Views through time - Predaselj gorge (Predoselj)

The Predaselj gorge (Predoselj) was formed by the river Kamniška Bistrica. After that, wood was harvested from the forests of Kamniška Bistrica. In October 1890, as usual, wood was rafted from the end of the valley. Luckily, everything went through Great Predaselj, and at the entrance to the Small Predaselj, the wood got stuck, and because there was a lot of it – about 200 yards – otherwise a huge hole between the lower natural bridge and the bottom and there very narrow walls clogged. The rushing water quickly began to pile gravel on the wood, which covered the basin between Small and Great Predaselj up to 12 meters thick. Across the new barrier, a beautiful waterfall began to fall into the gorge, which was preserved until 1952.

Until the construction of today’s road to Kamniška Bistrica, which began construction in 1932, the valley was accessible only by foot. Immediately after its founding in 1893, the branch of the Slovenian Mountaineering Association (SPD) Kamnik started building and marking new mountain trails in the Kamnik Mountains. Changes in nature required the consent of the then owner of the Bourgeois Corporation in Kamnik, so the construction of the trail was often significantly delayed. An application for the construction of a footbridge over Predaselj was submitted as early as 1925. At the same time, wooden protected paths and bridges were placed next to it, so called Galleries opened in 1928.

In his book Waterfalls in Slovenia, Anton Ramovš describes the end of a large waterfall in Predaselj: “On October 26, 1952, a 12-meter-high waterfall in Small Predoselj disappeared even faster than it had appeared 62 years earlier. In the former waterfall dam, a huge glacial block appeared again, which is wedged between steep limestone slopes, and again represents the second natural bridge in Predoslje. France Malešič also writes in Kamniški zbornik 1996 about the waterfall, which disappeared in 1952. “This is how the waterfall in Predaselj disappeared. Bridges and balconies for tourist walkers have collapsed. ”

Predaselj Gorge is still an exceptional tourist spot in the Kamniška Bistrica valley. Even today we can observe the extraordinary power of the water, which carved troughs the limestone rocks and picturesque glacial rock.