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WHITE HERON

32.8

02:00

4070

GPX KML

Short description

The picturesque path through the Ljubljana Marshes and along its edges offers beautiful views of the cultural landscape and the surrounding hills. The route runs on asphalt roads and is mostly flat – there are only a few short climbs and descents in the villages under the Krim Hill;– it is pleasantly diverse and runs in the shade of trees. It is a more demanding tour primarily because of its length, but you can make several stops during the trip, do some sightseeing or perhaps sit by the lake. The last part of the route, between Škofljica and Ljubljana, runs along Dolenjska cesta Road.

Course

Ljubljana-Rudnik – Črna vas – Lipe – Podpeč – Jezero – Podkraj – Tomišelj – Vrbljene - Staje – Ig – Škofljica – Lavrica – Ljubljana-Rudnik

From the city across the marshes past štradoni, hedges and meadows
The route starts in front of the Barje Cooperative House at the crossing of Peruzzijeva cesta and Ižanska cesta roads in the suburb of Rudnik. There is a car park in front of the House, where you can leave your car. If you are taking a city bus, it will drop you off 50 metres further down, in Ižanska cesta Road. Before you start your cycling tour, you can make a stop in Društvo za Ljubljansko barje (Association for Ljubljana Marshes) or the Barje Tourist Association, where you will be informed about the interesting features of the Ljubljana Marshes Landscape Park and traditional events in this area. Both associations have their premises in the building of the Barje Cooperative House.
Hit the road after you've gathered the desired information. Cross Ižanska cesta Road at the crossroads coming along Peruzzijeva cesta Road and take the long asphalt road, which seems to have no end, towards Podpeč. There are no bicycle tracks along the road, and there are drainage channels on the both sides of the road , so you have to be careful. Immediately after the crossroads stands the city limits sign for Črna vas; the village is best known for the remarkable Church of St. Michael, the work of Slovenia's greatest architect Jože Plečnik . You will see it on your right after some 500 metres.
Continue towards Podpeč. Along the road you will see a number of old farmhouses , pastures with horse fences , and drainage channels, hedges and long field paths among meadows, which lead on your right to the banks of the Ljubljanica River . These paths are called štradoni. Over the meadows and hedges, Krim with a TV transmitter rises from the edges of the Ljubljana Marshes on your left.

Podpeč quarry
After a good eight kilometres, the long straight road gets seemingly lost in a village under the hills. If you are not a local, you will be probably confused by two signposts, each with its own name of the place that seems to be a single place: Jezero and Podpeč. However, Jezero is the part of the village up to the main road, which stretches to the east, while the core of the village, which stretches to the west, is called Podpeč. The hill above Podpeč is dominated by the Church of St. Anne, while right at the foothills you can see the already partially overgrown Podpeč quarry . If you have time, you can make a climb to the Church of St. Anne, from where really magnificent views of the Ljubljana Marshes from Vrhnika to Škofljica and of the Ljubljana Basin with the Kamnik-Savinja Alps in the background open up. The Podpeč quarry is probably one of the best known limestone quarries in the country (dark grey limestone with white fossil shells is extracted there), although stone blocks are not cut there any more. The quarry has been declared a natural monument, and its natural stone can be cut only for the purposes of reconstruction and restoration of buildings.
In Podpeč, at the crossing with the main road Podpeč–Brezovica, turn left and then at the crossroads below the quarry turn left again towards the villages of Jezero and Ig . The crossroads is wide, but you have to mind the drivers coming from the right, who have the right of way!

Karst lake and villages below Krim, on the edge of the Ljubljana Marshes
Coming from Podpeč, you will cycle past houses, and when a nice view of the Church of St. Lawrence opens up on the left after a good kilometre, you will already be in the centre of Jezero. The last stop of the city bus is in front of you, and if you want to take a little rest, you can turn right and set out towards the Podpeč Lake . This karst lake is one of the deepest lakes in Slovenia. When the weather is nice and sunny, you can take a walk around it, lie on its banks and look at the surrounding hills or have a refreshing swim in it. You will be swimming at your own risk. There is an inn by the lake as well.
Continue the ride from Jezero towards Ig. It will take place on a narrow asphalt road through the villages on the foothills of the Krim Hills, on the southern edge of the Ljubljana Marshes. The road is flat at certain points, and elsewhere it either descends or ascends and is really diverse in comparison with the straight and flat road across the marshes. Until Podkraj, it runs in the forest shade . The view of the meadows, hedges and isolated hills in the Ljubljana Marshes opens up here or there. In Podkraj, you will pass the Church of St. John the Baptist .
The next village on your route is Tomišelj. The main road to Brest, on which you are cycling, turns sharply to the right here. You turn left as well, but you do not go to Brest, but turn right at the next crossroads near the chapel towards the old part of Tomišelj. You will go through the village on the main road, past the Church of the Holy Rosary and further ahead towards the village of Vrbljene.

