Municipality of Ljubljana interpretation planning

Provided an interpretive planning consultation for the development of the Nature Park Ljubljansko Barje.

Ljubljansko Barje, this almost 160 square kilometres large plain, originated some two million years ago through the sinking of an extensive area of the Ljubljana basin. Consequently, the local rivers deposited huge amounts of shingle and sediments there, virtually damming the Ljubljanica river where it joined the Sava and inundating the entire Barje basin at the same time. Some 6,000 years ago, the Barje lake dried up, leaving a marshy plain in its place. In its greater part, layers of peat were formed, in places even up to 9 metres thick.

Although this boggy area was in no way an ideal environment for people to settle there, numerous archaeological finds speak of the fact that the area of Ljubljansko Barje had been inhabited from the very Copper Age onwards. This was the time of the prominent pile dwellings as well as of highly developed, technologically advanced and with wider European environment linked cultures, whose pottery and copper artefacts still astonish the lovers of everything beautiful.