Page 276 - Changing Living Spaces

Aleksander Panjek and Gregor Kovačič

of sustenance. All the above-mentioned regulatory works in the Jezero
doline indicate that the inhabitants of Štanjel had to deal with torren-
tial floods, the deposition of gravel and water-induced soil erosion before.
These natural processes must have occurred often enough that at some
point people decided to regulate the waters in order not only to reduce the
negative effects of flash floods, but also to improve the quality of the soil
and turn it into gardens. We assume that a lake existed in this place at
least around 1600, which probably flooded the area occasionally, was fed
by torrents and covered a larger or smaller part of the doline.
The question arises who took the initiative in 1608 to regulate and
drain an intermittent flood lake in Štanjel. Was it the people of Štanjel or
Count Johann Philipp von Cobenzl? We have proved and established that
it was not a small intervention, but an extensive constructional and tech-
nical achievement, in which they protected about 8 ha of land from flood-
ing by building about 5,000 m2 of water infrastructure with excavations,
embankments and dry stone walls, which continue into the two gullies
and are not included in the above figure. Since the written sources do not
directly answer our question, we have to collect the scattered evidence
and reconstruct the circumstances to reach some conclusions.
In whose interest was it to regulate the Štanjel lake and why? As we
have learned from Cobenzl’s letter to the Archduke, the inhabitants of
Štanjel lacked cultivable land to such an extent that the vast majority of
households in the settlement were unable to feed themselves from their
own produce. This statement is confirmed by the perusal of the Štanjel
land register from 1634, which does not mention the size of the lands of
the individual subjects, but from which it is clear that there were only a
handful of farms worthy of the name. Moreover, the regulation works
were carried out towards the end of a long period of rapid demographic
growth, both in the wider area and in Štanjel in particular (figure 8). Thus,
the inhabitants of Štanjel would have enjoyed additional, high-quality
arable land. High-quality surface water was certainly not abundant, al-
though there was more of it than might appear at first glance. They could
use the floodwater in the ‘Neverlake’, but its quantity fluctuated, and
since it was flood-related, it could not be suitable for human consump-
tion, although it could be suitable for livestock. In view of the above, it
can be undoubtedly stated that the regulation of the floodwater, which
provided up to 8 ha of additional high-quality cultivable land and a better
quality and more permanent water supply, was undoubtedly in the inter-
est of the Štanjel population. From Cobenzl’s point of view, the regulation

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