Welcome in Ajdovscina

Ajdovscina [Ajdov*s*cina]

All names in this document which include non-Latin-1 font characters are at their first appearance also transcribed using * convetion.
Ta sestavek si lahko ogledate tudi v slovenscini.

General Data

Population: 5000
Industry: food (Fructal, Mlinotest), furniture (Lipa, Duka), civil engineering (Primorje, Gradbeno obrtno podjetje), machine engineering (Kovinsko), textile (Tekstina, IKA) and a number of smaller enterprises.
Culture: Cultural Centre, Pilon Gallery, Lavric [Lavri*c] Library, Music School, etc.
Sport: Football Club Primorje, Handball Club Mlinotest, etc.
Youth Activities: Youth Society Jutro (Morning), Scouts, Ajdovscina Youth Club, Club of Students from Ajdovscina.

Ajdovscina [Ay-dough-sh-ch-eena] lies on the main road which, through Ljubljana, connects middle Europe with the northern Italy. The largest city in the vicinty of Ajdovscina is Nova Gorica which lies approximately 25km to the west. Ajdovscina is an administrative centre of Vipava valley since the beginning of this century replacing in this role the older Vipavski kriz [kri*z] (Cross of Vipava).

Although Vipava valley on south borders on the rocky karst it lies on one of the most soils in Slovenia. A combination of mild climate and fertile soil gives excellent conditions to grove different crops and in particular fruits and vine. The town is encircled by fields on which is harvested in early summer wheat and later in the autumn corn. On the surrounding hills are vineyards. The grapes from the vineyards are in the autumn taken to the vine cellars in the close by Vipava.

Through the town flows Hubelj [who - bell]. As the road sign says Hubelj is river, but the amount of water in it seldomly justifies the name. Indeed, the initial sign said that Hubelj is a creek, but the sign disappeared after a few days. The workers quite soon put up another sign with the same words. This one disappeared as well. Finally, they changed the words on the sign into Reka Hubelj (River Hubelj in Slovene) and this sign is still there, marking the place where the main highway crosses Hubelj.

In fact, Hubelj is torrent which after every larger storm, on the delight of children and on the horror of their parents, swells quite a lot. Besides, Hubelj is an important source of drinking water for the people living in Ajdovscina and the whole Vipava valley. It also provides a water of a very high quality needed in the food industry in Ajdovscina.

From the History

First written sources mentioning settlement in Ajdovscina area come from the Roman times. At the time in the place were nowadays is Ajdovscina was a military fortification called Cold River Fort or, in Latin, Castrum ad Fluvium Frigidum. The river mentioned in the name is obviously Hubelj. The fortification had seven towers of which three remain standing even nowadays.

From the time is known a report on the battle at the Castrum ad Fluvium Frigidum. The Romans (?) won the battle with the help of another local characteristic - burja [boor - ya]. Burja is a strong northern wind (cf. bora) which blows through the Vipava valley quite frequently with a speed over 100 kph. Burja was blowing also at the time of the battle and blew away all the arrows sent towards Romans.

Coat of Arms

Coat of amrs of Ajdovscina is from the recent time, but it symbolizes its ancient origin. The green waves in the arms represent cold river Hubelj flowing under the remains of the old Roman fortification.

Composition is under the construction!