Description
The Vintgar Gorge or Bled Gorge is a 1.6km gorge in northwestern Slovenia in the municipalities of Gorje and Bled, four kilometers northwest of Bled. Carved by the Radovna River, it is the continuation of the Radovna Valley. The sheer canyon walls are 50to high, with a total slope measuring about 250m. The stream has created many erosive features such as pools and rapids, and terminates in the picturesque 13m Šum Falls, the largest river waterfall in Slovenia. As the first mountain gorge in the area to be made accessible to tourists, the word vintgar has been generalized in Slovene to refer to other scenic, protected gorges, e.g. the, the on Pohorje and the Ribnica Gorge in Bohinj.HistoryUntil 1890, the gorge was mainly inaccessible, except for two points at which the Radovna could be reached, and a bridge over Šum Falls was already built in 1878. The rest of the gorge was explored in 1891 by the mayor of Gorje, Jakob Žumer, and by Benedikt Lergetporer, a prominent photographer of the era.In 1893 the gorge was equipped with wooden observation walkways and bridges with great effort and was opened to the public on August 26, 1893. The walkways, which were later named Žumer Galleries (Žumrove galerije) in the most prominent part of the gorge, have been renovated several times since.A hydroelectric dam has also been built below the gorge and an arch railway bridge for the Bohinj Railway. The bridge, built in 1904 and 1905 of cut stone, is the largest stone arch railway bridge preserved in its entirety in Slovenia. It is 65m long, 4.5m wide and 33m high.
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