Škocjan Caves Regional Park is located in the Škocjan Karst, a vast flat landscape that lies at an elevation between 420 and 450 m in the southeast part of the Karst area. Following its independence, the

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

committed itself to protecting the

Škocjan Caves Škocjan Caves (; sl, Škocjanske jame, it, Grotte di San Canziano) is a cave system in Slovenia. Due to its exceptional significance, Škocjan Caves was entered on UNESCO’s list of natural and cultural World Heritage Sites in 1986. Internati ...

area; for this reason, it established Škocjan Caves Regional Park and its managing authority, the Škocjan Caves Park Public Service Agency.

Position and surface

The narrow protected

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

covers 4.15 km² and encompasses the area above

, the Reka Gorge, and the surrounding collapse dolines. It comprises the villages of Škocjan, Betanja, and Matavun. The area of influence of the park comprises the entire Reka River watershed and covers 450 km². It lies at the extensive junction of the karst and nonkarst areas. At the easternmost border of the area of influence, the 1,796 m Mount Snežnik ( Snežnik, Slovenia (mountain))reigns; it is the highest non-alpine mountain in Slovenia.
At first sight, the Škocjan Karst surface appears to be flat, but in reality it is very dynamic. This characteristic landscape that developed in

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

s is named karst, derived from the name of the Karst area. The solubility of rocks that form the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

's surface is the most effective agent of karstification. Falling water in the Karst sinks and drains underground through fissures. The caves are formed in this way; on the surface this occurs in different karst depressions of various sizes. The most frequent karst depressions are sinkholes.

Natural heritage

Natural

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physica ...

in the protected area is protected by

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. In 1996, the following natural phenomena from Škocjan Caves Regional Park were declared to be natural monuments due to their outstanding natural and aesthetic value: * ''Mala dolina'' and ''Velika dolina'' all the way to the collapse doline edge * Okroglica abyss * Walls and banks of the Reka Valley in the

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

of 150 m before the entry into Mahorčič Cave * Caves in the area of the Park: :* Škocjan Caves (Škocjan cave system) :* ''Jama na Prevali II.'' (''Mušja jama'') :* ''Mala jama na Prevali'' (''Skeletna jama'') :* Škrlica Cave * the stalactite in Lipje Caves near Divača.

Flora and fauna

Škocjan Caves, a well-known and well-explored outstanding natural phenomenon, has long been recognized as exceptional due to its extremely varied terrain and exceptionally diverse

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

. Collapse dolines and their surroundings offer shelter to rare and endangered

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

species and several

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

species, and an extraordinary

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

that has developed due to particular geomorphologic and microclimatic conditions has been preserved. The underground is rich with several species of cave animals: both those living on land and those living in water.

The Reka River

The cave was formed by the disappearing

Reka River The Reka (literally, 'river' in Slovene), also the Inner Carniola Reka ( sl, Notranjska Reka), is a river that starts as Big Creek ( hr, Vela voda) in Croatia, on the southern side of Mount Snežnik, and flows through western Slovenia, where it ...

, which gathers most of its waters on the impermeable

flysch Flysch () is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. It is deposited when a deep basin forms rapidly on the continental side of a mountain building epi ...

rock. It flows from the Škocjan Caves through the Karst underground and emerges to the surface in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

some 35 km away at the springs of the

Timavo The Timavo River, known in Slovene as the ' or ', is a two-kilometre stream in the Province of Trieste. It has four sources near San Giovanni ( sl, Štivan) near Duino ( sl, Devin) and outflows in the Gulf of Panzano (part of the Gulf of Triest ...

River. Its flow is for the most part unknown and can only be reached in few deep shafts (up to 320 m deep), but the siphons hinder any further exploration along the underground channels.
During a high water period, the Reka River flow can exceed 300 cubic m per second. Because of this, following heavy rains, it floods in the cave, usually reaching levels up to 30 m; the highest recorded rise in the water level was 132 m.

Cultural heritage

From time immemorial, the landscape in the area of

Park has attracted people; it is exceptionally rich in archaeological sites. The nature of this area is also reflected in the preserved

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

ground plan of the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

of Škocjan and its position on a large natural bridge beneath which the Reka River carved out Mahorčič and Marinič caves. This position is not coincidental. The village of Škocjan named after the church of St. Cantianius (''sv. Kancijan'') was presumably settled in the prehistoric period and undoubtedly in the Roman period. It was around this church that the village developed, leaning on the partly preserved hill fort walls inside which it is situated.
In present times, the village is almost deserted except for during the tourist

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, when visitors to the two permanent

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

exhibitions bring it back to life. Škocjan is so far registered as settlement monument in the park.
Cultural heritage properties in the area are protected by law and since 1996 some structures have been declared as cultural monuments due to their special value. Since then, the park contains various settlement monuments, archaeological monuments, historical art monuments, ethnological monuments, technical monuments, and historical monuments.Tomaž Zorman et al.: Škocjan education trail guidebook.(2003)

Area of influence

The

of influence of

Regional Park encompasses the entire

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

and covers 450 km². It includes the Snežnik mountain chain, the Reka

Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

, Brkini, Vremščica, the Košana Valley, ''Prestranško-slavinski ravnik'', ''Sajevško polje'', and the Škocjan Caves Park area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skocjan Caves Regional parks of Slovenia Protected areas in the Slovene Littoral