Page 265 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
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tourism as a source of non-agricultural rural income: the case of the karst

which mentioned the visit do not provide information about any guiding.
The cave was described also by Agapito in 1823, as easy to access: “you enter
descending without any danger, nor inconvenience, through a stone stair-
way” (Agapito 1823, 32). The visit of the cave was also linked to the visit of
the nearby castle ruins, with visitors mostly mentioning the abandonment
and the religious rituals taking place in the cave, but a more touristic or-
ganisation or supply (tickets, guides) did not develop in this case.

Other caves in the Karst, such as the Črna Cave (Magdalena), Predja-
ma, Zelška Cave, Križna Cave, Grotta Gigante-Velika Pečina (Great Cave),
were also visited in the Early Modern period, but less records about them
seem to have been preserved (Shaw 2008; Kavrečič 2015b).

POSTOJNA $1 Postojna

CAVE !

Sežana Divača

! !

VILENICA CAVE$1 1$ DIV1$AČA CAVE

Trst/Trieste ŠKOCJAN CAVES

!

Adriatic sea

Koper/Capodistria $1 Location of the caves
0 7,5 15 km
!
Map author: Nataša Kolega
Source: GURS, DTM 12.5

Map 11.2: Location of the caves

2. Local guides before the organisation of tourist
infrastructure

Travelling in the pre-industrial period was long, arduous, expensive and
even dangerous because of bandits and thieves who preyed on travellers
along the side of the roads. Furthermore, roads were bad and the journey
was slow (Kavrečič 2015a). Diaries report about long journeys due to poorly
maintained roads and thus required many stops for lubrication of wheels,

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