Heritage in the Vipava Valley

Along the river Vipava which flows into de Soča and then into the Adriatic sea, the himpact of the Mediterranean spreads into the valley. The sharp northernly and the warm southernly winds create conditions for vegetal variety and uniqueness. The valley and its margins are a miracle, woven of contradictions -at the bottom of the valley vines are in bud and on the tops of the Nanos and the Caven, only a twenty-minute drive away, you will wade through snow. A peculiar characteristic of the upper part of the Vipava valley is the strong north-easternly wine "burja" which blows with a speed of 18o km/h and stronger. Burja is also the reason for the picturesque image of roofs laden with stones in the whole valley.

The nature has created numerous beautiful phenomena in the Karst world. One of the wonders is the natural window "Otilško okno" on the edge of the plateau Gora. In the areas of the Trnovski gozd and the Nanos a concealed cave world of abysses and ice caves attract the visitors. The river Vipava springs out from under the rocks walls of the Nanos and is probably the only European river with its spring in a delta-shape. After the river Hubelj, which the Romans had called Frigidum (Cold river), the fortification on its right bank was named Castrum ad Fluvium Frigidum. On the same location the town of Ajdovščina emerged, nowadays the centre of the vally, famous for its Roman walls, one of the better researched and preserved citiy walls in Europe.

The town of Vipava is also known as the "Slovene Venice", where the visitor is attracted by the baroque Lanthieri manor. Two sarcophagi made of red Assuan granite at the graveyard in Vipava tell the story of Anton Laurin, a native of Vipava who was an Austrian diplomat, and his life. He had brought the four-and-half thousand years old stone coffins from Egypt. On the slope above the town the ruins of the old Vipava castle can be seen from far away. Its striking contrast is the well preserved hunting manor Zemono dating from the 17th century.

Vipavski Kriz is the former judicial, administrative and cultural centre of the valley, which acquired town privileges as early as 1533. Located at the castel walls in the Capuchin convent with a rich library and the friar's cell of its most famous monk, the preacher Janez Svetoriški.

Concentrated villages, narrow streets which protect from "burja", stony houses, more and more ofteh renovated in the "old style", churches in village centres, many of them being gothic, yet the most are baroque. From the church of Saint Vitus with precious marble in the village Podnanos to the Tabor above Crniče, from the golden altars in Podbrje to the chapel of Saint Notburga in Slap, from Saint Stephen in Vipava to Saint Peter in Dobravlje. Outstanding are the stonecutting and architectural heritage in Goče with more than sixty vaulted cellars and the highetst-lying Roman water tower in Slovenia, located above the vilage of Vrtovin. Last but not at all least the view from the edge of the Gora and the Nanos plateaus all the way to the Adriatic Sea in the South and the snow-covered Alpine peaks in the North.

The Valley is the cradle of Slovenia's national anthem. The choral composition for the poem Zdravljica, writenn by Slovenia's greatest poet France Prešeren, being an ode to the nation, freedom, friendship among nations and to vine, was composed by Stanko Premrl, born in the village of Podnanos.

Further information:

Tourist Information Centre Vipava

Glavni trg 1, 5271 Vipava

Tel:             00 386 5 368 70 41       

E-mail: tic.vipava@siol.net, tic.ajdovscina@siol.net

www.vipavska-dolina.si