Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba and Roman Walls in Mirje
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
381 km
Riding-time estimate
7 h 40
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 381 km round trip from Aquileia - roughly 7 h 40 in the saddle. On the way it passes Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power, Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier, Roman Walls in Mirje and back through Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Italy into Slovenia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Scenic road chapters
Slovenia Soca Valley Road
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 52 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
Length
75 km
Named road
Slovenia Soca Valley Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba
Aquileia today is a village of fewer than three thousand people in the flat farmland of Friuli, near the head of the Adriatic, but two thousand years ago it was one of the largest and richest cities of the Roman Empire. Founded as a Latin colony in 181 BC to guard the northeastern approaches to Italy, it grew into a great trading port, connected to the sea by a river and a canal, through which amber, wine, oil and glass moved between the Mediterranean and the lands beyond the Alps. Attila sacked it in 452, and many of its people fled to the lagoons, where their descendants helped found Venice and Grado.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba is where the day begins. Next is Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power, 54 km on.
2. Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power
Cividale del Friuli was founded as Forum Iulii, a market town established by Julius Caesar, and it gave its name to the whole region of Friuli. In 568, when the Lombards crossed the Alps and invaded Italy, Cividale was the first city they took, and it became the seat of their first duchy. The Lombards ruled much of Italy for two centuries, and Cividale preserves some of the finest traces of their culture. The Tempietto Longobardo, a small eighth-century chapel overlooking the river, holds a row of stucco female saints of extraordinary grace, among the most beautiful works of art of the early Middle Ages. It is the centrepiece of the UNESCO listing of the Longobards in Italy, Places of the Power, along with sites from Brescia to Benevento. The National Archaeological Museum displays jewellery, weapons and grave goods from Lombard tombs.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier.
3. Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier
The water barriers of the Idrijca are among the strangest industrial monuments in Europe: massive stone and timber dams built across a narrow mountain river not to store water for drinking or power, but to float logs. Locals call them klavže, and the biggest have been nicknamed the Slovenian pyramids for their huge, carefully cut blocks. They lie in the deep, wooded gorge below the Vojsko plateau, a short ride from the town of Idrija.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 119 km into the recorded legs you reach Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier. Next is Roman Walls in Mirje.
4. Roman Walls in Mirje
In the middle of Ljubljana, on Mirje street, a long stretch of reconstructed wall recalls the Roman town of Emona. The Romans founded Emona in the early first century AD, on a grid of streets beside the Ljubljanica river, as a frontier outpost and trading town on the road between Italy and the Danube. It had walls, gates, forums, baths and a population of several thousand. Later, the town was sacked by Huns and other invaders, and its stones were reused for centuries, so that very little survived above ground.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power comes up about 332 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba closes the day.
Leg by leg
Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba to Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power
Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba → Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power to Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier
Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power → Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier to Roman Walls in Mirje
Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier → Roman Walls in Mirje is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman Walls in Mirje to back through Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier
Roman Walls in Mirje → back through Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier to back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power
back through Vojsko - Idrijca Water Barrier → back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power to Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba
back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power → Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.