The Vršič Pass and the Soča Valley

From the Julian Alps to the vineyards of Brda

The route starts in Kranjska Gora, passes Lake Jasna and its statue of Zlatorog the chamois, then climbs to the Vršič Pass, at 1,611 metres, the highest pass in Slovenia. Some fifty numbered hairpins link the two sides. At the pass, on the face of Prisojnik, a shape in the rock forms a face: the “Heathen Maiden”.

On the other side, the road drops into the Trenta valley and meets the Soča. Its source, at about 990 metres, is a rock pool 15 to 20 minutes along a path. Its very clear water stays emerald green almost all the way to the sea. You then follow it for hours: suspension footbridges, the Great Gorge, rafting in Bovec, the Boka waterfall.

Further down, the valley opens out towards Kobarid, Tolmin and Kanal. The journey crosses the hills of Goriška Brda, covered in vines and cherry trees, and ends in Nova Gorica, on a square split in two by the Italian border, which is marked on the ground.

Halfway up the north side, a wooden Orthodox chapel stands in the forest. The prisoners built it in 1915 or at the very start of 1916. Tradition says it was built in memory of the victims. Yet it was probably finished before. The chapel is dedicated to St Vladimir, and a Slovenian-Russian commemoration is held there every year.

The Isonzo Front

From May 1915 to November 1917, Italy and Austria-Hungary fought along the Soča, which the Italians call the Isonzo. Twelve battles left more than 300,000 dead. The last, in October 1917, bears the Italian name of Kobarid: Caporetto. Austro-German troops broke through the front there, and Hemingway told the story of the Italian retreat in A Farewell to Arms.

The Kobarid Museum tells the story of this front from the soldiers’ point of view; it won the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 1993. Above the town, the Italian ossuary, inaugurated by Mussolini in 1938, holds the remains of 7,014 soldiers, according to its inscription. In the Tolminka valley, the wooden church of Javorca was built by Austro-Hungarian soldiers in 1916. The names of more than 2,500 of their fallen comrades are inscribed inside.

What not to miss

1. 1The source of the SočaA pool of green water at the foot of the rock face, at the end of a short path.
2. 2Alpinum JulianaAn alpine garden founded in 1926 in Trenta, for the flora of the Julian Alps.
3. 3The Great Soča GorgeNear the village of Soča, the river runs through a narrow channel of rock.
4. 4Kozjak WaterfallA waterfall in an amphitheatre of rock, half an hour’s walk from Napoleon’s Bridge; the path is paid from April to October.
5. 5The Tolmin GorgesThe lowest entrance to Triglav National Park, at 180 metres, with the Devil’s Bridge.
6. 6The Solkan BridgeOpened in 1906, it has the longest stone arch of any railway bridge in the world: 85 metres.

The Vršič Pass and the Soča Valley in pictures

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Napoleon’s Bridge over the Soča, in Kobarid.

Food in the Soča Valley

Frika is a potato and cheese cake, cooked in a frying pan. Kobarid štruklji are small boiled parcels of dough, filled with walnuts and raisins. Bovški sir, made mostly from sheep’s milk, and tolminc, from cow’s milk, both have a protected designation of origin.

In Goriška Brda, the great white is rebula, the Italians’ ribolla gialla, sometimes left on its skins to make an orange wine. The same hills carry on into Italy under the name Collio. Brda is also the land of cherries, which ripen in June.