Vintgar Gorge

The Vintgar Gorge north-west of Bled leads over wooden galleries and bridges around 1.6 km through the narrow gorge carved by the Radovna, with emerald-green water. The walkways were built back in 1893. At the end of the gorge the Šum waterfall plunges down, the highest river waterfall in Slovenia.

Highlights

• Wooden galleries over the emerald-green river
• Around 1.6 km gorge path (since 1893)
• Šum waterfall at the end
• Close to Bled

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

Not far from the famous Lake Bled, on the northern edge of the Triglav National Park, the river Radovna created the Vintgar Gorge, a narrow ravine more than one and a half kilometres long, in which the water plunges between vertical rock walls over rapids and small waterfalls. As everywhere in the Julian Alps, the rock consists of the uplifted deposits of a primeval sea, into which the water dug itself ever deeper over thousands of years, shaping this spectacular gorge.

The gorge was opened up only towards the end of the 19th century. In 1893 a local cartographer and a photographer discovered the hidden canyon and, shortly afterwards, had wooden gallery walkways built into the rock walls, which lead the visitor through the gorge close above the roaring water. These bold wooden constructions, renewed again and again, still make the Vintgar Gorge passable today and are themselves part of its history. The gorge is also crossed beneath by a bold stone railway viaduct from the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, which carried the railway line from Bohinj over the mountains. At the end of the gorge the river plunges into the depths over the Šum Waterfall, the highest river waterfall in Slovenia, a brilliant finale to this natural beauty made accessible by human hands.