Baske Ostarije is a place with 50 inhabitants (924 meters above sea level), situated on the pass of the same name in Velebit, on the road Gospic-Karlobag. On a small plateau there was a church built in 1855, and the waterworks built in 1939.
There is the Velebno Hotel which was bombed by the Chetniks during the last war. In 1994 a more beautiful hotel building was built, and now it is an attractive winter-centre belonging to Industro-gradnja. On the adjacent grounds there are ski-slopes and ski-lifts. It is a starting point for hiking tours for Becic kuk, Dobra and Vidikovac Kubus which is 3 km away and from where there is a panoramic view over the Kornati Isles and the island of Pag. Ostarije is an Italian word, originally meaning "an inn by the road".
Not far away there is Krasno - the most attractive Velebit settlement, first mentioned in 1515. In 1776 Krasno already had a forester's cabin, and after some time it also got a large saw-mill which is still there. Next to Krasno there is the Devcic village with its sanctuary. Farther ahead, towards the middle part of Velebit, there is the most attractive Velebit locality - the Stirovaca wood. A great cable-railway drags the wood all the way down from Velebit to the coastal settlements Jablanac and Sitnica na moru.
In the surrounding area there is the most beautiful Adriatic cove Zavrtnica. In 1992 Lukina jama (Luka's pit) was found on Velebit and explored in 1993. It was named after Ozren Lukic, a speleologist who was killed on Velebit in 1992 as a member of the Croatian army. The speleologists went down into the depth of 1392 meters, which places Lukina jama among 8 deepest pits in the world. They brought back some great findings. A new kind of a leech was discovered in the pit. It was a new endemic species of the Croatian karst.
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