Protected areas - Slovenian Alps

Triglav National Park

Boasting a number of peculiarities, the Triglav National Park is the largest and the earliest protected natural heritage site in the country.

Pokljuka

Pokljuka, for example, is the southernmost highland marsh (moor) in Europe and a natural habitat of sphagnum moss.

Zelenci

“There is nothing more beautiful in Europe than this,” wrote Sir Humphry Davy about the beauties of the Sava Valley with its waterfalls and lakes.

The Zelenci Lake can be discovered immediately after the village of Podkoren on the southern side of the main road. This natural reserve is home to various interesting flora, among it carnivorous sundew, and among animals, amphibians and nesting birds are represented in large numbers.

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Mala Pišnica

Mala Pišnica is a closed 5-kilometre-long Alpine valley that was created by a mountain brook of the same name. There is only an unmarked hunting path leading through it. In the upper part of the valley, there is even a part of a primeval forest with one of the oldest and mightiest larches in Europe.

If you would like to see this protected forest reserve, register for a guided tour in the Mala Pišnica Valley. The starting point into the valley is at the artificial Jasna Lake, but the trail is unmarked.

Jama pod Babjim zobom

One of Slovenia’s oldest underground beauties

The 300-metre-long cave under Babji zob (Jama pod Babjim zobom) is rich in calcareous formations, including calcite crystals as the cave’s most prominent feature. The cave’s main attractions are helictites of curving or angular shape, and magnificent bipyramid calcite crystals, which are a rarity in Slovenia. Since the 1970s, the cave has been maintained and operated by the Cave Exploration Society Bled (Društvo za raziskovanje jam Bled), which has protected the cave, laid down the paths, and arranged electricity.

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The Udin Boršt reserve and memorial park

With its forest reserve and special botanical features, the Udin Boršt reserve and memorial park near Kranj is also worth a visit.

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Lipnica Valley

Owing to its specific cultural heritage and preserved natural landscape, the Lipnica Valley is protected as an area of complex cultural heritage in an open space.

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Kevdrc and Lubnik Cave

These are archaeological sites from the aeneolithic period (the Bronze Age, 2200-1800 years BC). In Kevdrc, the most famous of them, one can admire the diversity of fauna. The artefacts found in the cave include clay vessels with specific "Lubnik-type" ornamentation, as well as stone implements such as handaxes, knife-like tools, scrapers, arrowheads and grinders.

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Marijino brezno

The cave Marijino brezno (St Mary ‘s Abyss) developed from Oligocene clays and conglomerates and is the longest cave in such rudiments in Slovenia. During the day, the cave is a resting place for a large colony of bats, mostly lesser horseshoe bats (Rhindophus hipposideras), and therefore normally closed to public. Visits are only possible by previous arrangement with the speleologists.

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