Panoramic spot along the road to Vršič pass. Sculptor Jakob Svinšek made in 50-ies of 20th Century a statue of Julius Kugy with the orientation toward Jalovec Mountain.
Julius Kugy (1858-1944) was a mountaineer and researcher of Julian Alps. Together with Henrik Tuma, Kugy is considered the father of modern mountaineering in the Julian Alps. He wrote seven books, mostly dedicated to the area of Julian Alps.
More > Julius Kugy.
Julij Kugy, born in 1858 in Gorizia, was a man who transcended the boundaries of his time and place. His life was a tapestry of cultures, languages, and landscapes that shaped him into one of the most distinctive figures of the Alpine world. He grew up in Trieste, a city where Slavic, Romance, and Germanic worlds met, and this multicultural environment became the foundation of his identity. He often emphasized that he was German by culture, Slovenian by origin, and at heart a man of the mountains. This blend of identities was not a division but a richness that enabled him to present the Julian Alps to the world in a way no one before him had achieved.
Although trained as a lawyer and professionally a successful Trieste merchant, his true life unfolded among peaks, ravines, and scree slopes. The mountains were his home, his classroom, and his greatest love. As a young man, he explored the mysterious flora of the Julian Alps, captivated by its rarity and fragility. The search for the legendary flower Scabiosa trenta became a symbol of his exploratory spirit—not for the goal itself, but for the path he had to walk in order to find it. In the mountains he saw more than a natural backdrop; he saw a place where a person meets oneself, where one’s limits are revealed, and where humility is born.
Kugy was not a typical alpinist driven by the desire to conquer. On the contrary, he respected the mountains as living beings, as a world to be understood rather than subdued. His ascents were imbued with a deep sense of nature, of the people who lived in the mountains, and of the stories hidden in every rocky ridge. With the guides of Trenta—most notably Anton Tožbar—he discovered new routes and directions, yet he never failed to emphasize that it was the local people who opened his eyes and heart to this world. His mountaineering activity was therefore always a tribute to the people of Trenta, whom he admired for their modesty, perseverance, and connection to nature.
The First World War brought devastation into his world, yet even then he remained true to his principles. Although drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army, he refused to bear arms. He offered his knowledge of the mountains to assist with orientation and logistics, but he never crossed the line that would have turned him into a soldier. At a time when the world was falling apart, he remained a man who believed in the values of peace, respect, and humanity.
After the war, he devoted himself to writing, and it was here that he created his most enduring work. His books—among them From the Life of a Mountaineer, Work, Music, Mountains, and The Centenary of Trenta—are not merely mountaineering accounts but literary works infused with philosophy, humor, and a profound love of nature. They weave together botany, geography, history, and personal experience, yet above all they radiate a deep respect for the world he described. Kugy knew how to portray the mountains in such a way that they became mythic—a place where one does not lose oneself, but finds oneself.
He died in 1944 in Trieste, the city that had accompanied him throughout his life. Yet his legacy lives on: in the routes he helped discover, in the books that continue to inspire generations of mountaineers, and in the spirit of reverence for nature that he so passionately defended. Julij Kugy was not only a mountaineer or a writer. He was a bridge between cultures, between humanity and nature, between past and future. His vision of the mountains as a realm of beauty, peace, and inner growth remains one of the most noble contributions to Slovenian and European cultural history.