Lake Cerknica, here for some months and gone for others

Why Lake Cerknica comes and goes

The lake forms every year on the Cerknica polje, wedged between the Javorniki hills and the Bloke plateau on one side and Mount Slivnica on the other. It usually stays for about eight months a year. When it holds water it normally covers about 20 km², and at its highest about 26 km², when it becomes the largest lake in Slovenia. In the dry season it disappears, so that in the same place and within a single year you can paddle, fish, walk or mow the grass.

The water comes and goes through the limestone underground. Among the park’s 50 natural features of national importance are the lake’s systems of sinkholes, such as Vodonos, Retje and Rešeto.

Visiting the lake: centre, canoe and bike

The best place to start is the visitor centre in Dolenje Jezero, which closes on Mondays and, from October to March, opens Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 5pm, with admission at €9. In the same village the Kebe family runs the Museum of Lake Cerknica, with a working model that shows how the lake fills and empties and with the lake’s traditional boat, the drevak; it is visited by booking.

To go out on the water, check the level first. Rowing boats up to 6 m, kayaks, canoes, sailing boats and boards are allowed, but in the central area boating is banned when the level drops below 150 cm at Dolenje Jezero, as it was on 17 October 2026. From April to September, with enough water, canoes can be hired at weekends from €12 an hour.

Birds and wildlife

What draws me most to the lake is its life. 303 bird species have been recorded here, half of Europe’s total, along with 45 species of mammal, 125 of diurnal butterfly and 15 of amphibian. There are even three carnivorous plants. In the nesting season a quiet zone is marked out in the narrower parts of the lake so the birds can breed undisturbed.

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Valvasor and the cradle of karstology

The lake has been mentioned since antiquity and has appeared on maps of Europe since the 15th century. Its hydrology was first studied by the natural historian Johann Weikhard von Valvasor, whose work on it earned him a Fellowship of the Royal Society. The park calls it the cradle of karstology, because terms such as polje and intermittent lake come from here. Today it is protected as a Ramsar wetland and under Natura 2000, and lies within the Notranjska Regional Park, in the municipality of Cerknica.

Getting to Cerknica

From Ljubljana it is about an hour by car, and there are buses to Cerknica from Ljubljana and from Postojna. By train, get off at Rakek, about 10 km away, and follow a waymarked trail to the lake on foot or by bike. For other sights nearby, see Notranjska and lakes in Slovenia.

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