The Central Sava Valley ( sl, Zasavje) is a valley in the

Sava Hills The Sava Hills ( sl, Posavsko hribovje) are the eastern part of the Slovene Prealps. They are oriented in the east-west direction and are located to the north and south of the Sava River in central and eastern Slovenia, among the Ljubljana Basin ...

and a geographic region along the

Sava The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally th ...

in central

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 ...

, now constituting the

Central Sava Statistical Region The Central Sava Statistical RegionBoršič, Darja, & Alenka Kavkler. 2009. Modeling Unemployment Duration in Slovenia Using Cox Regression Models. ''Transition Studies Review'' 54(1): 145–156, p. 148. ( sl, Zasavska statistična regija) is a s ...

. The region consists of three municipalities:

Zagorje ob Savi Zagorje ob Savi (; german: Sagor,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 96. ''Seger an der Sau'') is a town in the Central Sava Valley in ce ...

Trbovlje Trbovlje (; german: Trifail''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 4: ''Štajersko''. 1904. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 58.) is Slovenia's tenth-largest town, and the seat of the Municipality o ...

, and

Hrastnik Hrastnik (, German: ''Hrastnigg'') is a town in the Central Sava Valley in central Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Hrastnik. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The entire municipality is now included in the Centr ...

. Several coal mines operated in the Central Sava Valley, although all except the Trbovlje–Hrastnik Mine are now defunct. It is surrounded by the

, with Kum () on the right side of the Sava and Black Peak () on at the left side of the Sava, as its highest peaks.

History

The Slovene term ''Zasavje'' for this area is a recent coinageVrišer, Igor. 1963. ''Rudarska mesta Zagorje, Trbovlje, Hrastnik''. Ljubljana: Slovenska Matica, p. 13 that did not come into general use until the 1920s, with the western part of the region being part of

Carniola Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region sti ...

( sl, Kranjska) and its eastern part (Trbovlje and Hrastnik) belonging to

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

( sl, Štajerska). Due to its

coalmining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

tradition, it was one of the first regions in today's Slovenia to be industrialized in the 19th century. Construction of the

Austrian Southern Railway The Austrian Southern Railway (german: link=no, Österreichische Südbahn) is a long double track railway, which linked the capital Vienna with Trieste, former main seaport of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, by railway for the first time. It now ...

, which led from

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

through Slovenia and the Central Sava Valley in 1849, was a major milestone.

Notes

References

External links

* Historical regions in Slovenia Sava basin Valleys of Slovenia {{slovenia-geo-stub