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Image:Štanjel street.JPG|The village of [[Štanjel]] |
Image:Štanjel street.JPG|The village of [[Štanjel]] |
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Image:View from Štanjel.JPG|The Kras landscape |
Image:View from Štanjel.JPG|The Kras landscape as viewed from Štanjel |
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Image:San Giovanni di Duino - Stivan.jpg|Landscape near [[Duino]] |
Image:San Giovanni di Duino - Stivan.jpg|Landscape near [[Duino]] |
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Image:Duino castello 09022008 01.jpg|The cliffs of [[Nabrežina]] |
Image:Duino castello 09022008 01.jpg|The cliffs of [[Nabrežina]] |
Revision as of 20:23, 23 October 2008
- There is a separate article "Karst topography". Also, there a stadium named Kras Stadion and a company called Kraš.If you are looking for the oncogene, go to KRAS
Kras (German: Karst; Italian: Carso), also known as the Classical Karst or the Kras Plateau, is a limestone borderline plateau region in southwestern Slovenia extending into northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills surrunding the valley, the westernmost part of the Brkini Hills, and the Gulf of Trieste. Its western edge is also the traditional ethnic border between Italians and Slovenes. The region is famous as the inspiration for the geological term karst topography.
The plateau rises quite steeply above the neighboring landscape, with the exception of the southeastern side, where the steepness is less prounounced. The plateau gradually descends from the southeast to the southwest. On average it lies 334 metres above sea level. Because Kras steeply descends towards the Adriatic Sea (see: Kraški rob), it is less exposed to the beneficial climatological effects of the sea. The main vegetation in the past were oaks, but now are pine forests. Forests now cover only one third of Kras. Much of the wood for the closely spaced piles which support the island city of Venice, Italy came from this region.
The Kras is famous for its caves. In Slovenia, they include Vilenica (the oldest tourist cave in the world), Lipica Cave, Divača Cave, Kačna Cave, Postojna Cave and Škocjan Caves (UNESCO world heritage site), while in Italy there is the Grotta Gigante (the largest tourist cave in the world, with a special horizontal pendulum that measures the ebb and flow effect of the moon on the earth).
Most of the Kras is located in the Slovene Littoral on an area of 429 square kilometres, and has a population of about 19,000 people. The Kras as a whole has exactly 100 settlements. The town of Sežana is the center of the region on the Slovene side of the border. The main rural centers are the settlements of Divača, Dutovlje, and Komen. Štanjel is a picturesque nucleate settlement at the top of the northern rim of the plateau; its houses are tightly clustered around the Turn hill, giving it the appearance of a medieval town. On the Italian side of the border, important settlements include Villa Opicina, Duino and Nabrežina.
Natural conditions, including the bora (burja) wind, and the local way of life all shaped the elements of Kras architecture, creating simple but well-defined forms. Kras is renowned for its thick red wine wine, known as teran, and prosciutto. One of the main tourist centers in the area is Lipica, with horse stables (the home of the Lipizzan horse breed) as well as other tourist facilities.
Famous persons who were born or lived in the region include the poets Srečko Kosovel, Igo Gruden and Ciril Zlobec, social activist Danilo Dolci, architect Max Fabiani, painters Avgust Černigoj and Lojze Spacal, writers Alojz Rebula, Igor Torkar and Bogomir Magajna, and actress Ita Rina. The Kras' pitoresque landscape inspired numerous artist who were not from the region, among whom the poets Rainer Maria Rilke, Alojz Gradnik and Edvard Kocbek, essayists Scipio Slataper and Marjan Rožanc, writers Fulvio Tomizza and Susanna Tamaro, painter Lojze Spacal, and film director Jan Cvitkovič.
Geographical extension
The municipalities that are completely or partially on the Kras territory, include:
- Italy
- Savogna d'Isonzo
- Doberdò del Lago
- Sagrado (partially)
- Monfalcone (partially)
- Duino-Aurisina
- Sgonico
- Monrupino
- Trieste (partially)
- San Dorligo della Valle (partially)
- Slovenia
- Miren-Kostanjevica (partially)
- Komen
- Sežana
- Divača
- Hrpelje-Kozina (partially)
Sometimes, the region around Pivka is also included.
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The village of Štanjel
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The Kras landscape as viewed from Štanjel
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Landscape near Duino
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The cliffs of Nabrežina
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Kras landscape in the Province of Trieste
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The fortified church in Repentabor
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The village of Lokev near Sežana
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Doberdob Lake
See also
External links
- Karst in Slovenia. Slovenia: a geographical overview. Nadja Zupan Hajna
- PR Office of the Slovenian Government - Kras and Karst
- The Kras and Brkini Region
Sources
- Rosanna Bubola, Vivere il Carso (Basadello di Campoformico (Udine): La tipografica, 2006)
- Massimo Gobessi& Sergio Dolce, Il Carso in tasca (Trieste: Edizioni Luglio, 2006)
- Elio Forznarič et al., Kras je krasen: vodnik po občinah Kraške gorske skupnosti (Trieste: Kraška gorska skupnost/ Comunità montana del Carso, 1991)
- Daniel Jarc, Il patrimonio culturale del Carso goriziano/ Kulturna dediščina goriškega Krasa (Trieste: SLORI, 1997)
- Miran Lapanje, Sežanski Kras (Sežana: Jamarsko društvo, 1984)
- Mojca Osvald et al., Kras in slovenska Istra (Ljubljana: Gimnazija Bežigrad, 2007)
- Matjaž Žnidaršič, Slovenski Kras: umetnostna dediščina (Cerknica: Naklo, d.o.o, 1996)