Flood Dams, Klavže

Five hundred years of mining in the Idrija Mercury Mine required vast quantities of timber for the mine's architecture, supporting pillars, machines, smelting ore, Idrija inhabitants supply, etc.

So forestry became of substantial importance. The town of Idrija lies in a hilly region surrounded by vast forests. So dams were made on rivers Belca and Idrijca for timber transport all the way to the town of Idrija. Nearby reachable forests were cut early, or were on very steep terrain, so the most practical was to transport timber on waterways from forests far away. Klavže ("flood dams") were made to dam water lakes, timber was piled in the lake, later to be released and water was driven timber downstream in Idrija on river rakes, where timber was caught and pulled out the water to be used.

Models of the Klavže and Lenštat rakes made by Janko Trošt can be seen in Idrija Municipal Museum. Due to huge stone structures some people also call Klavže the Slovenian pyramids.

History

The first Klavže were built in 16th century, but were too dependent on rainfall and high waters. Around 1770 monumental Klavže were built out of brick, stone and mortar, mechanisms enabled that only pair of oxen were enough to lift or close the dam barriers, also in extreme weather conditions. The biggest Klavže were those of Master Mrak's positioned where the river Idrijca formed an 800-metre-long lake that could drive some 10,000 m3 of timber at a time, downstream to Idrija 20km away.

It has been calculated that river Idrijca carried approximately 3,600,000 m3 of fuel wood and 300,000 m3 of pit wood and round timber. The transportation of timber via rivers ended in year 1926, after catastrophic floods that took away rakes in Lenštat in the centre of Idrija. Being a klavžar ("dam operator") was a very responsible, but also highly valued, position among the people.

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Flood Dams, Klavže

History

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