Logatec, the town on the road between Ljubljana and the Karst

What to see: the Planinsko polje and Vranja jama

At the southern tip of the municipality, the Planinsko polje is a karst polje of about 11 km², at around 450 m, shared by Logatec, Postojna and Cerknica. The river Unica emerges from Planina Cave, winds across the plain and disappears down about 150 sinkholes. Several times a year, mostly in spring and autumn, the polje floods, and the water can stay for up to two months. It is the only place in Slovenia where a small threatened bulb plant grows, it has 78 species of butterfly and it is in the Natura 2000 network for the corncrake. The Unica is also prized by fly fishermen.

On the northern edge of the polje, near Laze and about 7 km from Logatec, Vranja jama opens a huge mouth at the bottom of a collapsed sinkhole. Entry is free with proper footwear and kit, and olms live in its lowest passage; they can sometimes be seen in daylight when the water rises into the entrance hall. In winter, cold air from the Mrzla jama forms ice stalactites.

The Roman fort at Lanišče

Near Kalce, at Lanišče, stands an almost square fort of 19.6 by 19.7 m with walls 1.6 m thick, built between the second half of the 3rd century and the early 4th. It closed the main road between Emona and Aquileia, halfway between Longaticum and the fortress of Ad Pirum at Hrušica. It was part of the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum, the late Roman chain of walls and towers running from present-day Rijeka to the Soča valley, which can also be seen at Vrhnika.

It was rebuilt in the early 1970s, and the municipality presents it as the only reconstructed example of the system in Slovenia. There are good views to the east from the site.

The lime avenue and the town

At the entrance to town, beside the old Trieste road, runs one of the longest tree-lined avenues in Slovenia, with 290 lime trees along 1.9 km. Local tradition says they were planted around 1805 to mark Napoleon’s marriage to Marie Louise of Austria, hence the names Louise’s avenue and later Napoleon’s avenue. During the Illyrian Provinces, from 1809 to 1813, Logatec briefly had its own municipality.

The Southern Railway reached Trieste in 1857 and put the carters out of business, but it brought sawmills, as many as nine, and Logatec station was built in 1897. In 1883 Emperor Franz Joseph, on his way to Idrija, slept at the Ipavec house in Gornji Logatec. After the fire of 1876, which destroyed most of the town, Friulian timber merchants arrived, and cast-iron fountains such as the Tollazzi one date from that time.

In Dolnji Logatec, St Nicholas’ church, first recorded in 1526, is a late Baroque building from the end of the 18th century, enlarged after the First World War. Opposite, a column topped by a bronze statue of the saint has stood in the square since 2006. The Renaissance castle in Gornji Logatec, owned in turn by the Kobenzl, Coronini and Windisch-Graetz families, is now private. The town’s holiday is 20 September, recalling the move of the district court from Planina in 1875, and there is a private military museum with one of the largest collections in the country.

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Logatec, on the road since Roman times

Logatec has 10,107 residents, and the municipality 15,129 across 19 settlements and 173 km², according to SURS. The municipality calls itself the heart of Notranjska, where the Alpine and Dinaric worlds meet, although statistically it belongs to central Slovenia. It borders Vrhnika, Idrija, Žiri, Ajdovščina, Postojna, Cerknica, Gorenja vas-Poljane and Dobrova-Polhov Gradec.

Its history is that of a crossroads. In the Iron Age there were hillforts on Velike Bukve, Brst and Strmica. The Romans had a staging post here, the mansio Longaticum, on the road from Emona, today’s Ljubljana, to Aquileia, and a small settlement in Gornji Logatec. That double origin explains the town’s split into Gornji and Dolnji Logatec. The name first appears in writing in 1265, as border land between the Patriarch of Aquileia and the Duke of Carinthia.

In the 16th century the Turks plundered Jakovica and Laze, in 1559, and Logatec had a toll house and a post station on the road from Ljubljana to Trieste and Gorizia. When Trieste became a free port in 1719, the carters filled the road. In March 1797 General Bernadotte, later King of Sweden, issued a proclamation here to the people of Carniola in French, German and Slovene.

Walks and getting there from Ljubljana

To the north-west, the Žejna dolina near Hotedršica is a boggy valley in the Natura 2000 network at about 575 m. Sekirica hill, 545 m, has footpaths, cross-country ski tracks when it snows and four ski jumps, and according to the municipality, Ženček and Sekirica are among the best places in Slovenia to learn paragliding. Logatec also has an indoor wind tunnel, Aerodium, where you fly with an instructor up to nine metres off the ground.

Logatec is about 30 km from Ljubljana on the coast motorway. By bus, the Ljubljana bus station search showed 56 departures on Monday 26 October 2026, taking 31 to 47 minutes, and 12 on Saturday 31 October. From here, Postojna and Lake Cerknica are close by. With 10,107 people, it is one of the country’s 18 towns of more than 10,000, as I explain in Slovenia’s cities.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Logatec and pick one that fits your day.

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