Pot ob žici

Today was the annual Pot ob žici ("Path along the wire" or "Path of remembrance and comradeship") walk and run that commemorates Slovenia's liberation from Italian and German occupation in May 1945.  During the occupation, a barbed wire fence was built around Ljubljana to limit arms smuggling and make resistance efforts more difficult (from what we have been told, there were some interesting/surprising groups in Slovenia that actually supported the Germans because the partisan resistance was socialist and anti-religion).  There is now a walking path where the fence was that stretches thirty-five kilometers around the city.  The main part of the Pot ob žici is a walk around this path, but there is also a twenty-nine kilometer run that starts and finishes right outside of our apartment.

We didn't participate in either the walk or the run, as we needed a day of downtime.  Chantelle spent the day yesterday with one of her friends, while I hiked with the kiddos up to the castle, then all the way up the tower in the castle, and then all the way back down.  I didn't realize quite how far up it was until last night...we got a babysitter and went to the skyscraper for a drink, and looking at castle hill and the castle tower it's pretty impressive that the kiddos made it that far.  I'm just glad I didn't have to carry them all down.  Anyhow, it was obvious this morning that today needed to be a quiet one (quiet in the figurative sense), so we just walked down this morning to see the festivities for a bit and then headed back up for lunch and a nap (of course, after naps we went back out for ice cream cones).  It is a wonderful event...there were thousands of people down in the city center for it and it's tough to argue with free beer and sausages.  There is also a real symbolic nature to it, with everyone holding hands as they crossed the finish line, and you could tell the historical significance is a big reason this event is so popular.

Addendum:  Here is some additional info that Chantelle found on the history of the wall and the comemmoration event.

During the WW2 Ljubljana was the only city in Europe which was encircled by a barbed wire and thus had a status of a city concentration camp. The reason for the barbed wire was the fact, that Ljubljana had one of the best resistance movements in Europe. Nazis were never able to find and uncover it.

Sirens from Ljubljana Castle announced to the people of Ljubljana on 9 May 1945 their long-awaited and hard-fought freedom. Ljubljana – City of Heroes and the Partisan Army had overthrown the occupiers, and the barbed wire that had intimidatingly surrounded Ljubljana and restricted the lives of its residents all the way from the first half of 1942 to the end of the Second World War was torn down. Now 9 May is the Holiday of the City of Ljubljana.

To mark the 40th anniversary of liberation, on 9 May 1985, the Ljubljana city authorities created and opened a 32.5km-long footpath around Ljubljana which runs along the location of the barbed wire and bunkers of the occupiers. In Yugoslav times, taking part in the annual walk around the 'Path along the Wire' was compulsory for all Ljubljana schoolchildren, students and workers who made a real human chain around the city as they went hand-in-hand. After the creation of the independent Republic of Slovenia participation was made optional, although despite this the traditional 'Walk along the Wire' around the Path of Remembrance and Comradeship is becoming more and more popular every year. Last year, just short of 22,000 people took part. Concurrent with the 'Walk along the Wire' there is also a race called the 'Trio', a 28 or 12km run along the Path. Events run for three days – every year on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before 9 May – Holiday of the City of Ljubljana.