Idrija, the town of mercury and lace

What to see in Idrija, the mercury mine

Beneath the streets lies the mine that made the town. Through the entrance building you reach Anthony’s Main Road, dug in 1500, which CUDHg Idrija describes as Europe’s oldest surviving mine entrance, and a guide leads you through the oldest part of the mine, with veins of cinnabar, droplets of mercury and an underground chapel. In the old smelting plant, an interactive exhibition explains this metal, liquid at room temperature, and there stands the world’s largest rotary furnace for extracting mercury. Over five centuries the furnaces turned out more than three million steel flasks of mercury. It’s all covered in detail in the guide to the Idrija mercury mine.

With the mine booming, in the 18th century Idrija became the second largest town in Carniola, with workers from many lands. The polymath Jožef Mrak, builder of the klavže dams, and the natural scientists Giovanni Antonio Scopoli and Balthasar Hacquet all worked here.

Gewerkenegg Castle and the kamšt

Gewerkenegg Castle, whose German name means the mining castle, was built between 1522 and 1533 around a chapel from 1493. No noble family ever lived in it. It was the seat of the mine’s administration and the store for mercury and grain for the miners, and today it houses the Idrija Municipal Museum, with five centuries of the mine and town and their links with Almadén. The arcaded courtyard with its Baroque frescoes was restored between 1988 and 2017.

On the edge of town stands the kamšt, a wooden water wheel from 1790, more than 13 m across, which for over 150 years pumped water out of the shafts so the miners could work. The Idrija tourist board describes it as the largest of its kind preserved in Europe. Its name comes from the German Wasserkunst.

Idrija bobbin lace

In the 17th century the miners’ wives began making bobbin lace, and its delicacy won over the upper classes. The most famous lacemaker was Ivanka Ferjančič, the first teacher at the Idrija Lace School, open now for over 140 years. Today Idrija lace is on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list, giving the town three UNESCO titles in all, which the tourist board says puts it among the country’s capitals of this heritage. The wider picture is in the guide to UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Slovenia.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Idrija before prices climb.

The geopark and the Wild Lake

The whole municipality forms the Idrija UNESCO Global Geopark, almost 300 km² in size. There are walking and cycling routes, the klavže dams above steep gorges, the Rake channel that once carried water to the mine, and the natural scientists’ path leading to the Wild Lake (Divje jezero), one of the largest and most interesting karst springs in Slovenia according to the Idrija tourist board. At the visitor centre you learn about the tectonic trench and the mercury deposit, and the sharp-eyed can even spot dinosaur footprints.

Žlikrofi and Idrija’s festivals

Idrija’s dish is žlikrofi, a pasta filled with spiced potato that carries the EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed label. It comes with smukavc stew, the ocvirkovca and zeljševka rolls, prfarski štruklji and a sip of geruš, a wormwood spirit. Every autumn, Mercury Days remember the miners with talks, experiments and tours, and the lace festival takes place every year. To the north, Cerkno rounds off the trip.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Idrija and choose by the reviews.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Idrija before prices climb.