Tonovcov grad

Is it worth the trip?

If you are in the upper Soča valley, yes: it is free, a steep climb from the road, and it combines well-laid-out foundations of houses and churches with a view over the Soča. It is not a site of standing buildings — everything is at footing height — and it takes some effort to reach, so it is a walk with history in it rather than a monument you arrive at by car.

Getting there

There is a small car park about 2 km from Kobarid beside the road to Bovec. A small signpost on the left of the road points to the steep steps and the path up to the site (Soča Valley tourist board). There are no opening hours and no ticket: it is open woodland on a hilltop.

History

The hill was used as early as the Stone Age and the Iron Age (sl.wikipedia). The first strong traces of Roman date are from the second half of the 3rd century AD, when people from the valley used it as a refuge; at the end of the 4th century and in the first half of the 5th a stronger military garrison held it (the Tolmin museum). German Wikipedia counts it, with the neighbouring hill of Gradič, among the most important strongpoints of the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum, the chain of defences that guarded the routes into Italy, here controlling the road over the Predil pass.

Its most important period was the last decade of the 5th century, when the Ostrogoths under Theodoric the Great ruled Italy (sl.wikipedia). The finds show a mainly native, Romanised population, with signs of Ostrogothic and Lombard garrisons from time to time. The post was abandoned at the end of the 6th century or somewhat later, and lived in again only briefly in the 9th century (the Tolmin museum). Trial excavations began in 1993, led by the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (sl.wikipedia).