Ljubljana Marshes
The Ljubljana Marshes (Slovene: Ljubljansko barje), located south of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is the largest marsh in the country. It covers 163 square kilometres (63 sq mi) or 0.8% of the Slovene territory. It is administered by the municipalities of Borovnica, Brezovica, Ljubljana, Ig, Log-Dragomer, Škofljica and Vrhnika.
The Ljubljana Marshes is a place of great biodiversity. Since 2008, the major part of the Ljubljana Marshes, covering an area of 135 km2 (52 sq mi), has been protected as a landscape park. The most preserved parts had been already before protected as nature reserves and as natural monuments.
The Ljubljana Marsh was inhabited in prehistoric times, when it was a shallow lake. Prehistoric pile dwellings and the oldest wooden wheel in the world are among the most notable archeological findings from the marshland. Since 2011, the area of pile dwellings near Ig has been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The first road through the marsh, connecting Ljubljana to Studenec (now Ig), was begun in 1825 and completed in 1827. The work was carried out under Mayor Johann Nepomuk Hradeczky (1775–1846) and the provincial governor, Baron Joseph Camillo von Schmidburg (1779–1846). Emperor Francis I of Austria and Empress Caroline Augusta of Bavaria inspected the road in 1830, and a monument was erected to the achievement in 1833.
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