Idrija - a heritage of mercury mining and lace making

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Year 1492: Columbus discovers America; Reconquista is finished; Lorenzo de'Medici dies in Florence. In a remote part of the then Venetian terra ferma, situated right near the borders of the Adriatic Sea and Black Sea water drainage basins, and of the Karst and subalpine regions, free mercury has just been discovered in a stream. Colonization begins; a new town spawns in a narrow valley, its name derived from Hydrargirum, the Latin for mercury. The mine is to become the world's second largest, after Almaden, Spain.

The region was volatile. Venice had to yield it to Austria in 1509. As of 1575 the mine was directly subject to the Austrian Emperor; consequently, most documents are nowadays to be found in the Vienna Hofkammerarchiv. From 1797 to 1813 the region was occupied by the French as part of the Illyrian provinces. Between WWI and WWII the region was part of Italy.

A complicated geological fault system necessitated digging of deep pits (recently reaching 400 meters), and fighting large quantities of intruding water. This made Idrija a center of technological innovation for centuries, attracting many famous people from Austria and other countries, and an important part of the scientific endeavor in Slovenia throughout its history.

After 500 years of operation, and after having produced 107,000 tons, or 13 percent of the world production of mercury, the mine is being closed due to low mercury prices and ore exhaustion. Idrija's industry managed to shift rather painlessly to being one of the largest world producers of small electric motors and their components, and to furniture-making.

The lace is part of local tradition, and widely recognized. The craft was brought there a couple of hundred years ago by Czech or German families working in the mine or its headquarters. Basically, it was an appropriate activity in a culture not dependent on agriculture for survival. The Idrija lace is now registered as a trademark, and care is being taken to preserve the craft itself. The Idrija lace proper was established in 1870's and was made with 7 pairs of bobbins.

Idrija's coat of arms features a figure of the god Mercury modeled after a statue attributed to de Vries, c. 1610, and possibly to G. Bologna, and whose copy can be seen, for example, in the Rotunda of the National Gallery in Washington.

From various sources; with thanks to Darko Viler.

R. Krivec