Country Info | Towns and Places in Slovenija | Slovene karst | The Karst Route

Sezana is a small town in Slovenia's Karst region, situated only about 10 km from Trieste and the Adriatic. Not far from the town of Sezana lie the caves of Vilenica, the first cave in Slovenia to became a tourist destination (the first guided tour having been recorded in the 17th Century). The cave features a number of exceptionally beautiful stalactites and stalagmites in small, but fascinatingly moulded caverns. The Vilenica caves are the site of an annual international literary gathering known under the same name.

The famous Lipica stud farm, with its long-standing tradition is located very close to the Vilenica caves. This is a highly developed tourist center complete with hotels, beautiful surroundings, riding school, presentations of horsemanship and dressage and nine-hole golf course, plus horse-drawn carriage rides. It is ideal for excursions.

The road leading through the village of Lokev takes us to Skocjan Caves -- a natural wonder unrivalled anywhere else in the world. The many caverns of the Skocjan caves are interconnected through passages and natural bridges, spanning the foaming Reka river that flows in a rushing torrent through a canyon one hundred meters below the cave's bridges (img.) and walkways. The caves' extensiveness and unique rock formations (sink holes, etc.) are exceptional. The Skocjan caves are under UNESCO protection and listed on the Register of the World's natural heritage.

The road then takes us past Divaca and through Senozece, past the beginning of the motorway that skirts the foot of the monolithic 1313 m -high Nanos, to the romantic Predjama Castle (img.). This castle, with its museum and many legends from its past, is situated at the entrance to another complex of subterranean caves.

The next stop on our itinerary is Postojna, where there are more spacious 'ballrooms and halls' beneath the earth than in the town itself. Just beneath the surface of the surrounding countryside overgrown with typical karst vegetation, lies a complex of three interconnected caves: Postojna, Pivka and Crna (6.5 km of which can be viewed by tourists). Visitors are taken through the first cave, which is also the longest, studded with stalactites and stalagmites of various shapes and sizes, on a tourist railway. The Postojna Caves are among the most visited and most beautiful caves in the world. The beginnings of tourism date back to 1819, and the caves were equipped with electric lighting in 1884, while from the first organized guided tours of the caves which took place after World War I until the present day, the Postojna Caves have been visited by over 25 million tourists.

From Postojna, the old road takes us over a 600 m -high pass and beneath the motorway, to the nearby plateau of Planina. Situated at the far end of the Planina karst polje and seasonal lake, at the far end of a dell, is the mighty entrance to the 6 km -long Planina caves. Deep within the caves, the river Reka from the seasonal lake of Cerknisko Jezero and the river Pivka from The Postojna Caves, converge to form the River Unec, which gushes from the entrance of the cave, disappears again into subterranean channels at the end of the Planina polje and emerges again by the town of Vrhnika as the Ljubljanica river, which flows through the capital of Slovenia. Roughly one kilometer of the Planinska caves can be viewed when the water table is favorable.

Only few kilometers separate Planina from Rakov Skocjan, where just about the entire range of karst formations -- a natural encyclopaedia of karst formations, one could say, can be found on an area of only 37 ha. These formations include caves, natural bridges, chasms, canyons, karst polje, valleys and so forth. When the conditions are right even the ice (img.) tries to imitate the stalagmites.

Again we travel only a few kilometers further and already we find ourselves on the shores of the Cerknica lake. That is, of course, if the lake is there. This unique seasonal 'disappearing' lake was marvelled at by the ancient Romans, and a description of it gained the 17th Century Carniolan historian J. V. Valvasor honorary membership in the Royal Geographical Society in London. The bed of the lake is made up of a huge Karst 'sieve' with numerous syphons that spew out or swallow up water (depending on the water table) and inaccessible subterranean labyrinth. The maximum surface area of the lake is 26 square kilometers, and in the summer, it shrinks into a number of small puddles (img.), of which only one is permanent. An island with a little village is located at the center of the lake and the lake is a favorite haunt for enthusiasts of photography, fishing, sailing, rowing, bathing, and in the winter, ice-skating.

These are by no means all the wonders the Karst countryside has to offer. Located just a few kilometers above the Cerknica lake is another cave: Krizna Jama. The caves are unique in that they are in fact a water course, so that visits are possible only when the water table is favorable. All the necessary equipment for viewing the cave's 22 lakes and many rock formations (which are no less beautiful than those in the Postojna or Vilenica Caves) is made available by the guides. As one can hardly visit all these fascinating places in a single day, especially since it would be a pity to rush past so many beautiful natural wonders, we suggest you spend the night in Postojna, which is situated just about half way along this route.

Adapted by M. Martinec from the: Welcome to Slovenija, published by the Ministry of Tourism of Republic Slovenia, summer 1993.

See also The Karst.