SIGHTS
Fortress Kluže



It is located four kilometres from Bovec in the direction of the Predel pass. In the second half of the 15th century a wooden fortification was built above the deep ravine of the Koritnica river. Its purpose was to prevent pillaging raids by the Turks to Carinthia. Georg Phillipp von Gera, the Bovec ruler from 1613 to 1643, built a stone fortress in 1613. He also discovered a spring nearby which enabled the fortress to survive lengthy sieges. He had a delicately masoned stone plaque built into a wall by the fortress bearing his coat of arms and the year of construction. In 1797 the Austrian contingent of soldiers defended the fortress against the advancing French army, which under the command of general Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austrians in northern Italy. The defenders stood little chance against the overpowering adversary, so they resorted to trickery. At night they removed the bridge over the Koritnica and many French soldiers tumbled into the depth in the darkness. The following day the defenders had to surender and the assailants in their rage demolished the fortress. The present-day appearance of the fortress dates back to 1882. The central part of the fortress has the shape of two squares with narrow loopholes in the walls. The complex of the fortress also includes the "upper" fortress, erected on a rock ridge. The path leading to it is along its initial stretch hewn into rock and then runs through a tunnel. The upper fortification was demolished during an artilery barrage in World War I while the Italian battery could do no damage to the fortress by the road. As the road was being widened and the bridge reconstructed during the administration by the Alies, the defence rampart with the entrance portal, which was obstructing the road, was removed.