally when landslides long ago blocked the river valley and the water backed up behind the debris.
Just below the lakes, the town of Jajce has its own dramatic waterfall - the Pliva Waterfall - right in the middle of the town, where the Pliva River leaps into the Vrbas River below. It is quite rare to have a large waterfall in the centre of a town.