Sava
— — the river that gathers Slovenia and keeps going.
Not only on a wall.
“Two head streams come down out of the Julian Alps and meet near Radovljica: the Sava Dolinka from the wetlands at Zelenci, the Sava Bohinjka out of Lake Bohinj. From there the Sava runs east through Ljubljana and on toward the Croatian border, the longest river in Slovenia and the longest tributary of the Danube before it joins at Belgrade.
Sava, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Sava is the longest river in Slovenia and, by length and discharge, the largest tributary of the Danube. Its two head streams rise in the Julian Alps: the Sava Dolinka from the Zelenci springs near Kranjska Gora, and the Sava Bohinjka from Lake Bohinj inside Triglav National Park. The branches join near Radovljica, then the river runs east past Ljubljana and crosses into Croatia at Bregana. The total course measures roughly 990 kilometres before it meets the Danube at Belgrade, draining a basin of about 97,700 square kilometres across four countries.
The two head branches carry distinctly different water. The Sava Dolinka runs cold and pale out of the Zelenci wetland, fed by springs that surface at the eastern end of the Rateče basin. The Sava Bohinjka leaves Lake Bohinj more deeply blue-green, having passed through the lake's 4.5-kilometre length and over the 78-metre drop of Slap Savica on its way down. By the time the river reaches Ljubljana, urban runoff and the input of the Ljubljanica have shifted its colour toward grey-green; downstream, near Krško, the water turns wider and slower.
Most Slovene encounters with the Sava happen at its high end: the wooden footbridges at Zelenci, a walk along the Sava Bohinjka through Bohinj, or the limestone gorge at Vintgar where a sister tributary runs. Rafting and kayaking outfitters operate out of Bohinj and Bled from late spring through early autumn, when meltwater keeps the upper river running. The Bohinj Railway, opened in 1906, parallels the Bohinjka for much of its descent. Closer to Ljubljana, the river is reached easily by the regional roads off the A2 motorway running northwest from the capital.