The municipality of Železniki lies in the upper part of the Selška dolina valley and measures 165 km2, on which almost 7,000 inhabitants live in 29 settlements. Already in 973, these places were mentioned in a special charter with which the German emperor donated this land in the Selška dolina valley on 30th June into the ownership of Bishops of Freising. For this reason the municipally chose exactly this date, 30 June, for a municipal holiday. This is at the same time also the holiday on which we remember important men who with their cultural, economic and political activities gave an important contribution to our municipality.
Who would not have known about the famous painter Ivan Grohar from Sorica, and the priest, publicist, translator and linguist Jakob Šolar from Rudno, professor and academician France Koblar from Železniki. J.E. Krek, the important pre-war politician and the fighter for the improvement of the peasant position, is closely linked to the place of Selca. Also Janko Mlakar, the well-known humoristic writer was born in Železniki. We are also proud of Niko Žumer, who takes the most credits for the establishment of the metal products industry.
The town of Železniki is the centre of the municipality, and already in 1340 it started developing as the ironworks centre of the valley. The manufacturing-ironworks industry, which was enabled by large supplies of iron ore in the surrounding hills, rich supplies of wood and the Sora river as the driving force, had given pulse to the town till 1902, when ironworks went bankrupt especially due to non-competitiveness. Today mighty single- or two-floor houses with grid windows and forged shutters remind us of the former ironworks life in the town. The oldest buildings are Plnada and Plavec’s house, where there is also a museum with the local museum collection and a model of former ironworks plants and a tourist office. The biggest feature of Železniki is certainly the preserved smelting furnace for smelting iron ore, and being the only one of the kind in Europe, it is also protected as a technical monument.
Today Železniki is more than two kilometres long town with developed electrical and metalworking industries (Niko, Domel, Tehtnica) and wood industry (Alples), which have given bread also to numerous inhabitants of surrounding villages. Crafts are also more and more gaining ground in the municipality and they also contribute significantly to the economic development of the municipality and relatively low unemployment.
Only few farmers in the municipality are engaged in farming activity. The best possibilities for farming are in the plane area of Dolenja vas, Selca and Studeno, while farms in the surrounding villages are more and more engaged in supplementary activities such as farm tourism, open door farms… due to poor land and hard cultivation. There are only a few tourist accommodation facilities in the municipality, however, self-catering accommodations are already being opened in Sorica and Davča, where, beside skiers from Črni Vrh and Soriška planina, tourists who are eager of natural beauties and farm idyll like to come throughout the entire year. In the renovated birth house of Ivan Grohar, there are, beside his memorial room, gallery and ethnographic collection, also painting and music workshops under the leadership of Miro Kačar.
Walkers especially like to visit the sunniest village of Dražgoše, which stretches under the hillsides of Jelovica. Masses of hikers come there particularly in the beginning of January at the memorial ceremony of tragic events from the Second World War. Paragliders and hang gliders like to jump from the edge of Dražgoška gora when the weather is fine.
1666 m high Ratitovec reigns above all, and with its easy accessibility from numerous directions it invites masses of alpinists, who can delight in marvellous view towards the Škofja Loka hills and all the way to the Julian and Kamnik Alps.
We can also commend with a swimming pool and a multipurpose sports hall in Železniki, in which the municipality can hold large cultural and sports events.
A wonderful lace, which is well-known already outside our borders, and the hand-made Dražgože little bread will be the dearest memories for the visitors of our municipality.