Ime občine

Municipality of Vrhnika


Tržaška cesta 1


1360 Vrhnika


(01) 755 54 10


(01) 750 51 58


Stojan Jakin

Predlgajatelj župana

Slovenian Democratic Party Vrhnika and New Slovenia

Število prebivalcev


Število naselij



115 sq kilometres


Spletni naslov

Uradne ure

Monday: 8:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 15:00

Wednesday: 8:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 17:00

Friday: 8:00 – 13:00



There is a ship depicted in the Vrhnika coat of arms, and although we have an abstract idea of the Argo ship and the legend of the Argonauts, the origin and the development of Vrhnika are still closely associated with ships and traffic on the slowly flowing and deep waters of the River Ljubljanica, which surfaces here as a large river from eleven karst sources. At the same time, Vrhnika is situated at the point where the passage from the Ljubljana Basin, over the Notranjska and Karst forested plateaus towards the sea is shortest and easiest. This is the spot, where men in ancient times used to force their way through the inhospitable country. Nowadays, Vrhnika has a rich cultural heritage. By the main road, in the centre of the town, you can see the monument dedicated to the greatest Slovenian writer, playwright and poet, Ivan Cankar. “God bless you, the eleventh school! My heart feels warm when I think of you, the cradle of life and knowledge.” This is the “school”, which Ivan Cankar made famous by writing about it in his short story “My Life”. The “school” he refers to is in fact the time he spent with other children under the bridge and by the river during his pre-school years. The house where Ivan Cankar was born in 1876 was thatched and made of wood. It burnt down in 1879. From that day onwards the Cankars had to dwell in abandoned stables and houses all over Vrhnika. Their burnt down house was taken over by new owners who gave it its present shape. It is divided into a living room, bedroom and the “black” kitchen. The furniture dates from the turn of the century, to better portray everyday life in the Cankar family. The memorial house is classified as a cultural monument. One of the oldest buildings in Vrhnika is the Lavrenčič house – The Old Post Office. It is located on the bank of the Ljubljanica, where the passenger port used to be. The house is believed to have been built in the 15th century. It was previously a tollhouse, a post office and the guest house, where the emperor Karel VI spent a night in 1728. Nowadays the building belongs to Industrija usnja Vrhnika (a leather-manufacturing company). Another attraction of Vrhnika is the castle Bistra. Already in Roman times, the sources of the River Bistra were known, and there was a small settlement by the river. In late antiquity, the road from Vrhnika led through Bistra to Borovnica and Podpeč, which is testified by the Roman stones that are kept at Bistra. The central collection of the Technical Museum at Bistra castle includes forestry, wood processing, hunting, fishing, textile, farming, transport, electronics and machinery collections. The museum organises programmes for different age groups thus making the visit more interesting, and the whole complex is a technical, cultural, historical and natural landmark.
Part of the rich architectural heritage of the broader Vrhnika region are the granaries, which have been preserved to the present day. A granary was a place for storing foodstuffs, especially wheat. Usually it is in a separate building, but can also be a room in a house. The oldest example is “Jelovčanova kašča” (The Jelovčan granary), which was built in 1808. Nowadays, granaries are used for their initial purpose only where farming is still practised. The ravages of time are slowly destroying the granaries and with them the evidence of a highly developed cultural and social level of the farmers in the previous century.