Gradišče nad Sotesko (Soteska)

Description of mountain:
Gradišče nad Sotesko (also Soteska) is a 724 m high hill located on the border between the settlements of Koroška Bela and Potoki, in the municipality of Jesenice in Gorenjska. It is a less noticeable peak to the average eye, but it played a far more important role for the local settlers in the distant past than today.
Its field name already tells us something about it. Before the accumulation dam for the Moste power plant was built near the hill under its southern slope, the Sava River flowed through a gorge in this area, part of whose name has been preserved. In the late Roman period (1st-4th century AD), the peak above the gorge, in connection with the higher mountain sanctuary at Ajdna, represented a strategically important entry (exit) point into the Upper Sava Valley, as the "via Chreinariorum" - the road of the Carniolians connecting Carniola, Carinthia, and Friuli - passed nearby. To properly secure and defend this late Roman route in Gorenjska and the settlement at Ajdna, a walled defensive military tower fortification or small castle was built above the Sava gorge. Hence the second part of its field name, Gradišče.
Today on the hilltop we find ruins of walls and certain terrain features testifying to the existence of the fort in ancient times. From the summit, which offers little valley view due to the forest, we see neighboring Ajdna; from the path we can look into both the Ljubljana Basin and the Upper Sava Valley.
Source: Arheološki vestnik (Arh. vest.) 48, 1997 - Arheološki drobci vojaških prvin pozne rimske dobe na Gorenjskem (Andrej Valič).

Surroundings within radius of 0.5 1 1.5 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 20 30 km:

Ajdna (1046m), Gank (850m), Malnež (846m), Spominsko obeležje Aleš Kunaver (660m), Strana (711m)

Webcams in radius of 2 3 5 7 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 50 60 km:

Begunjščica, Belska planina (Svečica), Bled, Blejska koča na Lipanci, Bodental/Žabnica, Brezje, Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte, Dom na Zelenici, Dovje, Hrušica, Jesenice, Koča na Golici, Lake Bled, Lesce, Ljubelj, Mojstrana, Mojstrana (cesta v Vrata), Moste, Obrne (HE Soteska), Podljubelj, Podvin, Prešernova koča na Stolu, Roblekov dom na Begunjščici, Valvasorjev dom pod Stolom, Zelenica, Zgornji Goreljek (Pokljuka)