Zelše (; in older sources also ''Želše'',''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 122. ) is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

along the road linking Cerknica and

Postojna Postojna (; , ) is a town in the traditional region of Inner Carniola, from Trieste, in southwestern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Postojna.

, at the northwestern part of the

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

Cerknica Polje Lake Cerknica (; ) is an intermittent lake in the southern part of the Cerknica Polje, a karst polje in Inner Carniola, a region in southwestern Slovenia. Description The lake, oriented in the Dinaric Alps, Dinaric direction from north-west to s ...

in the

Inner Carniola Inner Carniola ( ; ) is a traditional region of Slovenia, the southwestern part of the larger Carniola region. It comprises the Hrušica (plateau), Hrušica karst plateau up to Postojna Gate, bordering the Slovenian Littoral (the Goriška, Gor ...

region of

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. Zelše Caves ()—the source of Rak Creek, a sinking stream—lies west of the village. Big Karlovica Cave (), receiving the waters of Stržen Creek, lies southwest of the village. Industrial facilities are located east of the village.

Description

Located on the western edge of the intermittently flooded Cerknica Karst Field, Zelše occupies a low, doline-pitted

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

terrace 560 m above sea level, halfway along the regional road from Cerknica to

Postojna Postojna (; , ) is a town in the traditional region of Inner Carniola, from Trieste, in southwestern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Postojna.

. Although the

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster ( ) is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represente ...

area covers only 4.2 km², nearly a third is

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

and permanent

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

, whereas

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

and

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

forests cloak the steeper

rises to the south. The 2020 census logged 97 permanent residents—mostly commuters to Cerknica—with a handful of family farms that still practise the traditional late-summer mowing timed to the drainage of the karst field. Beneath the turf runs a dense conduit network that feeds two of Slovenia's better-known karst springs. Zelše Caves () begin in the woods 500 m west of the last house; tracer and cave surveys show 5.5 km of explored passages that capture allogenic runoff from the Bloke Plateau and deliver it as the nascent Rak River only minutes later in

Rak Škocjan Rak Škocjan (; ) is a valley and a landscape park (protected area), landscape park, part of Inner Carniola Regional Park in southwestern Slovenia. Administratively, it belongs to the settlement of Rakov Škocjan, Cerknica, Rakov Škocjan. Rak � ...

. Southwest of the village, Big Karlovica Cave takes the waters of Stržen Creek when Lake Cerknica overflows, funnelling the karst field flood into the same Rak system. Numerical modelling of this twin-sink arrangement identifies Zelše as the hydrological "switchboard" that controls how quickly Lake Cerknica can empty after high water and how sharply Rak Škocjan will flood during extreme events. Because both caves lie within the planned extension of Inner Carniola Regional Park, their catchments are now a focus of strict

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

-quality monitoring and seasonal visitor limits.

Church

South of the main crossroads, the village landmark—Saint Wolfgang's Church (Slovene )—stands on a low knoll. The church is dedicated to Saint Wolfgang () and belongs to the

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Cerknica. This Renaissance church was built around 1680 with a triple rounded

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

, unique in the region. The

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

-style belfry was added in 1732. The church has excellent

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

and is sometimes used as a venue for various concerts.

References

External links

*
Zelše on Geopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zelse Populated places in the Municipality of Cerknica