Postojna Gate

Postojnska vrata Postojna Gate
Compass direction	west
Pass height	606  m
region	Postojna , Slovenia
Watershed	Adriatic	Ljubljanica
Valley locations	Trieste	Vrhnika
Mountains	Dinaric mountains
Map (Postojna)
Coordinates	45 ° 47 '31 "  N , 14 ° 13' 49"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 47 '31 "  N , 14 ° 13' 49"  E

The Postojna Gate (also: Adelsberger Gate , Slovenian : Postojnska vrata ) is a mountain pass near the town of Postojna (German: Adelsberg) on ​​the northern edge of the Dinaric Mountains in Slovenia . Due to its location in the narrow area between the upper Adriatic Sea and the south-east and central European inland, the gate has been an important mountain pass in the eastern Alpine region for access to and from Italy since ancient times .

geography

The gate is around 30 kilometers wide, and the Dinaric Mountains can be crossed here at a height of 606 meters.

In the south, the Javornik Mountains limit the gate, in the north the Ternowaner Forest . The Postojna Gate connects the Pannonian Plain , the Western Balkans and the Eastern Alps with the northern coast of the Adriatic Sea and northern Italy . A slightly higher crossing in this area is the plateau of the Birnbaumer forest (Hrušica).

The railway line pitch-Strasbourg-Trieste leads through the gate, further, the Slovenian motorway A1 , from the Pass of Razdrto the expressway H 4 branches, which to Nova Gorica on the border with Italy leads.

history

The gate was crossed by the Amber Road on the way from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea. The gate was also linked to the legend of the Argonauts : According to this, the Argonauts are said to have traveled up the Danube , the Save and the Ljubljanica on their journey up the Danube , the Save and the Ljubljanica and then through the Postojna gate to the Adriatic.

The Greek geographer Strabon calls the area the Okra Mountains. This includes the Nanos mountain and the surrounding regions. According to him, the Illyrian tribe of the Japods settled here . In Roman times the gate was assigned to the Julian Alps . Here was the border between Italy and the province of Pannonia . Strabon reports that goods from Aquileia were transported on trucks through the Okra Mountains to Nauportus ( Vrhnika ). From there they were transported by ship across the Ljubljana and Sava rivers to the east. At the foot of the nanos there was a station at the pass of Razdrto .

Since the Romans knew that the core area of ​​the Roman Empire was easily accessible here, the area was protected at this point by the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum , a system of roads, ramparts and watchtowers to ward off potential invaders. The center of Claustra was the Ad Pirum mountain fortification in the Birnbaumer Forest, which controlled the Via Gemina between Emona ( Ljubljana ) and Aquileia in northern Italy. The Adelsberger Pforte was crossed by the Goths , Huns and Lombards when they invaded Italy at the time of the Great Migration .

Around 600 Slavic population settled the area, they crossed the gate to get to the peninsula of Istria. In the Middle Ages and early modern times, a number of castles were built in the gate, for example Predjama , Prem and Sovič cave castles .

Between 1856 and 1857 the Spielfeld-Straß-Trieste railway was built to connect Vienna with Ljubljana and Trieste as a section of the Austrian Southern Railway .

Web links

• Postcard from 1913 with “Panorama-Luftbild”, to the right of Adelsberg the gate with the railway line

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Stih: Slovene History . Retrieved February 14, 2010.
2. ↑ author unknown: Postojna Cave . Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 14, 2010. 
3. ↑ in some cases the altitude is also 616 meters, see [1]
4. ↑ see Peter Stih and others in http://sistory.si/publikacije/prenos/?urn=SISTORY:ID:2250
5. ^ Strabo, Geographica, IV, 6, 1.
6. ^ Strabo, Geographica, IV, 6, 10.
7. ^ Strabo, Geographica, VII, 5, 2.
8. ↑ Jana Horvat, Alma Bavdek, Okra. Vrata med Sredozemljem in Srednjo Evropo (Ocra. The gateway between the Mediterranean and Central Europe) . Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae, Ljubljana, 2009.
9. ↑ Andreja Penko: Regio Carsica Militaris . Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 15, 2010.