The Vintgar Gorge ( sl, soteska Vintgar) or Bled Gorge () is a
gorge in northwestern
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 ...
in the municipalities of
Gorje and
Bled
Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...
, four kilometers northwest of
Bled
Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...
. Carved by the
Radovna River, it is the continuation of the
Radovna Valley. The sheer canyon walls are high, with a total slope measuring about . The stream has created many erosive features such as pools and
rapids, and terminates in the picturesque Šum Falls (literally, 'noisy falls'), the largest river waterfall in Slovenia.
History
Until 1890, the gorge was mainly inaccessible, except for two points at which the Radovna could be reached, and a bridge over Šum Falls was already built in 1878. The rest of the gorge was explored in 1891 by the mayor of Gorje, Jakob Žumer, and by Benedikt Lergetporer, a prominent photographer of the era.
In 1893 the gorge was equipped with wooden observation walkways and bridges with great effort
and was opened to the public on August 26, 1893.
The walkways, which were later named Žumer Galleries () in the most prominent part of the gorge,
have been renovated several times since.
A
hydroelectric dam
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...
has also been built below the gorge and an arch railway bridge for the
Bohinj Railway
The Bohinj Railway ( sl, Bohinjska proga, it, Transalpina, german: Wocheiner Bahn) is a railway in Slovenia and Italy. It connects Jesenice in Slovenia with Trieste in Italy. It was built by Austria-Hungary from 1900 to 1906 as a part of a new ...
. The bridge, built in 1904 and 1905 of cut stone, is the largest stone arch railway bridge preserved in its entirety in Slovenia. It is long, wide and high.
Name
The word ''vintgar'' is derived from German ''Windegg(er)'' 'place exposed to the wind' via the hamlet of Vintgar at the head of the gorge in the village of
Podhom.
Another explanation claims that it derives from the German name ''Weingarten'' 'vineyard', referring to vineyards in Podhom or to the gorge resembling a wine glass in shape.
[ As the first mountain gorge in the area to be made accessible to tourists, the word ''vintgar'' has been generalized in Slovene to refer to other scenic, protected gorges, e.g. the (), the () on Pohorje, and the Ribnica Gorge () in ]Bohinj
Bohinj (; german: Wochein), or the Bohinj Valley ( sl, Bohinjska dolina) or Bohinj Basin ( sl, Bohinjska kotlina), is a 20 km long and 5 km wide basin in the Julian Alps, in the Upper Carniola region of northwestern Slovenia. It is trav ...
.
Geology
Before the last ice age, the Radovna River flowed eastward. After being dammed by the ice and detritus of the Bohinj Glacier, the resulting lake cut a new path northeast through a soft layer of Triassic
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...
limestone between the hills Boršt () and Hom (), towards the Upper Sava Valley.
References
External links
*
Vintgar Gorge at the Bled municipal website
Vintgar
{{Coord, 46.390, N, 14.083, E, display=title, source:dewiki
Triglav National Park
Tourist attractions in Slovenia
Canyons and gorges of Slovenia
Municipality of Bled
Municipality of Gorje
Landforms of Upper Carniola
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