Vintgar Gorge

Vintgar Gorge was discovered in 1891 by Bled’s mayor Jakob Žumer and photographer Benedikt Lergetporer, who pushed into the previously impassable narrows at low water. Just two years later, in 1893, a wooden path of boardwalks and galleries was built through the gorge — one of the first tourist infrastructure projects in Slovenia — and it became an overnight sensation.

The Radovna river, flowing from a glacial valley beneath Triglav, has cut a gorge 1.6 kilometres long and up to 250 metres deep, with rapids, pools and waterfalls. The trail ends at the Šum waterfall which, at 13 metres, is Slovenia’s highest river waterfall; above it arches the stone railway viaduct of the Bohinj line from 1906.

The boardwalks have been renewed many times, most recently after severe floods; today several hundred thousand visitors walk the gorge each year, and careful visitor management keeps Vintgar one of the best-preserved natural jewels of the Julian Alps.