Glow of Iron

Bohinj, Slovenia

Exhibition GLOW of IRON, Stara Fužina, Bohinj 2016

When Iron glowed in Bohinj it created permanent settlement.

Exibition in Kulturni dom Stara Fužina is a survey of 2000 years of ironworking in Bohinj. On ten panels basic facts of the Bohinj history is shown including artifacts in vitrines found by the author.

Iron Age settlement of Bohinj is proved by found products of smelting from Dunaj at Jereka.

Thank to dr. Urška Repinc for her suport and help at exhibition.

author of exhibiton Ivo J.Cundrič

Exhibition in vitrines .....read more

Two blooms from ancient Dunaj with side cut for samples for metallurgical analysis and ancient plough (slov. ralo) found at Ajdovski gradec.
Ancient articles from Ajdovski gadec and Dunaj, the author found them in private collection, among articles from Dunaj there were votive aritcles, among them ancient plough, 3 cm long.
Ancient Bohinj was a part of Norik and also Roman world. On the left Norik in late Roman times, on the right there is the map of original topographical names and archeological places.
Only a few persons know parts of the main ancient road.With their help the author joined those parts together (orange) and found alone some ancient local roads (yellow and blue). At the left there is a view from the south to Bohinj and the Julian Alps, on the right there is a view from the west to Karavanke.
These mountains possessed a lot of iron ore. It lied almost on the surface of earth … (dr.J. Mencinger, novelist). On the left there is the map of research of ore places in Bohinj 1966. On the right there is typical mine hole, thousand of them in the Bohinj area, down at the bottom miner's sign in stone.
At the end of 16th direct process of smelting in Bohinj was changed and also the name of Ironworks. New smelters from Brescia came to Bohinj. The village is now Stara Fužina and the name fužina became typical name for ironworks of that time.
Succession document from 1749 of Stara Fužina tells also about equipment and production. Brescian type of furnace produced charcoal pig iron, it was cooled down and brought 750 kg heavy bloom out of furnace, total 124 blooms per year.
Workers from ironworks. At that time the new firm KIG (Krainische Industrie Gesellschaft) was founded. On the left rolling crew from Fužina Bistrica with technical director KIG, Albert v. Pantz; casting crew from Bistrica and some of their products; up there are music and firemen groupn from Bohinj.
The fire in Fužina Bistrica accelerated closing of all ironworks in Bohinj. After 2000 years glow of iron came to the end. And only pictures of the last period remained. On the top there are ruins of Fužina Bistrica with the blast furnace, down there are ruins of Stara Fužina.