Rakov Skocjan

Rakov Škocjan is a two-and-a-half-kilometre valley formed where a cave roof collapsed, leaving the Rak river running along the floor in the open air between two surviving fragments of the roof. Those fragments are the natural bridges: the Small Bridge at the upstream end where the river emerges, and the Big Bridge downstream where it goes back underground towards Planinska jama. It was declared a landscape park in 1949, the first in the country. Cliffs up to three hundred metres enclose the valley, and above the Big Bridge stand the ruins of the early seventeenth-century church of Saint Cantianus, on an Iron Age site.

What's there

• The Big Natural Bridge - a surviving arch of cave roof at the downstream end.
• The Small Natural Bridge - the arch upstream where the Rak comes into daylight.
• The Rak river - the surface stretch between the two swallow holes.
• The 1949 designation - Slovenia's first landscape park.

When to go

Spring and autumn have the strongest flow and the valley is at its best; in dry summers the river can nearly disappear. Autumn colour in the beech woods is good. Winter is quiet and often icy on the paths.

What to expect

In a dry summer there is little water and the valley loses much of its point. The bridges are less dramatic in person than photographs suggest. Paths are muddy after rain and marking is patchy.

Nearby

Lake Cerknica is east, and Postojna Cave is west.

Key facts