The Josephina is a historic road in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 that connects Senj

Senj

Senj , German Zengg, Hungarian Zeng and Italian Segna) is the oldest town on the upper Adriatic, and it was founded in the time before the Romans some 3000 years ago on the hill Kuk. It was the center of the Illyrian tribe Iapydes. The current settlement is situated at the foot of the slopes Mala...

 and thus the Adriatic coast and Karlovac

Karlovac

Karlovac is a city and municipality in central Croatia. The city proper has a population of 49,082, while the municipality has a population of 59,395 inhabitants .Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County...

 and the Pannonian plain. It crosses the Dinaric Alps

Dinaric Alps

The Dinaric Alps or Dinarides form a mountain chain in Southern Europe, spanning areas of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro....

 via the Vratnik pass (700 m) between Senj and Brinje

Brinje

Brinje is a municipality in Lika-Senj County, Croatia, located about 35 miles from Gospić. According to 2001 census, Brinje had 4,108 inhabitants, out of which 92% were Croats. The municipality is part of Lika....

 and the Kapela Pass between Brinje and Modruš

Modruš

Modruš is a village in the mountainous part of Croatia, located south of Josipdol. The population is 197 .This now small village is historically noted as the seat of one of the medieval Catholic bishoprics, established in 1185 in Krbava and moved to Modruš in the 1460s. It later became the Roman...

.

The passage was already in use during Roman time as a salt road

Salt Road

A salt road ) is any of the prehistoric and historical trade routes by which essential salt has been transported to regions that lacked it ....

, and it became important for timber and other goods in the Middle Ages. In modern times Emperor Joseph II commissioned the reconstruction of the 113 km road, and it was built and expanded by Knežević during the years 1770 to 1779. It was named after the Emperor who had commissioned the work. With the French occupation

French colonial empire

The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

 additional improvements were performed.

The road has been further upgraded and modernized, and even today the section through the Dinaric Alps represents just one of the few links between the coast and the hinterland. As Road D23 it connects the Adriatic Highway with the A1

A1 (Croatia)

The A1 motorway is the longest motorway in Croatia spanning . As it connects Zagreb, the nation's capital, to Split, the second largest city in the country and the largest city in Dalmatia, the motorway represents a major north–south transportation corridor in Croatia and a significant part of the...

 highway. The Kapela pass is bypassed by the A1 by the Mala Kapela Tunnel

Mala Kapela Tunnel

Mala Kapela Tunnel is the most significant structure on the Croatian A1 motorway route. As it is long , Mala Kapela Tunnel is the longest tunnel in Croatia. The tunnel is geographically located between villages of Jezerane and Modruš , and between Ogulin and Brinje motorway interchanges...

.