Change your gaze

When darkness replaces the light, the gaze opens up.

Beneath the earth's surface, drops of water transform limestone into unusual forms of nature.

Mysterious Karst . Red soil on the surface. Villages wrapped in stone. Countless Karst caves below your feet. Natural heritage of global significance.

A plateau in western Slovenia gave its name to all Karst phenomena around the world. Some of the most beautiful and most famous Karst caves are located in this corner of the Earth. Postojna Cave is the largest and attracts the most visitors. In its concert hall, adorned with thousand-year-old stalactites, as many as ten thousand people can listen to occasional music events at the same time. The Škocjan Caves with their wild depths and the largest underground canyon in the world, are included in the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. Awe inspiring, they demand respect from their visitors, and standing in front of a rocky arch feels like standing before an imposing stone portal of a Karst house. Both in the caves and above on a Karst farm nature surprises with diversity: in the caves with its fascinating shapes, and on a farm with culinary delights and excellent wines.

See the colours

In the Karst, black foals change into white horses, green grapes into luxurious red wine, fresh colours of spring into vibrant red shades of sumac...

Lipica . Home of the Lipizzaner. Winegrowing hills. Home of Teran wine and the powerful bora, the wind that gives Karst pršut its unique taste.

For over half a millennium, Lipica has been the home of the Lipizzaner, the proud white horse whose noble elegance, spirit, and friendliness leave no visitor unmoved. And long before the royal courts of Europe admired the beauty of the Lipizzaners, the Romans enjoyed the fabulous richness of wines produced by the vines growing in the red Karst soil. Among them, Teran wine, with its velvety softness, is the most renowned. A glass of this delightful wine from the Mysterious Karst goes best with the excellent local dishes, especially slices of the pršut cured in wind filled with scent of juniper berries and pine trees.

Look further

Among the remarkable Karst phenomena in Slovenia is also the Cerknica Lake . When waters from Karst springs fill it in the late autumn, it becomes the largest lake in Slovenia. Elsewhere in Slovenia you can also find the surprising and beautiful subterranean world: look in the caves near Novo mesto in Dolenjska, and the Pekel Cave near Šempeter in Štajerska. Deep Karst shafts and other Karst features are also common in the high mountains. Snežna Jama on Mt Raduha is unique in that it's Slovenia’s highest lying tourist cave, full of ice stalactite formations.

THE MYSTERIOUS KARST HAS EXCEPTIONAL DIMENSIONS

There are over 8,000 registered Karst caves in Slovenia.

MYTHS COME TO LIFE

In several Karst caves lives the largest cave vertebrate the Proteus anguinus cave salamander or olm , once thought to be a baby dragon.

TAKE A LOOK!