Vintgaring
round-trip hike
Find out more about the Triglav National Park and Vintgar Gorge. Vintgaring is our name for a round-trip hike that includes Vintgar Gorge and 2 themed trails, with an audio guide at points marked with QR codes.
Audio guide
Interesting facts
What you can see at this point
Imagine the gateway to the Triglav National Park, the only national park in Slovenia and one of the oldest in Europe.
Vintgar Gorge can be said to have lent its name to all gorges in Slovenia, since in the Slovene language the word vintgar has been adopted as a generic term meaning gorge. Ever since it was discovered 130 years ago by two local adventurers, its fame has spread around the world. Nature had the wild Vintgar Gorge to itself for thousands of years. Today it welcomes several hundred thousand visitors a year. Because we want to protect and preserve the gorge, while at the same time improving your experience, the Gorje Tourist Association has limited the access. Only 245 visitors can pass along the 1,600-metre trail at any one time.
Vintgaring is our name for a round-trip hike that includes Vintgar Gorge and the themed trails, with an audio guide at points marked with QR codes. When you step into the world of the “Gorge of all gorges”, open all your senses. The one-way trail over wooden bridges and walkways fixed to the living rock starts here, at the Vintgar Visitor Centre. Vintgaring then continues along the King of Triglav Trail or the River of Trees Trail, each of which will bring you back to the starting point. You will cover a total of 6 or 7 kilometres, depending on your choice of trail. Let the journey be the destination.
Don’t forget to fill your water bottle with fresh drinking water from the fountain opposite the Visitor Centre. You will be issued a helmet at the entrance. Helmets are compulsory for everyone walking through the Vintgar Gorge. They say you don’t easily forget Vintgar, and we locals understand that. It was often our grandparents who took us through it for the first time. Even as children we could sense that Vintgar Gorge is a celebration of nature. In Gorje we celebrate nature in all seasons of the year, and now we are going to set off on this celebration together. So let the adventure begin.
TRIGLAV NATIONAL PARK
The Triglav National Park is one of the oldest protected natural areas in Europe. Covering 4 % of Slovenia’s total area, it is home to numerous protected animal and plant species and, according to folk tradition, a variety of magical creatures, most notably Zlatorog, a chamois with golden horns who is said to protect the kingdom of the Julian Alps, including Mount Triglav, Slovenia’s highest peak.
VINTGAR GORGE IS THE GATEWAY TO THE TRIGLAV NATIONAL PARK
Vintgar Gorge is the gateway to the Triglav National Park, one of the oldest national parks in Europe. Here, where nature needs its own peace and rhythm, you can encounter unique animals, plants and stories.
The Triglav National Park takes its name from Mount Triglav, the symbol of Slovenia. A quarter of a millennium ago, “four brave men” became the first to conquer our sacred mountain. Today the country’s highest peak watches over more than 4% of the total territory of Slovenia: the area across which the Triglav National Park extends. The park is home to the mythical Zlatorog (“Goldhorn”) and other chamois, mountain goats, wolves, bears and lynx – and 7,000 other animal species.
ALPINE CONSERVATION PARK
Nature has enjoyed special protection in the Triglav National Park ever since 1924, when the Alpine Conservation Park was established. Twenty years earlier, the scientist Albin Belar, who lived in the vicinity of Vintgar Gorge for more than a decade, wrote down some pioneering ideas about protecting the Valley of the Triglav Lakes. If the laws of the day had contemplated the legal protection of nature, the Triglav National Park would be the oldest natural park in Europe.
DR ALBIN BELAR, THE KING OF TRIGLAV
Albin Belar was a man of many parts: inventor, international seismology pioneer, founder of the first Austro-Hungarian earthquake observatory (in Ljubljana) and father of the Triglav National Park. A lifelong hiking and mountaineering enthusiast, he climbed Triglav more than 50 times, a true record in days when marked hiking trails did not yet exist.
RIVER RADOVNA
Despite the fact that the Radovna covers just 17 kilometres on its journey from its source in the Triglav mountain chain to its outflow into the Sava Dolinka, it is responsible for carving the spectacular Vintgar Gorge, cut into the solid rock with sheer sides that in places are 250 metres deep. The fast-flowing river hardly warms up at all on its journey and maintains its cool temperature – never more than 13°C in summer.
This brisk mountain river is filled with the waters of the mighty Triglav mountain chain. Since it does not warm up on its journey from source to mouth, you can always feel the cool freshness of the mountains when you are near it.
THE RIVER AND THE SUN
The river Radovna, the hill of Radolca and the town of Radovljica. Not only are they all close to each other but their names share a common root – rad. Where does it come from? Our part of the world was settled long in the past, so it is no surprise that many words are thought to have a Celtic origin. One possible connection is the name Radola, used to denote the Celtic god of the sun.
THE POWER OF PERSEVERANCE
Through the power of perseverance, the river has carved Vintgar Gorge out of solid rock. In places the gorge is up to 250 metres deep – the same as the difference in elevation from its source to its mouth. Even today, the river is constantly deepening the gorge and creating potholes, cascades and pools in its bed. Its deepest pool is thought to be 17 metres deep.
A RIVER OF DEVELOPMENT
The power of the Radovna has also been harnessed by the local inhabitants, with its current used to turn mill wheels, drive sawmills and power the bellows and hammers of forges and foundries. Later on these were replaced by small hydropower plants, one of which can be seen at the exit from Vintgar Gorge by Šum Falls.
A LOCAL SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER
Lush vegetation grows on the banks of the clear river. The cattle grazing in meadows and mountain pastures drink its waters. Even today the Radovna is a source of drinking water for the local community. A system of reservoirs and pipelines brings its water to their homes.
GUARDIANS OF THE RIVER
Plans drawn up in 1912 envisaged a new dam on the Radovna at the point where visitors today enter Vintgar Gorge. This proposal met with such stern resistance among the local community that it had to be abandoned.
