WELLS

Although wells are such a typical feature in karst villages, they are a relatively late development. The oldest wells date to the end of the 17th century. It was only in the 20th century that people started building wells next to the homesteads en masse. As a rule, the oldest wells were communal property (communal wells).

A karst well comprises an underground water collection cistern, a well shaft and a visible upper part called the frame or šapa.

The clever inhabitants of the Kras have built their wells by deepening the existing natural depressions. When working on a rocky terrain, they usually used a wellpoint, which they drove into the ground until they bored a hole big enough to later serve as a water cistern of the well. Then they started building the shaft of the well with stone blocks. The gaps between the stones were filled in with clay to better retain water in the well.

The top of the well was almost always walled in and protected with a stone cover (šapa). In the 19th century, manual pumps for drawing out water were envisaged. After the snow had melted, water was hauled up with a bucket, but only if it was tied to a chain or a rope of the well.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy financially supported the building of wells and even provided technical advice for their construction.