Accommodation near Lake Bohinj since 1890 - History and Owners

1890

The oldest and longest standing hotel in Bohinj was built in 1890 by a successful wood merchant and land owner Janez Markeš. He owned large estates throughout Bohinj and a particularly successful sawmill and saw a great opportunity in building an accommodation near Lake Bohinj.

With the opening of the railway tunnel in Bohinjska Bistrica in 1906, this Bohinj Hotel Sunrose 7 became the most distinguished lodging in the Bohinj area; attracting such prestigious visitors as members of the Austro Hungarian Royal Family, as well as doctors, military high command, poets and other societal VIP’s.

Bohinj Railway connecting Vienna and Trieste (and Venice) running through Bohinjska Bistrica saw rapid tourist development of the Lake Bohinj area. Hotel Markeš (today Sunrose 7 Bohinj Boutique Hotel) was built at the right time in the right spot. And flourished.

1902

National society club called “Društvo za privabitev tujcev” planted Chestnut trees during the construction of the Railway. Chestnut grove was planted along the newly built “main” street from the Railway to the evolving Bohinjska Bistrica Town centre. Today this street is called Triglavska cesta and our Sunrose 7 Boutique hotel Bohinj has house number 7. The trees on the far edge of our estate are part of the protected chestnut grove. They have been growing for almost a 120 years!

Under these chestnut trees the famous garden and bohinj restaurant emerged: Kavarna pod kostanji (which literally translates to Restaurant under the Chestnut trees). Today four out of five trees remain standing: three Chestnut trees and one Fraxinus tree. After careful inspection by the authorities, one of the Fraxinus trees had to be cut down due to illness and danger to poison the remaining four 120 year-old-trees. During reconstruction all trees had to be specially protected and care to be taken not to hurt their habitat. However, these sleeping giants provide such glamorous natural setting with shade, that workers during the construction loved to slip under the fences to take their meal in the shade.

Many important events took place at Sunrose 7 during this era, as the place held an abundance of premium spirits and beer and guests loved the so called dance nights. Before this, during the building of the tunnel, commanding officers, engineers and others loved stopping by for the sake of young ladies’ company from Bohinj.

1906

“Switzerland is amazing, thy riches and natural splendor immense. But our Switzerland is our romantic Bohinj, a tourist heaven on Earth!”

— Janez Piber, pastor of Bohinj

Books also tell the story of a truly exceptional hotel offer at the time. In November 1907, the famous doctor brought his newlywed to the (first) Bohinj wedding night at the hotel. He booked a room that had private heated bathroom, as early as 1907! This was not only exceptional for the Alpine region of Slovenia, but wider.

The hotel hosted important receptions, guests and served as a premium event venue in Bohinj for the award ceremonies of all important sledding competitions that had an international glory in Bohinj at that time.

1909

“In milo se stori človeku, ko pomisli, da zgradijo gotovo tukaj v teku malo let razna letovišča in hotele, da pride “kultura”, da zašumi v tej samoti in tišini hrup in završi mestno življenje.”

— Maks Klodič

The Belvedere sledding track above the Bohinj tunnel was 3 kilometres long. The sledges from Carniola, Trieste and Gorizia were thrilled, and the grand opening on January 3, 1909, brought unprecedented enthusiasm to all. The all-day Bohinj celebration ended with a famous evening dance at the best event venue in Bohinj. The new track was extremely picturesque and sporty. Renowned sledding literature author Adolf Rziha described it as "entertaining and sporty."

In addition to regular guests, sledding competitions on the track attracted the best sledgers from abroad as well. The sledding run had gained a reputation throughout the monarchy. The results of the sledding competitions were also reported by Illustrierte Österreichische Sportblatt, which described the course with a magnificent view of Triglav as one of the most beautiful sledding runs in overall …

1915

The First World War in Bohinj

During the First World War, Bohinj became the hinterland of the Isonzo Battles and with the presence of the military apparatus, prior rapidly advancing tourism began to abate. Janez Makeš had no sons, so he let all three daughters marry before the war. But the three husbands soon fell in the war and he had to provide for widows and his many grandchildren. With the decline of tourism, the plight of the world has deteriorated significantly and a severe famine has arisen. The country has introduced sugar and fat cards in addition to bread cards. In this distressful times, parts of the hotel basement were used to hide food as well as weapons. Towards the end of the war, the owner of this Hotel Bohinj died as well.

1920

With the Rapallo Treaty signed in 1920, the fate of the Bohinj hotel was even more dismal. They made the border along the peaks of the lower Bohinj mountains, making Bohinj - once again - a strict military border area. There were no tourists and life was hard. Severe hunger ensued.

