THE SPRING OF GABERNICA – DUPLO
There are no shortcuts to get where it’s worth going.
(unknown author)
THE SPRING OF GABERNICA – DUPLO
You are at a very special point of your learning path – at the Gabernica spring. The spring itself is a source of water in nature and is a part of the water cycle. In Pišece, this spring is located below Orlica, in a small cave called Duplo, where we find cave spiders, bats and other creatures that are not fond of light.
The spring water that penetrates to the surface here is Gabernica. It got its name from the growing hornbeams that grow on its banks. It bears its name for 18.5 km, and then it flows into the Sava river near Mostec. Gabernica was once known for many mills that were placed from Pišece to the village of Globoko. Only three of them have survived. Below the spring there is one of the working mills, which has preserved its appearance thanks to the Pišece Tourist Association and in which flour is still ground today. When we walk to the mill wheel, we can see the formation of the tufa, a light rock with pores.
There is a legend circulating among people about the miraculous power of the water that flows from the spring:
The girl was herding the oxen at Krznarice. This is a place above Zibot, under Little Špiček. The earth still shakes there today. If you jump, a bush will sway a few meters away from you. A lump of earth floats on water. Once the oxen ran away from the girl to graze there in this swamp. She went after them, but she did not return because they all sank together. And after many years the horns of the oxen and the braids of the girl floated out at Duplo. (Ivan Šeler)
Lehnjak – biochemical sedimentary rock
DO YOU KNOW?
– One of the interpretations of the name Pišece is strongly related to the mills. They say that the place got its name from a part of the mill wheel, called “pšeno”.
– Not far from the spring, there was the sexton’s house where classes were held in the past.
– In Gabernica we find newts of salaamdridae (salamanders and newts).
– Today, eight billion of people share the same amount of drinking water that was available to three hundred million earthlings during the Roman Empire.
– Along the stream one of the first water learning paths in Slovenia with seven stations stretches from Pišece to Čatež.
Before washing machines appeared, women from Pišece and the surrounding villages gathered at Duplo to do the laundry, but today the Gabernica spring is a source of drinking water for the locals.
Women doing the laundry
Water cycle
CHALLENGE!
The space where the water comes to the surface has a miraculous power. This secret was already known in the time of the knights. You are invited to try the spring water, and then follow the forest path to visit the famous personality of this place.
