In 1490, so the story goes, a tub-maker soaking a wooden vessel in a spring found shiny drops of liquid metal at the bottom. It was mercury, and the mine that grew from that discovery at Idrija, in the hills of western Slovenia, became the second largest mercury mine in the world, operating for five centuries. Together with Almadén in Spain, it was inscribed by UNESCO in 2012. The smelting plant, where the ore was roasted to release the mercury vapour, was the heart of the operation, and its buildings and furnaces now tell the story of the industry and its toll on the workers.
Idrija is a compact town in a deep valley of the Idrijca river, surrounded by steep, forested hills. Besides the mine, it is famous for lace, idrijska čipka, made with bobbins by local women since the seventeenth century, when miners' wives supplemented their income with it, and for žlikrofi, small dumplings filled with potato and herbs, protected as a traditional speciality. The castle of Gewerkenegg, which housed the mine administration, now holds the town museum, and the Anthony's shaft, one of the oldest entrances to the mine, can be visited.
The roads around Idrija are a delight for riders. The Idrijca valley road winds along the river through narrow gorges, and the routes over the hills to Cerkno, Žiri and Logatec offer endless corners, climbs and descents, through forests and small villages. Tarmac is mostly well kept, and once you leave the valley floor you may not meet another vehicle for long stretches. Remember that motorcycles need a vignette for Slovenian motorways. May and late September are ideal; high summer can be sticky down in the gorge.
Idrija is a small town but a complete one, with fuel, shops and several gostilnas, the traditional Slovenian inns. Order žlikrofi with a rich meat sauce called bakalca, and look in at the lace shops, where the patterns are fine enough to need a magnifying glass. The mine tour through the Anthony's shaft is well done and gives a real sense of the conditions underground, and the castle museum explains how mercury from these hills travelled across the world. On the edge of town, the Divje jezero, the Wild Lake, is a small, intensely green karst spring that sometimes surges up after rain.