Kranjska Gora

Kranjska Gora in the north-west of Slovenia is the country's best-known winter-sports resort and host of alpine Ski World Cup races on the Vitranc. Nearby lie the Planica ski-flying hill and the idyllic mountain lake Jasna. In summer the resort is a starting point for the Vršič Pass and tours in Triglav National Park.

Highlights

• Slovenia's best-known ski resort (World Cup Vitranc)
• Close to the Planica ski-flying hill
• Mountain lake Jasna
• Starting point Vršič Pass and Triglav National Park

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Practical info

Background & History

Kranjska Gora lies at the upper end of the Sava valley, framed by the rugged walls of the Julian Alps, whose highest peak, the Triglav, is far more than a mountain to the Slovenes: it is regarded as a national symbol and adorns the country’s coat of arms. The place itself developed from a rural mountain village into one of Slovenia’s best-known winter sports centres, yet its true character lies in the combination of Alpine wilderness and the quiet, multilingual heritage of a border region in which Slovenian, Austrian and Italian influences meet.

Behind the village the famous Vršič road climbs in more than fifty hairpin bends over the country’s highest pass, southwards into the Soča valley. This road tells a moving story: it was built during the First World War by Russian prisoners of war under the harshest conditions, many of whom lost their lives in an avalanche, and a small wooden Russian chapel by the roadside still commemorates them today. Not far from Kranjska Gora the emerald-green Soča also rises, the river whose valley became the bloody Isonzo front in the First World War. In more recent times the place has become known for its Alpine ski races and for the nearby ski-flying centre of Planica, where world records in ski flying have been set. So in Kranjska Gora the splendour of the mountains mingles with the quiet memory of the horrors of history.