Discover Osilnica: Hiking, Cycling and Culture

Osilnica offers a range of options for planning a trip: hiking trails, a long cycling route, and routes that can be covered on foot, by bicycle or in a kayak. Local history includes the Parish Church of Saints Peter and Paul and the Stane Jarm Gallery; regional craft traditions add to the picture.

Trails, Routes and Activities

The Beaver Trail begins in the centre of Osilnica at the Petra Klepec Cultural and Tourism Centre. It follows the Čabranka and the Kolpa to their confluence. There is an information board about beavers there. On the central section, visitors can see old houses and the house names of the Osilnica Valley. The trail thus combines nature themes with insights into local architectural and naming history.

The Peter Klepec Experience Trail is an approximately two-kilometre circular walking route through Osilnica, aimed primarily at families and children. Activities along the trail include archery, skittles, horseshoe throwing and tug-of-war. For those wishing to compare the duration of different hikes, two routes have specific times listed: Osilnica–Šajbnik–Osilnica is listed as four hours; Osilnica–Kupari–Source of the Kolpa–Razloge–Osilnica takes four and a half hours. The second time is half an hour longer than the first.

For a longer outing, the 43-kilometre circular route “Po poteh Petra Klepca 2” starts in Osilnica and passes numerous sights. The 220-kilometre cycling route runs from Osilnica to Metlika and Črnomelj, via Vinica and back to Osilnica. These details offer two different scales for planning: a circular route with a stated starting point and an extensive cycling connection that passes through several named places.

The routes also differ in how they can be travelled: the Obkolpska Trail begins in Osilnica and can be covered on foot, by bicycle or in a kayak. A paddling route also starts in Osilnica, but ends in Metlika. The natural climbing wall Orlovska stena is located in nearby Mirtoviči. It opened in August 2025 and has 61 routes graded from 5a to 8a.

Church, Art and Crafts

The present-day Parish Church of Saints Peter and Paul was rebuilt in 1875 and 1876 and consecrated on 11 September 1887. Its floor plan is shaped like a Greek cross with very short arms. The oldest bell in the church dates from 1644. Osilnica already had its own priest in 1363, a date far earlier than the 19th-century rebuilding of the church.

The Stane Jarm Gallery opened in autumn 2001 in the sculptor’s birthplace. Until his death, the gallery was open to groups by prior arrangement. The historical visiting condition is therefore clear: group access required an advance booking, as recorded for the period up to his death.

In nearby Mirtoviči, Jože Gorše and his wife Katarina established a blacksmithing museum in his birthplace in 2002. It commemorates three generations of blacksmiths. Together with the history of the gallery and the church, this example shows that cultural themes are not limited to historic buildings, but are also connected with art and crafts.

Regional Landscape and Traditions

The Dežela Petra Klepca region lies along the Kolpa and is surrounded by mountains. The elevation difference between its lowest and highest points is more than 800 metres. On the Slovenian side, the upper Kolpa Valley stretches from Osilnica to Kostel. From the end of the 19th century until the second half of the 20th century, itinerant trading in various types of clocks was common there.

Cuisine is also a regional speciality. Traditional dishes of the Osilnica region include Nadevavanje, Pohance, Žnite, Gumboci, Suha župa with white potato polenta, Žulca, Pogačice and Proja. Their names offer a tangible glimpse into the region’s inherited food traditions and complement the natural and cultural themes of the surrounding area.

Discover more destinations: Banja Loka, Vrh pri Fari, Kočevje

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