Baška grapa is 30 kilometers long valley of river Bača, which is trapped between Lower Bohinj mountains (si. Spodnje Bohinjske gore) on the north and Porezen, Kojca and Šentvid mountain and Cerkno hills on the south. Ridges around Baška grapa do not exceed 2000 meters, but this world is very diverse because of the many narrow side gorges and main valley, as well as because of picturesque villages and hamlets on the slopes above narrow valley. A part of Triglav national park is in Kneške Ravne. Next to all settlements located on this slopes, there are six on the bottom of the ravine: Podbrdo, Kneža, Grahovo ob Bači, Klavže, Koritnica and Hudajužna. Other settlements are: Obloke, Kneške Ravne, Lisec, Logaršče, Loje, Podmelec, Temljine, Bača pri Podbrdu, Kuk, Petrovo Brdo, Porezen, Trtnik, Grant, Rut, Stržišče, Kal and Znojile.

In Baška grapa was in the year 1948 recorded first Slovenian feature film On our own land, in a memory of the shooting and preserving of the memory, Society Baška Heritage every year organizes themed hike along the trail of movie On our own land, which starts in settlement Grahovo ob Bači and runs along surrounding slopes, through settlement Koritnica.

There are many natural and cultural sites in Baška grapa.

Natural sites:

• 300 meters long and 30 meters wide troughs on river Kneža, Mali (en. Small) and Veliki (en. Big) Lut
• Waterfalls of Sopota, Sopad (Lisec), Ruscov waterfall on the stream Milpoh and little waterfalls of stream Prošček
• Čendov abyss
• Spring of Dic water
• Through in Klavže, trough Klovdra above village Bača pri Podbrdo
• Gorge and stream Kacenpoh and Driselpoh
• River Knešca and Bača with throughs and small waterfalls
• Spring of good water in Perile, Podmelec
• Endemic Moehringia villosa
• Spring at Devet dohtarjev (en. Nine doctors) above Bača pri Podbrdo
• Spring of healing drinking water in Rut and Grant
• 100-year-old linden tree in Rut, most likely planted in the 16th century, beneath it was judged by rihtar (village mayor), in the year 1844 it was partially burned. Today, the perimeter of the treetop is 23 meters, its trunk is 7,96 meters.

Cultural sites:

• Dialect
• The remains of the buildings from 1st World War
• Ethnological museum at Martin in Bača pri Podbrdo
• The remains of the mills, saw and blacksmiths, granaries, drying rooms
• Archaeological site in Troje in Rut, a burning grave
• Memorial plaques from 2nd World War
• School in Rut, today building heritage
• Bohinj tunnel, railway portal
• Village Grant and village Rut, settlement heritage
• The church of the Holy Three Kings in Obloke, 1567
• The church of St. Nicholas in Podbrdo
• Parish church of the Assumption of Mary in Podmelec

In the period of Hallstatt culture (Most na Soči was named Saint Lucia), between years 1000 and 300 BC, run a cargo route from Bohinj side to the Adriatic overpass Bača. At Podmelec, archeologists found the remains of graves with data from year 568, which belonged to Langobards. There are also data from the Tolmin road committee about the course of municipality roads from the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The data also includes the connection from Podbrdo to Petrovo Brdo, the connection, which was in the year 1884 extended. When constructing the railway, this connection was badly damaged and was gradually modernized until a few centuries ago.

Baška grapa is important mainly because of the Bohinj railway line between Jesenice and Nova Gorica, it was built between the years 1900 and 1906. The line at Podbrdo enters into almost 7 kilometers long tunnel and leaves it in Bohinjska Bistrica. Road connection between Tolmin, Selška valley and Bohinj is curved and narrow thus inappropriate for bigger traffic. The strategic position of Koritnica, on the intersection of cargo roads between Idrija, Bohinj, and Tolmin, was also used by Romans. The valley ob Bača was partitioned and closed with a fortified barrier Claustra Alpium luliarium, the defense system of the Roman empire, which run between today Zarakovec and Spodnje Bukovo (en. Lower Bukovo).

In the area of confluence of rivers Bača and Koritnica, they found burial grounds from Iron Age with burned burials and Roman graves, most of the graves are dated between 9th and 4th century BC. To bigger colonization of the area came between years 1218 and 1251, at that time patriarch of Aquileia Bertold Andeški settled the farmers from the vicinity of Innichen in the Pustiška valley or Pustertal in southern Tyrol. First colonization was in the area of today’s Grant and Rut, from which they slowly spread. They had their own autonomy, village mayor (si. rihtar) and were acquit from all taxes. The consequence of population are geographical names, surnames, and language, which has been preserved to this day. Old Tyrolean german preserved in some areas until the 19th century. Thirteen villages of former german colonization formed a special Bača language with some specifics.

Baška grapa has very diverse terrain, which is the consequence of very diverse geological and petrographic terrain. The parent base is formed by limestone, mainly Volče limestone, and dolomites. The valley was in the time of geological past exposed to erosional power of river Bača and its tributaries. The water carved ravines, where dominate steep and rugged slopes with average incline around 35°. Besides running waters, the slopes were also shaped by glaciers. In Lower Bohinj mountains, in diluvian (Ice Age, Pleistocene), the extensive glaciers were descending, which dumped moraine mixed with old scree on the slopes. Thus, folding terraces were formed, which are beside the bottom of the valley most folded parts of Baška grapa.

BAŠKA GRAPA IN PICTURES

See other valleys in Slovenia!

Bohinj railway
Bohinj railway runs between Jesenice – Nova Gorica – Trieste, in times of Austria-Hungary monarchy it was an important part of railway Prague – Trieste. It is 144 kilometers long, from 717 kilometers long railway. Bohinj railway includes 89 kilometers of Bohinj and 55 kilometers of Karst railway. [_Read more_]

River Bača
River Bača is a small river in the Southern part of the Littoral region, which springs in the vicinity of settlement Bača pri Podbrdo. It is 22 kilometers long and it shapes 30 kilometers long valley, named Baška grapa. The river flows into river Idrijca near the village Bača pri Modreju. [_Read more_]

Grahovo ob Bači
Grahovo ob Bači is a nucleated settlement on the south-western slope of Kotel above river Bača. Settlement covers hamlets Brdo, Ravnce, Na Koncu, Postaja, Spodnje Bukovo. The settlement has approximate 200 inhabitants. Grahovo was for the first time mentioned in the year 1377. [_Read more_]

Koritnica
Koritnica is a smaller settlement on the right bank of river Bača in municipality Tolmin and one of six settlements, which are located at the bottom of Baška grapa. The settlement was one of the locations of the shooting of movie On our own land. Koritnica is attested in written sources in 1377 as Coritinicha. [_Read more_]

Rudi Bašelj
Rudi Bašelj was a Slovenian NLS fighter, combat engineer and saboteur, who was born on April 18th, 1918 in Pušnik – Bukovski vrh, he died on December 6th, 1979 in Koritnica. In November 1943 he joins partisans, when he returned from the Italian army after the their capitulation. [_Read more_]

France Štiglič
France Štiglič is Slovenian movie director and screenwriter, who was born on November 12th, 1919 in Kranj, he died on May 4th, 1993 in Ljubljana. He was also NLS partisan and journalist, in Ljubljana, he studied law. After the war, he was among the leading organizers of the movie industry in Slovenia. [_Read more_]

On our own land
The movie On our own land is the first Slovenian sound full-length feature film, which was for the first time played on November 21st 1948 in Ljubljana. It is a war movie, filmed in year 1947 and 1948  in black-white technique. The story talks about a struggle of Partisans and civil residents on Primorska. [_Read more_]