Žirovnica

Municipality_of_Slovenia|nativename=Žirovnica
mayor=Leopold Pogačar
coat=
location=
area=42,6 km²
population=4.071
males=2.030
females=2.041
avg_age=40,4 years
residental_density=34,16 m²/person
households=1.440
families=1.212
workers=1.866
unemployed=189
salary_date=August 2003
avg_salary_bruto=227.068 SIT
avg_salary_neto=145.698 SIT
students=167

Žirovnica is a municipality in Slovenia. The municipality borders with the municipalities of Bled, Jesenice, Radovljica and Tržič, and with Austria along its northern limits.

There are ten villages/settlements in the municipality: Breg, Breznica, Doslovče, Moste, Rodine, Selo, Smokuč, Vrba, Zabreznica and Žirovnica. The municipal administration is based in Breznica.

A number of figures, important to Slovenes, come from the area of Žirovnica municipality, namely the poet France Prešeren, the linguist Matija Čop, the pioneering bee-keeper Anton Janša and the writers Janez Jalen and Fran Saleški Finžgar. Bronze busts of all five have been put up in front of the school in Zabreznica. There is a well-marked walk through the villages called 'The Cultural Heritage Route'. This can be followed to visit certain monuments associated with the above figures (e.g. Prešeren's, Čop's, Finžgar's and Jalen's birth places, all of which are small museums, Janša's beehive) and a number of other historical and cultural monuments in the area.

On January 13, 2008 the statues of Janez Jalen and Fran Saleški Finžgar from in front of the school, as well as the bronze figure of a hostage from the monument in Moste were stolen. They were found cut into pieces four days later.

In the valley of Završnica, behind the Reber range that overlooks the villages the first public hydro-electric plant in Slovenia was built in 1914 and in 1952, after building a 60 m dam (the highest dam in Slovenia to date) in the Kavčke gorge, a second hydro-electric plant was opened in nearby Moste. This was the first hydro-electric plant to operate on the river Sava.

External links

* [http://www.zirovnica.si/ Official website (in Slovene)]