Italian Julian Alps

The Italian Julian Alps represent a charming and huge part of the Italian Alps range and they extend both in Italy and in Slovenia.

Short bibliography

The best works about the Julians, although quite old, are V. Dogan and A. Marussi’s monography (1932) and the “Guide of the Julian Alps” by M. Botteri (1956). In 1979 was published the Guide of the Italian Mountains “Italian and Slovenian Julian Alps” by the talented Gino Buscaini, who walked and climbed almost everything he wrote about; his work is still nowadays the most useful instrument for those who try an approach to this corner of paradise in the extreme north eastern land of Italy.

Extension

The Julian Alps offer a huge amount of climbings along their extent. They begin on their southern side from Sella Carnizza in the Resia Valley and from the Bogatin Pass and find their borders on the other sides on the Fella, Dolina and Bohinjka rivers. The Predil Pass divides the Julians in their Eastern and Western parts.

History

A big historic heritage is also one of the treasures hidden in these mountains, that have traces of modern and contemporary history. State frontier changed several times: before First World War the border between Italy and Austria ran from Mount Matajur to Canin, then along the ridge towards Cima Confine and down east from Sella Nevea past the Rio del Lago valley, then along the main crest of Mount Cregnedùl up to the top of the Montasio, down the Somdogna Saddle to finally reach Pontebba. Between the two World Wars the Eastern Julian Alps were under the dominion of Italy and so was the most part of the Western ones: the political border ran along the Ponze range from the Ratece Saddle to Mount Jalovec, along Site and Mojstrovske mountains upwards to Mount Prisojnik, to Mounts Kriz and Luknja and finally the Tricorno; the whole valley of the Isonzo river was in the Italian territory.

Julius Kugy

A description of the Julian Alps cannot leave a short introduction to their most famous and romantic discoverer apart, that is the poet and mountaineer Julius Kugy. In 1875, as he was only seventeen years old, he climbed Mount Tricorno, actually a proper venture at his times, and after that first approach he opened about one hundred routes during his life entirely spent for mountaineering. Kugy’s origins were from Carinthia and Slovenia, still he was Italian and lived in Trieste. He was poet, musician, climber, entrepreneur and officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army. As the First World War ended, he came back to his city, Trieste, and found his flourishing economic assets completely overwhelmed by the fall of Austria, the devaluation of currency and the new borders. This pushed him during the early Twenties to write his first autobiography, “From the life of a mountaineer”, published in 1925 by the editor Rudolph Roter of Munich, as an abridgement of his experience of mountain climbing. The book came to light in Italy in 1932, printed by the editor L’Eroica in two different volumes; it gained immediately the public’s appreciation thanks to the quality of narration and the deeply romantic and passionate feelings that emerged from its pages. Innovative facing his contemporary mountaineers with their haughty pretensions, Kugy wrote about what he had experienced on the tops with lyricism and transport, within a real love relationship with the mountains he got to know with a deep respect for people and places and an aesthetic mind. About the Julian Alps he once wrote: “Although I have seen many mountains, none of them equals the Julian Alps”.

Destinations

Such a great love is due to the charm that these wonderful tops give to their visitors: limited heights give anyway indescribable emotions; wild and austere, they preserve glaciers, smooth faces of dolomite and limestone rock, extraordinarily solid on the high mountain routes, hard and challenging paths of free climbing, trekkings and via ferratas surrounded by grand landscapes. Tops, crests, canyons, mountain pastures and grazings await hikers of any ability. Jòf of Miezegnòt, Mount Zabus, Jòf di Montasio, Jòf di Somdogna, Jòf Fuart, Grande Nabois, Mount Forato, Mount Cergnala, Peak of Mezzodì, Mangart, Chamois’ Mothers, Mount Canin, Veunza and many more destinations will ravish the guests of the Julian Alps with the incomparable fascination of their splendid views. Nowadays hikers still walk on the footsteps of old discoverers, the botanists who reached the tops because of rich local flora: in 1782 Hacquet describes the plants of the southern side of Mount Tricorno, in 1841 Sendtner is the first ever to reach the top of Mount Canin.

Flora and fauna

The paths are the ones used by shepherds and hunters from the valleys, who also worked as the first alpine guides in this area. The fauna of the Julian Alps is very rich as well, a heritage that has to be protected and controlled by the hunting and fishing regulation made by dedicated authorities in the best possible way. More than one thousand species of insects live in the valleys and on the slopes, in the woods you can meet foxes, hares, roes and other minor rodents and mammals, nearby specimens of tetraonides like grouses and cocks of the wood. High pastures are the reign of chamoises, ibexes, reintegrated from 1970, white partridges. In between the rocks nest the woodpecker, the raven with the yellow bill, last but not least the eagle, strictly protected. Among the reptiles there are the Vipera ammodytes or horned viper and the Vipera berus, easy to be found over the Montasio plateau, on the southern side of Mount Cimone, towards the Mount Nebria; other reptiles are the black salamander and the alpine triton, with its characteristic red stomach.

Culture

Another very interesting thing about the beautiful land of the Julian Alps is the cultural aspect. In these valleys the placenames have been influenced by the languages of different people living together for centuries, with words coming from Latin, German and Slavic, mixed up with the local dialects (German from Karinthia, Slav and “Furlàn”). The final influence comes from the Italian dominion, beginning after the Second World War.

Access

There are many different ways of access to the Julians: - through Canal del Ferro and Tarvisiano, departing from Udine, then north to Resiutta and Tarvisio and east direction Slovenia through Valromana; - through the Resia Valley, from the small town of Resiutta to the grand Mount Montasio; - through the Raccolana Valley, from Chiusaforte to Sella Nevea; - through the Dogna Valley, from the town of Dogna to the Somdogna Saddle, point of connection with the Saisera Valley; - through the Rio del Lago Valley, from the city of Tarvisio to the miners’ town of Cave del Predil and up to the Predil Pass; - through the Saisera Valley, in which lays the enchanted little town of Valbruna. In whatever season the Julian Alps win their visitors thanks to their splendour; wonderful colours always delight the eyes: Winter whiteness, the tender green of Spring pastures, the multicoloured Summer fields in bloom, the burning woods in Autumn.