Cerknica Lake

Interesting Facts

The tale of WITCHES OF SLIVNICA MOUNTAIN 

Once upon a time, mighty forests covered wide areas of Slivnica, Javorniki and Snežnik mountains all the way to the Trnovski gozd Forest. Every year, people in the valley stared in disbelief at the peaks, which hid many fears and superstitions. The Slivnica Hill in particular seemed scary to them, as they often saw smoke billowing from the dark clouds, which later ravaged into terrible storms.

No one was brave enough to dare approach this mysterious mountain, which hid all kinds of medicinal herbs and some secrets, which only later appeared in all their grandeur. Eventually, people became very curious and forced themselves into the dark forests, as they were all full of game, which in one way or another enriched the menu in the people’s bread-and-butter kitchen.

One day, a young villager accidentally went too deep into the forest and got lost. It was already getting dark and he did not know where to go, as he was very afraid of the dark and the night calls of the wilderness. As he wandered for some time in the darkness of the forest, he thought he saw a light up the hill somewhere in front of him. He bravely set out on his way and soon reached the top where he found a big cave entrance. Beautiful women came out of the cave and gathered around the campfire, over which a fragrant soup was cooking in the cauldron. The smell was impossible to resist and the man wanted to satisfy his hunger. The young women sat around the fire and all of a sudden started dancing to music. 

The young man was so enchanted by the whole scene that he forgot where he was, what he was doing and why he had come. The girls were dancing faster and faster and soon the whole scene changed terribly, as now the girls were dancing in the air, about two meters above the ground. The young man watched with an open mouth and was frightened by everything he saw. He just ran and did not stop until he reached his home. Barely had he crossed the threshold he began to recount what he had seen and how he had escaped. People did not believe him at first, but later they saw the dance of young women more and more often and over the millennia. They started calling Slivnica Mountain the Witch Mountain.

The witches are the hallmark of Cerknica’s Shrovetide celebrations and carnival. The great witch, mother Ursula, is some sort of core, from which the face of the Inner Carniola (Notranjska) region spreads and takes shape. Ursula the Witch is the first big carnival figure that made a debut at the Cerknica Carnival, and that is for a good reason. Johann Weikhard von Valvasor wrote about a hole on the top of Slivnica Mountain in his famous book The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, saying that this is where the witches meet up and cook up storms.