Slovene karst

Country Info | Towns and Places in Slovenija | Slovene karst

The celebrated British sculptor Henry Moore visited the Postojna Caves in 1955. He wrote with great enthusiasm in the visitor's book: 'This is the best exhibition of Nature's sculpture I have ever seen'.

[PHOTO] The word karst has a double meaning. If begun with a capital (Karst), then this means it is the countryside of the hinterlands of the Bay of Trieste; with a small letter at the beginning it denotes a special karst character of a certain landscape. This countryside was first visited years and years ago by curious travelers and researchers who came to unveil the unusual natural phenomena. In the previous century the Karst became a scientific workshop and classroom of a number of foreign teachers. The name karst, which the Slovenians gave to this desolate, waterless countryside in the vicinity of Trieste is overgrown with hills and covered with poor pasture land, where the sun burns in the summer and the karst gales howl in the winter, was taken up by geographers who became acquainted with the karst phenomena for the first time and then took this name to all similar regions and phenomena throughout the world. Karst has become acknowledged as an international scientific term, and with it other Slovenian popular terms, such as dolina and polje.

Water, which constantly shapes the surface of the earth, disappears in the Karst. Below the surface it has created a fantastic underworld of thousands and thousands of caves -- there are about ten thousand in Slovenia -- including six thousand explored corridors, halls, ravines, stalagmites and disappearing rivers, true subterranean poetry. The raindrops and stone and millions of years have created glittering stone crystals which have grown into stalagmites and stalactites. The deep canyons, over which the sinking rivers gurgle, cross lakes and thrust out from the underworld and reach daylight without the slightest respect for state borders. The whole experience is charged with excitement, and invites you to unravel this puzzle of nature.

Slovenia has 17 caves open to the public, where organized guides are available and tourists have complete safety guaranteed. The most famous and interesting are the Postojna Caves, Pivka Cave, Crna (Black) Cave, Predjama, Planina Cave, Skocjan Cave, Vilenica, Dimnice, Kostanjevica Cave, Tabor Cave, Krizna Cave.

The Slovene Karst has been inhabited from the glacial periods onwards, the Skocjanski Kras (the Karst of Skocjan) continually for ten thousand years, this is from the latest part of the Stone Age till today. Characteristic of the Karst is its architecture with masterly made portals, window frames, fountains and other stonecutting elements. The Refosk vine provides this region with a special red wine, the so-called Kraski Teran. The cultivation of the Karst is also emphasized by the white Lipica horses.

The more important places of the Slovene Karst are Postojna, Sezana and Cerknica. Ljubljana, the Slovene capital, grew at the junction of the Karst and Alpine regions.

The natural and cultural heritage of the karst is protected in various regional and landscape parks and nature reserves. Numerous natural and cultural as well as endangered and rare plant and animal species are also rotected.

Take a more detailed tour along the Karst Route.