By June, Slovenia is lush and shades of green. It begins to feel warm even in the shade, like true summer. From Ljubljana, it is just a short one hour drive to Idrija. Perfect for a day trip. I had traveled to Idrija once before, for the famous žlikrofi festival, but it was terrible weather so I didn’t leave the covered parking lot. Today I would be exploring Idrija’s culture, history, and food with local expert, Urban Šlabnik.
Urban has his hands in many pots when it comes to tourism and trust me, he is someone to know if you want to travel to this region. His tourism company offers culinary experiences, accommodation, and even fly fishing. He also helps to run ID20 an incubation and support program for cultural heritage projects.
We first met at ID20 headquarters. When you walk into their office there is this overwhelmingly large piece of machinery that dominates the room. It was once part of a pulley system that functioned as part of the mercury mines. Idrija is an old mining town, but not for the personally familiar anthracite coal, here they mined mercury.
Idrija is a joint UNESCO World Heritage site with Almadén (Spain). Together they represent the two largest mercury mines in the world. Throughout the town, you will find plaques on important buildings and structures sharing their significance. The text is presented in both Slovenian and English.
Table of Contents
Discovery of Mercury in Idrija
The story begins in 1490 when a bucket maker was soaking his buckets overnight to treat them. The next day he saw something shiny at the bottom of the bucket, when he reached in he found native mercury. This was at the present-day location of Holy Trinity Church (Cerkev sv. Trojice).
Urban explained that mercury was found in two forms in the mine: as native mercury and cinnabar ore. Native mercury is in liquid form often found in the cracks of rock or water. Cinnabar ore looks like a dark red rock and the mercury can only be extracted when it is heated to 800 degrees Celcius.
The discovery of amalgamation in 1554, in the US, gave rise to the mine’s importance. Mercury was used for acquiring gold and silver from ore. Over 700 kilometers of tunnels have been excavated, resulting in 13% of the current world production of mercury (107,000 tons).
Starting this story off with mining is important. After spending the day with Urban and learning about Idrija’s cultural heritage it became very clear how these mines shaped the environment and culture. Aspects of mining life are still experienced today in subtle ways. In Idrija when someone says goodbye they say “Srečno!” which means “Good Luck!” and was said during mining days as it was dangerous work. You will hear this being said throughout the area as well as being inscribed on buildings and objects.
Another way that mining shaped Idrija is around health. Mining mercury was very dangerous work and the miners began to have health complications. Most miners could only last a few years before falling too ill to work. An Austrian physician and naturalist, Janez Anton Scopoli (Giovanni Antonio Scopoli), was invited to work in Idrija.
He discovered that wormwood (pelin) tea helped bring an appetite which many miners were lacking. The miners had other plans, mixing this tea with local spring water and alcohol, and then consumed it throughout the day. Urban began our tour by letting me try the tea and then showing me exactly how they made Geruš (the alcoholic drink). I also then compared that to the modern-day version sold in stores. For the curious, it is very bitter (think of the Italian liquor Fernet).
Food and Heritage Walk in Idrija
Our tour continued outside where Urban took me to a viewpoint to see the lay of the land, explaining where the mine shafts were, how the mercury moved through the town, and how Idrija was developed. Then we progressed with our tour stopping at various sights and snacking on local delights.
The Anthony Mine Shaft (Antonijev rov) is 1.5 kilometers long, 600 meters wide, and 400 meters deep. Named after Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of miners and protector of mine accidents is currently one of the oldest preserved mine entrances in Europe. Today you can visit the mine for a guided tour. It lasts about one hour and a half and there are several tours each day. Check their site for daily tour times.