Kranjska Gora

virtual excursion

Juliana trail passing Kranjska Gora area (2020)

Virtual hike from JKranjska Gora to Vršič pass (2013)

Virtual Museum: Liznjek Homestad

The Municipality of Kranjska Gora is located in the far northwestern corner of Slovenia, on the tripleborder of Austria and Italy, at the foot of the Julian Alps with the Triglav National Park and Karavanke, in the narrower area of the Triglav National Park. Kranjska Gora is a municipal center and the largest town of the Upper Sava Valley. It is also a mountain tourist destination and an important, world-renowned winter sports center. A new, tourist part of the village, with hotels, private rooms and apartments, holiday homes, recreational facilities and shopping center, has grown around the old village core. The municipality of Kranjska Gora covers 256 km2 of area. It was founded in early 1995. The largest settlement in the municipality is Kranjska Gora with about 1,500 inhabitants, followed by Mojstrana with about 1,100 inhabitants and settlements Dovje, Rateče and Forest-Martuljek. Kranjska Gora is an important tourist and winter sports center, which stands in the upper part of the Sava Valley at the outflow of Pišnica River into the Sava Dolinka River. A new, mostly tourist part of the settlement with hotels, holiday apartments and houses, recreational facilities, shops and cable cars, as well as skiing and cycling and footpaths are built around the old village core.

All this gives Kranjska Gora with nearby settlements Podkoren, Gozd Martuljek and Rateče the image of a single Upper Sava tourist area, important in both summer and winter tourism. Kranjska Gora is the venue for important international skiing competitions in alpine skiing and ski jumping/flight in Planica.

Kranjska Gora was originally named Borovška vas and was originally populated with Slovenian Carinthians. At the time when Kranjska Gora was formed, the masters of the Upper Sava Valley were Briksen and the counts of Ortenburg, and later the estate was succeeded by the Counts of Celje. Count Frederick II. in 1431 the castle of the White Stove was erected.

During the Ottoman invasions, the first house in Srednji vrh was built, where the Turks arrival are announced with bonfire. The house is still called 'pr'Merkeljen' today (a whimpering "meter" - guard).
In 1870, the Ljubljana-Rateče-Trbiz railway line was opened. In the period between the First and Second World War, the flexible timetable contributed to the rise of tourism, mountaineering and after the crisis period to the vibrant boom of the Upper Sava economy. The beginnings of tourism date back to 1904. First of all, summer-climatic tourism, hiking and mountaineering developed, and winter tourism during the two wars: sledding, jumping in Planica and skiing. Today, the Municipality of Kranjska Gora has 4,500 tourist beds in hotels, private households, apartments and private rooms. The central cultural monument is the wonderful church of the Mary of the Assumption, built in late Gothic style.

The upper part of the Sava Dolinka valley was poorly populated by the 14th century; It was not until the beginning of the 14th century that the newly supported people began to shrink more forests there and turn them into agricultural land. The place, which is first mentioned in the old documents in 1326 as Chrainow, became an old church and administrative center for villages from Podkoren to Srednji vrh.

The settlement, which has been significantly away in the past centuries, became more accessible when the Jesenice - Trbiz railway line was built in 1870, which was abandoned in 1966. With the construction of the route, the daily departure of the workforce began mainly to Jesenice to the local ironwork as well as tourism development. During the First World War, the road across the Vršič pass was facilitated by access to the mountain world and the Soča valley.

On April 8, 1941, the place was occupied by Italian occupation units, but soon left it to the German occupier. He temporarily settled the Germans from Ljubljana, who opted for Germany in 1941. Just before the end of the war, there were fierce fighting between the partisans and the retreating German army.

In the old village core of the present-day Kranjska Gora stands the church of the Virgin Mary of the Assumption, in the old documents also mentioned for the first time in 1326 as a branch of the Radovljica Prafara, became the parish church in 1630. The late Gothic building has a star vaulted presbytery and a rectangular nave, which was extended to the original free -standing bell tower set around 1500 in the 19th century.

Among the secular buildings, the 300 -year -old Liznjek homestead (Borovška cesta 63) is best preserved, with an ethnographic collection next to the "black kitchen" and the preserved arrangement of the premises. In the old part of the village, at the birthplace of the writer, author of popular stories about Kekec, J. Vandota Memorial Plan (Podbreg 27).

Sources and literature:

'Population by settlements, detailed data, Slovenia, January 10, 2019'. Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, January 10, 2019;
Senegačnik J., Slovenia and its provinces, Modrijan 2012;
Atlas of Slovenia in the Word and Picture, Slovenia REgions and People, Mladinska knjiga, Kovač M., 1998.

Burger Landmarks / MojaSlovenija.si

Digitalizacija dediščine: (c) Boštjan Burger, (1993) 1996-2024