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Wood or stone?

Wood or stone?

Diversity of buildings in the Julian Alps

People in the Julian Alps rarely encountered each other in the past. As a result, they did things a bit differently on each side of the Alps. Even today, they have distinct customs and traditions... a unique cultural heritage. They even speak quite differently, despite the fact that Bohinj and Tolmin are only 16 kilometers apart!

The valleys of the Julian Alps and the people living in them are separated by high mountains. If people want to meet, they must take a long and difficult route over the mountains or an even longer one around them. If we draw a straight line on the map from Stara Fužina in Bohinj to Tolmin, the actual distance is just over 16 kilometers! However, because of the high mountains in between, driving from one place to the other requires traveling as much as 65 kilometers.

The cultural diversity of this area is most evident when we look at its immovable cultural heritage.
The Mediterranean cultural space is characterized by a stone culture.

Triglav National Park and the Julian Alps can roughly be divided into the Primorska and Gorenjska parts. Traditional buildings on one side are clearly distinct from those on the other side.

The Primorska part- Bovec, Tolmin, Kobarid- shows a Mediterranean influence. This is no surprise, as the very name Primorska indicates a connection to the sea. Although we are in an alpine area where wood is abundant and commonly used as building material, there are more stone buildings in Primorska region than in Gorenjska.

 

Ethnologists have closely examined the characteristics of houses in the Julian Alps and identified common features among those that are similar. We refer to groups of buildings with shared characteristics as building types.

In the Gorenjska part of the park, a wood culture is characteristic.

On the Primorska side of the Julian Alps, we find:

  • Kobarid-Tolmin building type
  • and Bovec-Trenta building type.

                       MORE HERE

The Gorenjska side of the Julian Alps is characterised by:

  • the Bohinj building type 
  • and the Upper Sava building type.

                      MORE HERE

All the houses and other buildings that humans have constructed over the centuries in the mountains and valleys of the Julian Alps, as well as in other environments, testify to a certain way of life, reflecting human inventiveness, knowledge, and adaptation to the given natural conditions.

DO YOU KNOW?

  1. The journey from Tolmin to Bohinj around the mountains is nearly as long as the route from Ljubljana to the sea. The residents on both sides have thought a lot about how to shorten this distance. They built a railway. Constructing the railway was very challenging. Engineers and workers had to overcome numerous natural obstacles—from mountain barriers to rushing rivers and narrow valleys—and build dozens of tunnels and bridges. Now, there is also an auto train operating between the Primorska and Gorenjska region.