Medvode, the town between two rivers a quarter of an hour from Ljubljana

Things to see: Lake Zbilje and Smlednik castle

Lake Zbilje is a reservoir on the Sava created in 1953 by the dam of the Medvode power station. It covers 69 hectares and, when the water is high, stretches up to 5 km. You can hire canoes and rowing boats, and there is a playground and a picnic area. A bridge crosses it to Valburga, below the old castle at Smlednik, ruins counted among the most important in Slovenia. It began in the Romanesque period, was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1511, and from the top you see Triglav, the Karavanke and the Kamnik-Savinja Alps.

Jakob Aljaž’s birthplace

At Zavrh pod Šmarno goro the house still stands where Jakob Aljaž, priest, composer and mountaineer, was born in 1845. As parish priest of Dovje he bought the summit of Triglav for one gulden and in 1895 put up the Aljaž Tower there, assembled in five hours, as well as huts such as the one on Kredarica. He also set «Oj, Triglav, moj dom» to music, one of his best-known songs, and translated the carol «Silent Night» into Slovenian.

The Polhov Gradec Dolomites

To the south-west rise the Polhov Gradec Dolomites, with peaks such as Grmada, at 898 m, and Tošč, at 1,021 m, and in the village of Žlebe stands the Gothic church of St Margaret, which legend says the last lords of Jeterbenk built to atone for the crimes of their robber-knight ancestors. At Hraše, near Smlednik, two ponds form a 5-hectare wetland with birds and frogs, and by the Sora dam there is a river beach with water fit for bathing.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Medvode for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

Medvode, between two rivers

Medvode has 5,451 people and heads a municipality of 17,580 covering 77.7 km². Its name, «between waters», comes from the confluence of the Sora, which flows down from the Dolomites, with the Sava, and the confluence appears on its coat of arms and flag. The area is mentioned as early as the 10th century, and it began to grow at the end of the 15th, when Emperor Frederick III allowed a bridge to be built. Locals say nobody is truly from Medvode until they have swum at the confluence.

Getting there from Ljubljana

Medvode is a quarter of an hour from Ljubljana by bus or train, and the tourist office is in the station. To carry on across the plain, there is Kamnik, and the whole region in central Slovenia.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Medvode for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.