Back to the Ljubljana Marshes from the edge across the Iški vršaj alluvial fan and the Iška River, which is non-existent
Cross the bridge across the Iška River between Tomišelj and Vrbljene. You had already crossed Iška near Črna vas, but in the summer months you will only see a dry riverbed there instead of water . The river does not run out of water only because of the drought, but also because of the porous karst soil and underground, to where it sinks now and then. At the bridge, there is a monument to the Slovenian Partisans who fell in the Second World War on the right. When you look southwards from the river and continue towards Vrbljene, a broad panoramic view of the cultural landscape between Vrbljene and the Pungart Hill near Ig opens up. This is Iški vršaj, the alluvial fan of the Iška River, where the river deposited coarse-grained material . In Vrbljene, one of the best preserved old village centres in the Ljubljana Marshes , turn left at the crossroads towards Ig and cross Iški vršaj. Since this is a broad plain, wide views of the cultural landscape and the surrounding hills , open up on all sides In the village of Staje, you will get to the crossing with the priority road Ig–Iška vas . Keep to the direction of Ig, and you will be welcomed by the city limit sign after some 400 metres.

From Ig to Škofljica via shortcut
The road going through Ig is relatively narrow and busy, as a large number of tractors and cargo vehicles drive on it, so be careful ! In the centre of the village, turn right at the roundabout to the non-priority road towards Škofljica. Traffic in this part of the village is calmer, so you can be somewhat relieved. If you have had enough of sightseeing, you can set off straight towards Škofljica, otherwise you can take a look at another natural landmark – the fish ponds in the Draga Valley . If you are lucky, you will spot a white heron , somewhere along the fish ponds. The path to the fish ponds goes by the road called Pot v Drago, which branches off of the route to the right , some 800 metres ahead from the roundabout in Ig.
Regardless of whether you make a stop at the fish ponds or not, the route continues to the end of Ig. The road splits there, and you follow the priority road going left . The road to Škofljica is flat, somewhat similar to the first part of your trip . This road has been from old a shortcut for Ig for those coming from the direction of Novo mesto and Grosuplje. Follow it all the way to the crossing with the main road Ljubljana–Škofljica–Kočevje, where you turn left towards Ljubljana . The crossroads can be somewhat dangerous, especially during the rush hour, because there are no crossings and it is difficult to spot the incoming traffic from the right. When crossing it, keep to the left side of the road by which you arrived there.

Back to Peruzzijeva Road from Škofljica
The 350-metre section of the main road before the first crossroads in Škofljica has no cycling track, but a narrow path has been trodden along the road, which you can use to make your ride safer. Before you continue to Ljubljana, you can take a look at the Church of St. Cyril and Methodius , which is somewhat isolated; otherwise, go straight at the first and the second crossroads and set off towards Ljubljana. At the first crossroads, you will encounter a cycling lane for the first time during your trip , . But don't celebrate too soon, because you will be cycling on it only for 300 metres, after which you will join the motor vehicles on the carriageway. On your way through Škofljica and Lavrica to Ljubljana you will be cycling on stara Dolenjka (the old Dolenjska cesta Road). Prior to the construction of the southbound motorway to Novo mesto, Dolenjska cesta was the main road connecting Ljubljana with the region of Dolenjska and the town of Kočevje. The road is wide and it has a very wide emergency lane, on which you can cycle without any problems, so you will not mind that there is no segregated bicycle lane .
After a good four kilometres, you will reach the city limits sign for Ljubljana. Here Dolenjska cesta goes under the motorway and you will see a large crossroads, at which you will turn left towards the Rudnik shopping centre and industrial zone .
You will cross the railway track and turn left at the crossroads . You will pass the premises of the logistics company Viator&Vektor and again turn left at the crossroads at the Bauhaus shopping centre. This way you will avoid traffic jams in the shopping centre. Follow the road, which turns right, and go past the Rutar shopping centre to the next crossroads, where you turn left. Go straight to the crossing with Peruzzijeva ulica Road (the signs for the motorway towards Novo mesto will guide you) and turn left to the motorway overpass . Go down the overpass and you will have some 800 metres left to the starting point.

Črna vas and the Church of St. Michael in Črna vas
Črna vas is the oldest settlement in the Ljubljana Marshes, in the area which was drained in the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th century. Its architecture has been drastically changed recently with the new buildings, inappropriate from the aspect of their type, which erase and spoil the former characteristic image of the old roadside village featuring homesteads.
The church of St. Michael was built between 1937 and 1939. It was constructed on the initiative of the then Trnovo parish priest Fran Saleški Finžgar and catechist Karel Matkovič, a nephew of architect Jože Plečnik. It was originally intended as a temporary church, which one can tell from the construction method: except the ground floor, which was made of stone, everything else was made of wood. Because of the marshy soil, the church stands on a total of 347 wood piles, while a bridge-shaped staircase leads to the church nave on the first floor. One of its characteristic features is an open bell tower. If you want to see the interior, you have to make an appointment (call 01/ 427 22 18 or 041/ 665 186).

Štradoni
Štradoni are field paths made by the first settlers in the Ljubljana Marshes, so that they were able to reach their land plots. They first made foundations with wood bundles, filled them with soil and solidified it altogether with sand. They got their names after the first owners. The word štradon originates from the Italian word strada (road).

