The founder
The beginning
The gardeners
Today
An excursion through Juliana
Information
About the guide book

The botanist dr. Angela Piskernik

During the Second World War and for some years following, the Garden was essentially left unattended. Until 1947 Bois de Chesne payed monthly stipends for at least minimal care, and Anton Tožbar and Ančka Kavs tended it to the best of their abilities. But the tempest of the war showed no mercy to Juliana. Some plants perished, while others found a better site in neighbouring beds, and the Karst species luxuriated as they loved the dry, sunny slope of Mt Kukla. In early 1947, before the littoral was annexed to the new Yugoslavia, the Bureau of nature conservation and science of the institute of cultural monuments and natural wonders of Slovenia took the Garden into its care to save it from further deterioration. Botanists from the Forestry Institute and the Natural Science Museum of Slovenia, of Ljubljana, immediately began its restoration. The botanists began to organize expeditions and carry plants to the Garden, while Anton Tožbar repaired the paths, and fixed the fence and troughs. Meanwhile, Ančka Kavs tended the beds and gathered seeds.

Ančka Kavs, Ciril Jeglič, and Anton Tožbar in May, 1961.

In 1954 the professional management of Juliana was assumed by the Natural Science Museum of Ljubljana. Its director, the botanist Dr. Angela Piskernik, has worked through the entire post-war period to renew Juliana, to tend and protect it carefully. By a government decree issued by the Committee for education and culture of the People's Republic of Slovenia, published in the Official gazette of 19 June 1951, Juliana was protected as a natural wonder of great significance to natural science and tourism, with international importance for its valley, mountain, subalpine and alpine floras.

Consultation on Juliana, July 12, 1962, in front of the Špik family home. From the left, Ančka Kavs, Tone Tožbar, engineer Ciril Jeglič, Dr Angela Piskernik, Edo Turnher, Dr Ciril Žižek, Gizela Smielovsky, Dr Anton Polenec.

In 1953, Juliana’s care was assumed by the Municipality of Bovec and the Gorica Tourist Association, but without professional leadership. The Slovene Natural Science Museum had contributed financial support to the Garden on several occasions, and by 1961 was already managing it. With monies from the Fund for the Enhancement of Cultural Activities in January of 1962 Juliana formally came under its direction. Since 1959 Professor Ciril Jeglič has headed the reorganization of the Garden, and he was joined in 1960 by Dr Tone Wraber, then curator of the botanical collection of the Slovene Natural History Museum. Alpine plants were transferred from the higher but overly warm and dry portions of the Garden into the northeastern, more shaded portion. Here, following the concept of Professor Jeglič, the once unused parts were turned into a small snow-covered valley and scree.

In the Garden in 1966. From the left in the forefront, Ančka Kavs, Jože Završnik, Katja Toplak, and Dr Tone Wraber. In the background, Tone Tožbar and Cveta Zupančič.

When the law of the Triglav National Park was accepted in 1981, The Garden was incorporated in it as a monument of designed nature. The Natural Science Museum continues to devote its best efforts to the care of the Garden, to the extent permitted by its resources.

Juliana is the only alpine botanical garden in Slovenia in existance for more than seventy years, where history is interwoven with the present at every step.