Podkoren

Podkoren
Podkoren
	View from south
	Podkoren Location in Slovenia
	Coordinates: 46°29′41.8″N 13°45′21.67″E / 46.494944°N 13.7560194°E
Country	Slovenia
Traditional region	Upper Carniola
Statistical region	Upper Carniola
Municipality	Kranjska Gora
Elevation	860.6 m (2,823.5 ft)
Population (2002)
• Total	388

Podkoren (pronounced [pɔˈtkoːɾɛn], German: Wurzen) is a village in the Municipality of Kranjska Gora in the northwestern Upper Carniola region of Slovenia.

Geography

Podkoren is located directly beneath the Wurzen Pass ("Koren" in Slovene), which lends its name to the settlement ("below Koren"). It is the first settlement of the Upper Sava Valley; the Zelenci nature reserve, the source of the Sava River, is located just west of the village.

The village is located at the branching-off point of the Podkoren / Wurzen Pass road from the main road leading from the Ljubljana Basin to the Italian border. The pass itself spans the main ridge of the Karawanks range, and marks the border between Slovenia and the Austrian state of Carinthia.

Originally an agricultural area, the economy of modern Podkoren is heavily dependent on tourism; several popular ski pistes are located on the slopes of the Karawanks above the settlement.

History

From the 15th century, Podkoren—in the far northwest of the Duchy of Carniola—served as a toll station on the steep road up across the Wurzen pass, for centuries the shortest and most direct link from the Littoral towns of Trieste and Gorizia to Villach in Carinthia. Today the main link is the A2 motorway, running through the Karawanks Tunnel a few kilometers to the east. Podkoren was formerly transited by a railway line leading from Jesenice to Tarvisio; built in the 1870s, the line was dismantled after train service ceased amid Cold War tensions in 1966.

The village church is dedicated to Saint Andrew and is of late Gothic origin (as are many houses in the village) but was largely refurbished in the Baroque style.

The pioneering British chemist and naturalism Humphry Davy (1778–1829) stayed here during his visits to the area, which he regarded highly for its natural beauty.