Sveta Ana ,
Sveta Ana is a 484-metre high hill rising above the villages of Jezero and Podpeč. It is a popular hiking spot, offering beautiful views of the Ljubljana Marshes, a part of the Ljubljana Basin and the Slovenian Alps. A church dedicated to Saint Anna stands on the top of the hill. The top can be reached on foot by a steep forest path from Podpeč (about 25 minutes) and by a flatter macadam road from the village of Preserje (bicycle ride from Podpeč to the hill takes about 20 minutes).

Podpeč quarry
The first ones to extract natural stone in the area of Podpeč were the Romans; they used it in the construction of Emona. In order to transport the stone to present-day Ljubljana, they even redirected the course of the Ljubljanica River. Antique master used to make tombstones, altars, milestones and other items from the Podpeč limestone, and built more complex parts of buildings from small blocks. The stonecutting activity ended with the departure of the Romans from Emona. Natural stone become popular again at the end of the 18th century, but the limestone from the area of Lesno Brdo was more topical then. The extraction of the Podpeč limestone was in full bloom in the 20th century. The most famous buildings made of the Podpeč limestone are the National and University Library (1936–1941), Nebotičnik in Ljubljana (1933), the Slovenian National Assembly (1959), the building of the Constitutional Court of Slovenia (1925–1927) and the Central Stadium (1925–1935). Stone blocks have not been cut in the quarry since 1973. It has been protected as a natural monument since 1991.

Podpeč Lake
The Podpeč Lake, which got its name after the nearby village of Podpeč, is a karst lake which collects water from the surrounding surface karst springs. The almost perfectly circular lake has about 130 meters in diameter. A special feature of the lake is the underground sink-shaped outflow ending with a deep and narrow chasm, which has been explored to the depth of 51 metres. Through the outflow the water is drained some 300 metres away to the Hruški potok Stream, a right tributary of the Ljubljanica River. The ecosystem of the lake is made up of numerous plant and animal species. The lake, along with the surrounding marshy plain, has been declared a natural monument. A swimming area is located on the northern bank of the lake.

Iška River and Iški vršaj alluvial fan , ,
The Iška River is a right tributary of the Ljubljanica River, which has created the Iški vintgar gorge and the Iški vršaj alluvial fan. The steep drop in the upper and middle part of the river speaks about its wild nature (gorge), while an alluvial plain has been created at the transition from the upper to the lower part of the river, where the transporting power of the river is considerably reduced (alluvial fan). In its lower part, the Iška turns into a slow and meandering river, a large part of which has been regulated. In certain sections between Iški vintgar and Črna vas, the river sinks underground through the permeable gravel and sand filling under the bottom of the bed. Period in which the river completely disappears last between 115 days (in 1974) and 335 days (in 1949). Last time the river disappeared between the villages of Iška vas and Strahomer was during the September 2010 floods.

Pungart Hill and Ig Castle
Ig Castle stands on the Pungart Hill above Ig. The building was first mentioned in 1369. A private oratory operated there in the 18th century, while it was a target of peasants' revolt in the 19th century. It was burned down during the Second World War, and after the war it was used as a women's prison. Today the castle is closed for public.

Fish ponds in the Draga Valley
There are six fish ponds altogether; they were created in the 19th century when clay was being dug and fish were being bred in this area. They are especially interesting in spring and summer when water lilies blossom. In addition to white water lilies, which are clearly visible from the banks, the fish ponds host a rare and endangered carnivorous plant, the lesser bladderwort (Utricularia minor). In June and July, tiny yellow flowers sprout above the water and that is the time when it is best visible. In the surroundings, you can go bird watching, as the shores of the ponds overgrown with reed are a true paradise for birds. The most numerous species are ducks (coots and mallards), but sometimes you may also spot grebes and great white herons. The fish ponds also host the European pond turtle, which is the only Slovenian indigenous turtle species, and is critically endangered. A forest educational path runs along the fish ponds.

Little and Great White Heron (Egret) ,
You will recognise the little egret by its lean body and white feathers. It looks very elegant, and in the time of courtship it is embellished by noticeable decorative feathers. It sometimes looks for cattle, from which it picks insects. Little egrets are usually silent, but they make various quacking and rippling sounds when they are in nesting colonies, and sharp alarming sounds when they get frightened.
The great egret is a tall, white heron, characteristic of wetlands and reed beds. It has a characteristic, long yellow or black beak, whose colour says whether it is nesting or not. It does not produce any sounds, except for short, coarse cries when it is in a colony.

Društvo za Ljubljansko barje (Association for Ljubljana Marshes), Ižanska cesta 305
Info office is open on Tuesdays between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and on Saturdays between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m..

Barje Tourist Association, Ižanska cesta 305

The road is entirely asphalted. Since a lot of cyclists are using this route, motorists are also careful, but nevertheless be careful yourself and pay extra attention in the following sections:
- crossing of Peruzzijeva cesta with Ižanska cesta roads,
- road between Črna vas and Podpeč, which is straight and allows higher speeds, but does not have a bicycle lane and deep channels run along both sides,
- road between Ig and Škofljica and the crossing with the main road Ljubljana–Kočevje,
- short section from the crossing with the main road Ljubljana–Kočevje to Škofljica.

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