Already 130 years welcoming hikers and alpinists under its roof is the hut on Kredarica.
The highest-lying Slovenian mountain hut, the hut on Kredarica, has been welcoming hikers under its roof for 130 years. At an altitude of 2515 meters it was ceremonially opened as the Triglav hut on Kredarica on 10 August 1896.
The initiative for the construction of the hut was given during the building of Aljaž's Tower on the summit of Triglav by the priest from Dovje Jakob Aljaž, when he realized how important a mountain hut below Triglav would be. Aljaž emphasized at the time that the hut, although Slovenian, would be open and welcoming to tourists of all nationalities, as recorded on the website of the Alpine Association of Slovenia.
According to Aljaž's idea the hut on Kredarica was built by the Slovenian Alpine Club. The hut was enlarged several times and received its present external appearance in 1984. The annex of the hut also houses a meteorological station. Because of Slovenia's highest peak the Triglav hut is one of the most visited huts and in the summer season has around 8000 overnight stays, as recorded on the website of the Alpine Club Ljubljana-Matica. It is the owner and manager of the hut. The hut is visited by more than 20,000 people annually.
"Its construction was not only a response to the needs of the ever-increasing number of mountain visitors. It was one of the most important acts of the Slovenian 'struggle for the mountains' at the end of the 19th century. In the decades that followed, Kredarica also became part of the history of Slovenian alpinism," historian and alpinist Peter Mikša stated in an online record on the anniversary.
The hut on Kredarica is open all year round, regularly serviced from June to the end of September, and in the remaining months it is looked after by meteorologists. Hikers have at their disposal 300 seats in five dining areas and around 300 beds in rooms and on communal sleeping platforms.
Celebrations on the round anniversary
On the round anniversary of the opening of the hut on Kredarica the Slovenian Alpine Museum in Mojstrana is organizing a lecture by Dragan Božič on 28 August at 18:00 entitled Triglav, two priests (Aljaž and Zemljič), two photographers and a photographer (Pirc and the Lergetporer couple), one tower and one song.
As the museum recorded in the announcement of the lecture, on 7 August 1895 Aljaž's Tower erected on the summit of Triglav was blessed by the priest from Dovje on 22 August. The next day it was photographed by the director of the Carniolan Agricultural Society Gustav Pirc, and the following day also by the Bled photographer Benedikt Lergetporer, who on the glass plate next to the tower also captured the guide Jožef Hlebanja from Mojstrana and his 12-year-old daughter Romana.
Five photographers attended the ceremonial opening of the Triglav hut on Kredarica on 10 August 1896, among them Gustav Pirc and the wife of the photographer Lergetporer, Maria Lergetporer. Two copies of her photograph with Aljaž in the middle among the other attendees are kept in the Picture Collection of the National and University Library. In mountaineering literature this photograph was frequently published usually without mentioning the photographer, the museum states.
The lecture will also discuss the song Oj Triglav, moj dom, which was set to music by Aljaž. As the museum recorded, the song was not sung for the first time on 22 August 1895 at the tower, as many writers claim, but a year later, on 10 August 1896, during the opening of the hut. "Who its author was Aljaž did not know until his last breath, and above all he also did not know that it was a slightly adapted translation of three stanzas of the German song O Schwarzwald, o Heimat," the museum stated.
On this year's 130th anniversary visitors to the Triglav hut on Kredarica also have at their disposal a new commemorative stamp.
Source:
https://www.rtvslo.si/zabava-in-slog/ture-avanture/ze-130-let-pod-svojo-streho-pohodnike-in-alpiniste-sprejema-koca-na-kredarici/790661