Klavže
Prelovčeva 9, SI-5280 Idrija
Phone386 (0) 5 372 6600
Managed byIdrija Municipal Museum
Difference between revisions of "Flood Dams, Klavže"
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Five hundred years of mining in the [[:Category:Mercury mining heritage|Idrija Mercury Mine]] required vast quantities of timber for the mine's architecture, supporting pillars, machines, smelting ore, as well as supplying the inhabitants of [[Municipality of Idrija|Idrija]]. The town lies in a hilly region surrounded by vast forests. Nearby forests had been cut early, so the most practical way was to transport timber on waterways from forests far away. Dams, called ''klavže'' were made on the rivers Zala, Belca, Idrijca, and Kanomljica for timber transport all the way to the town of Idrija. | Five hundred years of mining in the [[:Category:Mercury mining heritage|Idrija Mercury Mine]] required vast quantities of timber for the mine's architecture, supporting pillars, machines, smelting ore, as well as supplying the inhabitants of [[Municipality of Idrija|Idrija]]. The town lies in a hilly region surrounded by vast forests. Nearby forests had been cut early, so the most practical way was to transport timber on waterways from forests far away. Dams, called ''klavže'' were made on the rivers Zala, Belca, Idrijca, and Kanomljica for timber transport all the way to the town of Idrija. | ||
| − | [[Flood Dams, Klavže|''Klavže'' ("flood dams")]] were made to dam lakes, timber was piled in the lake, which was later released and the water drove the timber downstream to Idrija on river rakes. On the Idrijca river the timber was caught and retrieved from the water for further use. Because of their huge stone structures and technical ingenuity ''klavže'' are praised also as the Slovene pyramids. Some of them were restored and are well worth a visit. | + | [[Flood Dams, Klavže|''Klavže'' ("flood dams")]] were made to dam lakes, timber was piled in the lake, which was later released and the accumulated water drove the timber downstream to Idrija on river rakes. On the Idrijca river the timber was caught and retrieved from the water for further use. Because of their huge stone structures and technical ingenuity ''klavže'' are praised also as the Slovene pyramids. Some of them were restored and are well worth a visit. |
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Revision as of 13:23, 18 June 2012
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Origin of the word
Kluže is a plural noun meaning 'the gate'. It derives from Latin clausura (the closing). The name of the war fortress Kluže near Bovec has the same origin. The Slovene term was borrowed from the German die Klause meaning also 'the pass'. In any case, the term denotes something that has not been permanently closed but is of a transient nature. The main characteristic of klavže is namely the closing and opening mechanism for the regulation of the water accumulation.
History
The first klavže were built out of wood in the 16th century on the Zala river, but were too dependent on rainfall and high waters. Around 1770 the monumental klavže were built out of brick, stone and mortar, mechanisms that required only a pair of oxen to lift or close the dam barriers, also in extreme weather conditions. The biggest klavže were those of a local Master Mrak's (1709–1786), positioned where the river Idrijca formed an 800-metre-long lake that could drive some 10,000 m3 of timber at a time downstream to Idrija 20km away.
It has been calculated that the river Idrijca carried approximately 4,540,000 m3 of fuel wood and 375,000 m3 of pit wood and round timber. The transportation of timber via rivers ended in 1926, after catastrophic floods took away the rakes in Lenštat in the centre of Idrija. Being a klavžar ("dam operator") was a very responsible, but also highly valued, position among the people.
Visit
Klavže attracted the audience already at the time when they performed their duty. The opening of a dam and the noisy transportation of timber was an attractive performance of human engineering ingenuity. The models of klavže and Lenštat rakes made by Janko Trošt explain well the whole process and can be seen in the Idrija Municipal Museum. The visit to one of the preserved sites remains, however, a unique experience.
For a few decades the abandoned klavže were decaying and became hardly accessible due to the lack of road maintenance. In 1968 the Municipality of Idrija proclaimed them as a first class technical monument and from 2001 onwards the following klavže have been protected as a cultural monument on a state level: Belčne klavže (Idrijska Bela), Putrihove klavže (Idrijska Bela) - built from 1767 till 1769 according to the plans by Jožef Mrak, Idrijske klavže (Vojsko), and the most monumental Kanomeljske klavže (Gorenja Kanomlja, called also Ovčjak klavže), built in 1813.
See also
- Mercury mining heritage on Culture.si
- Idrija Municipal Museum
- Idrija Mine Museum
- Miner's House - Ethnological Collection
- Idrija Kamšt
- Cerkno Museum
External links
- Klavže - Slovenian Pyramids on the Idrija Tourism website
- A richly illustrated book on Jožef Mrak (1709–1786) by Janez Kavčič (in Slovenian)
- Jožef Mrak on Wikipedija (in Slovenian)
- Idrija Municipal Museum
- Mercury Mine Idrija
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Five hundred years of mining in the Idrija Mercury Mine … Five hundred years of mining in the Idrija Mercury Mine required vast quantities of timber for the mine's architecture, supporting pillars, machines, smelting ore, as well as supplying the inhabitants of Idrija.Idrija. +
Five hundred years of mining in the Idrija Mercury Mine required vast quantities of timber for the mine's architecture, supporting pillars, machines, smelting ore, as well as supplying the inhabitants of Idrija. +
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