A Church Above a Blind Valley

Materija lowland is a long dry limestone valley in the southwestern Slovenia, leading from the Karst edge above Trieste towards Rijeka and the Kvarner gulf. The streams that flow from the unpermeable flysch hills of Brkini that created deep blind valleys on contact with the limestone disappear into karst underground. And on the edge of one of these blind valleys people built a little church.

The church of St. George - also known as the church of Holy Spirit - was built in 1759 on the site of an older edifice that was a part of a fortified tabor - a safe place during the Ottoman raids.

St. George with the Brezovica valley below

This is a humble little church, almost a chapel, offering consolation and spiritual guidance to the hard working, tough, honest people of this hard karst land. There are no exquisite frescoes, no flashy Baroque altars, no golden statues of saints and angels ... just a simple structure of stone, reflecting the landscape and its folk.

An alley of linden trees lead to the church

The views are quite something, though ... the edge of the valley is precipitous, and the contrast between the lush green below and the hard stony land above is striking.

The remains of the fortified tabor are hidden beneath the canopies

The geography makes kite flying here a challenging endeavour ... winds tend to swirl at the valley's edge, and the turbulences were almost overwhelming - we managed to take a couple of photos from very low altitude:

This KAP session was tough but cool - the place is serene and well worth a visit, so see you again, St. George!

Kite aerial photos shot with Nikon P330 on a Rokkaku kite.