Škocjanske jame, Slovenia, in 1891 – an Alpine Club Excursion

Abstract

The excursion after the 1891 general meeting of the Deutsche und Österreichische Alpenverein (DÖAV) was to their Section Küstenland in Trieste which was then actively exploring Škocjanske jame. J. Sigrist-Herder of Switzerland was one of those who visited the cave and he compiled an album containing contemporary publications and also 25 photographs by Francesco Benque of Trieste, 15 of which are published here for the first time. They show the 1891 festivities as well as scenes at the cave entrances and in the dolines. The visit is described here from newspaper articles by Sigrist-Herder supplemented by publications of the DÖAV. A comparison is made with a similar visit in 1885 when less of the cave had been explored. In 1891 the visitors were taken to Müllerjeva dvorana but a few people went along the walls as far as Dvorana planinskega društva, only discovered in 1887.

Po občnem zboru 1891 je Nemško-avstrijsko planinsko društvo (Deutsche und Österreichische Alpenverein - DÖAV) pripravilo obisk svoje Obalne sekcije (Section Küstenland) v Trstu, ki je takrat živahno raziskovalo Škocjanske jame. J. Sigrist-Herder iz Švice, ki je bil eden izmed obiskovalcev, je sestavil album fotorafij iz tedanjih publikacij, vključno 25 posnetkov Francesca Benque iz Trsta. 15 izmed teh slik je tu prvič objavljenih. Prikazujejo praznovanje leta 1891 in prizore iz jamskega vhoda ter iz dolin. Prispevek se opira na Sigrist-Herderjeve časopisne članke in na tiske DÖAV. Avtor primerja te dogodke s podobnim obiskom iz 1885, ko je bil raziskan šele manjši del jam. 1891 so obiskovalce peljali do Müllerjeve dvorane, nekaj pa jih je šlo dalje po stenah do Dvorane planinskega društva, odkrite šele 1887.