Kranjska Gora

Slovenes from Carantania are believed to have settled the upper Sava valley in the 11th century, and by the 12th century the area was a fief of the Counts of Ortenburg. The village first appears in written records in 1326 as Chrainow; its Slovene name is a reworking of the German one, and in the past it was also called Borovska vas. In the 14th century a trade route to Tarvisio already ran through the village, and the Ortenburgs founded a church dedicated to Our Lady on the White Gravel beside the Pišnica. In 1431 the Counts of Celje built a castle at what is now part of Tarvisio, which belonged to Kranjska Gora until 1848. The village was attacked by the Ottomans in 1476.

The railway arrived in 1870. During the First World War, Russian prisoners of war forced to build a road over the Vršič Pass put up a wooden chapel above the village; in 1916 and 1917 more than a hundred prisoners died in avalanches, and a small cemetery lies nearby.

Tourism grew after the Second World War. The ski resort opened in 1948, the first in Slovenia, lifts were built on Mount Vitranc from 1949 onwards, and in 1961 the first Vitranc Cup was raced from the top of the mountain. In 1968 the village hosted the first World Cup alpine ski race in Yugoslavia, and in 1982 a record crowd of 32,000 watched Bojan Križaj become the first Slovene to win a World Cup race on home snow.

Kranjska Gora's identity is bound up with winter sport. The Vitranc Cup, held since 1961 and a regular World Cup fixture since 1968, is one of the oldest races on the circuit, and for giant slalom the village is counted among the three most prestigious and demanding venues in the world. In the nearby Planica valley ski jumping has been practised since before 1930; the first jump of more than 100 metres was made there in 1936, and the valley hosted the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2023. The village's ice hockey club, founded in 1961, played in the Yugoslav and Slovenian leagues until it folded in 2006, and Anže Kopitar played for it early in his career.

The village has a literary side too. The writer Josip Vandot, author of the Kekec stories for children, is remembered in an exhibit at the Liznjek Farm, an ethnographic museum in an 18th-century farmhouse that shows how a wealthy peasant family lived in the 19th century. The late Gothic parish church keeps sculptures from the 15th century and paintings by Leopold Layer.

Memory of the First World War is strong. Commemorations are held each year at the Russian Chapel on the Vršič road, a war memorial dedicated to Saint Vladimir and built by men of many nations from the Russian Empire.

About 1,500 people live in Kranjska Gora, the seat of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora in the upper Sava valley. Around the old village core a newer, largely tourist settlement has grown up, with hotels, holiday flats and houses, recreation facilities, shops and ski lifts, and a network of cycling and walking paths. Together with Podkoren, Gozd Martuljek and Rateče, the village forms one tourist area busy in both summer and winter.

Tourism is the main source of work, alongside farming in the surrounding villages: in Rateče the harsh climate has kept people in livestock farming with summer grazing on high pastures, and Gozd Martuljek lives from dairy farming and tourism. The year has two peaks, the ski season and the summer hiking and cycling months, with quieter weeks between. Mount Peč, where the borders of Slovenia, Austria and Italy meet, rises above Rateče, the village closest to its summit, and the Rateče crossing into Italy lies further up the valley.

The food of the upper Sava valley is the farmhouse cooking of Gorenjska. Žganci, a dish of buckwheat, maize or wheat flour regarded as a national dish of Slovenia, especially as buckwheat ajdovi žganci, is often compared to polenta but differs in texture and preparation. Štruklji, rolled dumplings that can be boiled, steamed or baked with a wide range of fillings, were once reserved for feast days and are now everyday food. The Carniolan sausage, kranjska klobasa, a parboiled sausage of pork and bacon seasoned with garlic and pepper, is served in the local inns.

Mushrooms have always been popular in Slovenia, and many people pick them in the forests in season; creamy mushroom soup is a common choice on feast days. The Liznjek Farm in the centre shows how a wealthy peasant family lived in the mid-19th century. Restaurants and cafés in the village serve skiers, hikers and cyclists through both seasons.