Primož Jakopin, photo diary

Jakorlinov dimnik
A Cave the Quarry Uncovered

March 24, 2020, 16 pictures

          The cave was difficult to access until recently, when the trail was made, is not widely known in the village and therefore also does not have a common name. The name, given in the title would translate to Jakorlin Chimney. It is derived from the family names of two people who made the trail to the cave and also authored this report (the cave was first visited around 2011), and from the cave shape. It is a three storey mostly narrow cavern, developed along a local vertical fault, perpendicular to the quarry edge.
          Most images are approximately 683 x 1024 pixels in size, numbers in front of the picture descriptions are serial numbers of the original photo files.

          Pictures photo and copyright (c) Primož Jakopin - Klok except 46825, 46836 and 46843 - 46848, where the credits go to Andreja Peterlin. Stone from the picture 46814 was identified by France Šušteršič.

 
46825. The easiest access to the cave is from the eastern side of the now abandoned Preserje quarry. It was opened in the sixties of the past century, but they barely scratched the surface until the seventies, when the railroad and the builders of Ljubljana - Vrhnika highway started to exploit it to the full. The rock is very suitable, though limestone it is as hard as most magmatic rocks. Yet the quarry was climbing uphill, to the vicinity of the church on top and further exploitation had to be stopped because the church is protected as a historical monument. In the picture: end of the track along the quarry edge, where the trail to the cave begins.

 
46826. View west, of the quarry terraces from the trail

 
46827. The trail was made this year, from March 9 to March 23. It is an enlargement of an old deer trail, some rocks were moved, dry broken branches on the route as well as lower spruce branches which were obstructing the passage were cleared. The route keeps away from the crumbling quarry wall as much as it gets, yet stays, in most places, clear of the terrace edge to avoid the danger of sliding down the precipice.

 
46854 - 46859. Vertical panoramic view of the cave with two chimney levels

 
46836. The entrance slope is not particularly steep but a rope is called for because ...

 
46831. ... at the bottom the hall bends down into a 5 m shaft, the lower chimney level.

 
46828. View out of the cave

 
46829. Eastern side of the entrance hall ceiling is made of piled large rocks.

 
46834. Heart-shaped opening in its western side.

 
46830. Calcite sediments on the western wall

 
46832. Side window in the eastern wall ...

 
46833. ... and a meander in the western wall

 
46814. Cross section of a rock, found in the vicinity of the cave, 105 mm high. It is an Early Jurassic limestone with white stripes of sessile monomyarian bivalve shells, Ostrea crassissima (Lithiotis problematica in older literature). This dark grey limestone is very popular in Slovenia as ornamental stone since Roman times, when the first quarry in Podpeč (2 km NE from the cave site, as the crow flies) was opened. Romans even diverted the riverbed of Ljubljanica to facilitate the transport of stone from Podpeč to Emona, town in place of today's Ljubljana. The colonnade of the Slovenian National and University Library is all made of Podpeč marble as the stone is usually called here.

 
46851. Climbing to the shelf above the cave entrance ...

 
46843 - 46848. ... made possible this vertical panoramic view of the upper chimney level.

 
46860. Late afternoon sun is peeking through the clouds above the quarry.

  Caves-to-be Around Razbinjak Collapse Doline, March 3     Brezno pod Prevejkom, April 6  
 

This page, text and photos by Primož Jakopin, member of the Ljubljana Cave Exploration Society (DZRJL), except where stated otherwise. Send inquiries and comments to primoz jakopin guest arnes si (insert dots and at sign as appropriate). Page initiated on March 24, 2020; date of the last change: April 15, 2020.

URL: http://www.jakopin.net/primoz/slike/20120PJ20200324_en.php     1072