Carniola - Kranj and Kamniške-Savinjske Alps Region
Where the Sava River reveals its true face and its power is invigorated by tributaries from the left and right, the land widens. Here, cities and towns with venerable traditions together with towns and villages scattered across the high alpine mountains and softly rounded hills create a land of new experiences not far- from the nation’s capital.
Kranj with its surprising industrial, commercial, and cultural tradition; Kamnik in the embrace of high mountains and unexpected mountain meadows; and the millennium-old still today picturesquely medieval Škofja Loka offer various kinds of experience from exploring old castles and churches to visiting modern museums and art galleries. The Karavanke Mountains, the Kamniške-Savinjske Alps, and the Škofja Loka hills invite visitors to experience nature at its most beautiful.
In the north is the attractive Jezersko area with its autochthonous sheep, Planšarsko jezero Lake, Slovenia’s highest-lying waterfall Čedca, ancient farmhouses and granaries, and unspoiled mountain nature. Near Tržič, which boasts a long tradition of shoemaking, is the world-renowned Dovžanova soteska canyon with its many unique fossils.
High in the central part of the Kamniške-Savinjske Alps lies the inviting Velika Planina plateau with the best-preserved mountain herdsmen’s settlement in Europe, which still lives its original life in the summer. Maintained trails and a gondola (which together with several ski lifts enables access to a family ski center in winter) lead to a mountain meadow with a cluster of unique wooden herdsmen’s huts. The easily reached ski trails on nearby Krvavec are better known and more frequented. Below the mountains, the Snovik Thermal Spa is easily accessible from Kamnik, and nearby is the unusual Tunjice natural healing park. Numerous visitors are also attracted by the Volčji Potok Arboretum with its more than 3,500 plant species and regular annual flower shows.
Below Blegoš, the highest peak in the Škofja Loka hills, the countless picturesque natural attractions of the Škofja Loka region flirt with numerous ethnological and handicraft traditions in the Poljanska and Selška valleys. In the ancient ironworking center of Železniki, bobbin lace making is preserved, and a famous gingerbread comes from Dražgoše. The Škofja Loka hills are crisscrossed with pleasant trails for hikers and bicyclists, and Škofja Loka and its immediate surroundings draw visitors with interesting theme trails and restaurants with traditional cuisine.
The cities of this unique region link treasures of the past and present through numerous cultural events that take place in castle courtyards: in Kranj at Khislstein Castle, which also houses the Gorenjska Museum; in Škofja Loka at Loški grad Castle, which in addition to museum collections inside the castle also boasts an open-air ethnological museum in the former castle garden; and under the wing of the ruins of Stari grad Castle in Kamnik at Mali grad Castle (which boasts a chapel that ranks among the most important Romanesque monuments in Slovenia) on a hill in the center of the city and overlooking the city at Zaprice Castle, where the Kamnik Museum and Ethnological Park is situated.