City of steel and daffodils

Long urban village at the beginning of Gornjesavska dolina (Upper Sava Valley), which lies at 584 m above sea level, is called Jesenice. It is the highest and longest places in Gorenjska, which was first mentioned in the Ortenburg’s mining order, issued by the Frederick Ortenburg in 1381.  Material residues found in this area are from the period of transition early stone age (Neolithic) and bronze age. That peeves stone artefacts, stone axes, as well as examples of weapons. Through Gornjesavska valley in 1870 railway was built, 36 years later the Karavanke tunnel was opened and built Bohinj railway. Jesenice is an important transport centre and the border station, and beside that the industrial, working, iron and hockey city. An important person, who has operated in the area of Jesenice, was the Belgian industrialist Victor Ruard, who was the owner of Sava ironworks. Under his management, the ironworks had undergone a major expansion...

The mansion was built in the first half of the 16^th century by the Italian Bernardo Bucelleni, after moving steel workshops from Planina pod Golico to valley above the river Sava.

In 1831 it was enlarged and rebuilt in classicistic style. The building was given in 1954 to the Technical Museum of Steelworks Jesenice. Today, here is Gornjesavski muzej Jesenice (Upper Sava Museum Jesenice) with an exhibition on the history of ironwork in the Gorenjska. Valuable feature of the exhibition is a realistic mock-up of abandoned iron sites, blast furnaces and other devices. Jesenice and ironworks in the past earned the reputation of a technical innovator in the history of iron. The latter is with the new procedures ferromanganese in the blast furnace received a medal at the Vienna exhibition in 1873.

About the history of Jesenice and the life in the steel city witnessed many sites that have been preserved till nowadays. These include Murova, which is the oldest part of town, since the records speak of him already in the Far 1469, when there were still wooden houses. Some have been preserved to this day. A notable exception is also one of the four ironwork mansions, that is the mansion of Kos, which has been built in the 17^th century by  owners of steel plants in the Stara Sava (Old Sava), Plavž and Murova. Today there are the exhibitions and is used also for weddings. Among the worth seeing sights are also steam locomotives used by ironworkers and Pelton hydro turbine from 1900 with a diameter of 9 meters...

Jesenice are also known for ice hockey. The origin of ice hockey in Jesenice goes in the period before the Second World War. The first plane of ice has occurred at the site where today the football playground is. In season 1940/41 first ice hockey team was organized. The equipment was simple, mostly made in the Jesenice ironworks. After winning the championship in 1957, the Ironworkers were the best team in Yugoslavia.

Hockey players from Jesenice were year after year winning the title of state champions, accrue experiences in the European Cup matches and thus become the only real rulers of Yugoslav and Slovenian ice hockey.

As evidence for this are fifteen consecutive titles of state champion between 1957 and 1971. The team was then conducted by a number of foreign experts, which is constantly making progress, not only for Jesenice team, but also the former Yugoslav national team....

Jesenice hockey team is from 1992 named Acroni. Due to the large success of the club was HK Jesenice Acroni invited the Austrian hockey league (league EBEL), which appears also in the 2007/08 season. In the season 2007/08 they won the 6^th national champion title in independent Slovenia, which is the 29^th address of national champion in the history of the club.

The city and nearby villages offer a number of attractions us history, from the various churches, natural sights, such as a natural bridge on Mežakla, hiking trails and huts, and biking trails and much more. One of the world known to the pleasure point Planina pod Golico, which is located about 5 km from Jesenice and apply for recreation centre with first-class ski world and the natural sledge route.

Many tourists know the slogan of Jesenice »a city of steel and daffodils«. Visit one of those villages of Karavanke. Watch the largest natural site daffodils and learn the history of this beautiful place. Indeed, the city of Jesenice area location, which is worth a view.

More information and calendar of events on www.jesenice-tourism.net.