History of Skocjan

Atlas from 1637. The fact that the French painter Louis-François Cassas (1782) was commissioned to paint some landscape pieces also proves that in the 18th century the caves were considered one of the most important natural features in the Trieste hinterland. His paintings testify that at that time people visited the bottom of Velika dolina. The Slovenian scholar Janez Vajkard Valvasor described the sink of the Reka River and its underground flow in 1689.

In order to supply Trieste with drinking water, an attempt was made to follow the underground course of the Reka River. The deep shafts in the Karst were explored as well as Škocjan Caves. The systematic exploration of Škocjan Caves began in 1884 of a speleology division. Explorers reached the banks of Mrtvo jezero (Dead Lake) in 1890. The last major achievement was the discovery of Tiha jama(Silent Cave) in 1904, when some local men climbed the sixty-metre wall of Müller Hall. The next important event took place in 1990, nearly 100 years after the discovery of Mrtvo