During this period, the river bed of the Belca river was artificially managed and rebuilt. Due to a severe shortage, workers accepted payment in grain and maize, thus financing the entire construction that is in its present form today.

1931

Markeš’ widow fell in love with a new man again. She ran a hotel with her new partner. They improved the quality of services, invested in the renovation and refined the inventory and interior decoration.

With great effort and extreme financial burden, they somehow managed and, slowly, very slowly, the hotel and the restaurant in Bohinj began to evolve. The guests were coming back to Lake Bohinj area again, including foreign tourists. The restaurant was especially known for the great local food.

After almost two decades of hard work and improvements, hotel and restaurant were doing better, only to be hit by another tragedy. The world was again engulfed by a storm of war that spared no one and the destination of Bohinj too.

1945

The Second World War in Bohinj

After World War II, the new “people's” government expelled Markes's widow and her new partner and confiscated the hotel. Shortly after the Second War, military officials and high ranking officers liked to gather at the hotel at that time, especially in the company of young women.

1967

In 1967, the Hotel Markeš was renamed to Črna Prst, which is still a name most locals and visitors of Bohinj are familiar with. The renaming of 1967 was an attempt to take take the Restaurant and hotel along the paths of past glory and reputation this famous Bohinj accommodation enjoyed until the outbreak of the war.

Črna prst had a period of ups and downs: it was known as a good restaurant in Bohinj, which was extremely popular with locals as well as visitors to Bohinj. When Kobla ski resort was still operational, it was always packed full in winter months as well. But Črna prst never reached its former glory and slowly faded away with sleepy tourist development.

After that, the property was (re) sold by various speculators. For the most part, the common denominator was the desire to refurbish it and rent apartments to tourists or sell the separate units, such as the already established “modus operandi” in Bohinj. This way Črna prst showed the decaying image of the place for decades and made Markeš turn in the grave, while tourists were turning in front of the abandoned building, where slot machines, billiards and even a space for love birds were also operating for a short time.

“We are selling Črna prst because our project was not accepted to have a guest house and apartments in the building. Catering alone does not withstand such an investment because it simply would not bring in enough to restore Črna prst.”

— Speculating owner, 2007

The credit for the amazing story of Janez Markeš being preserved (and upgraded) goes to the Bohinj Municipality and the adopted OPPN, where they insisted and forbid the change of purpose, and that in 1890 the constructed object, protected as heritage by the ZVKDS, must retain its form, appearance and content !

Pri časopisni hiši Dnevnik so takole povzeli bohinjsko sramoto:

“And so they are at the beginning again - Črna prst is looking for a good owner who will have to deal with the fact that a change to an apartment house (this is usually a recipe for a good investment) is obviously not possible. We can only guess about the result - once again, a tourist destination has such a sad monument on show due to its inability to find a common language.”

— Miran Šubic, newspaper Dnevnik, 2007

“Unfortunately, we are not over with the obvious Bohinj shame. In the middle of Bohinjska Bistrica, where the Bohinj Eco Hotel reigns with a water park and where the central Bohinj tourism is expected to live in the future, the Hotel Črna prst, which was sometimes the only hotel in the area, is literally haunted.”

— Tone Fornezzi, newspaper Dnevnik, 2013

2017

The real estate would be (re) sold to another owner in the intervening 10-year period, but (thankfully) this time, too, it was stuck, albeit after an already paid downpayment. They potential investors again wanted to build apartments for the market, though for the same reasons, projects - or rather investors' wishes - had been stopped so many times before.

2018

Frigid cold and windy winter day in the second half of February. Deep in the shade of Mangart mountain from the north, climbing on the frozen waterfall called The Sword of Damocles. It was the defining moment when a bid to acquire the property was sent via e-mail at 11:20 am with two lines of mobile reception…

A month later, the property was formally transferred to the new owner. Complete project documentation was prepared and submitted to the authorities on the last day of May same year. A building permit was issued in fall. Construction works began at the end of November with heavy rainfall, for which Bohinj is well known for in the late fall.

2019

After just 9 months and 9 days, the new-old Bohinj boutique Hotel Sunrose 7 is re-born. The reconstruction and building process was extremely strenuous to say the least, and lots of work had to be done in the background as well.

We've been talking and thinking about the name of the Sunrose 7 boutique hotel for a long time. For months! At the same time, we wanted to keep the tradition and the connection to the traditional place, but on the other hand, to keep up with the times we live in and to be as friendly as possible for the pronunciation of visitors - tourists and locals alike.

Janez Markeš, who wrote an incredible hotel story in 1890, simply named the hotel after himself: Hotel Markeš.

But under this name and so long ago, this Bohinj hotel was only known to a handful today. The more popular and familiar name of this Bohinj accommodation was Črna Prst, however, this name did not reflect the spirit of the original (or reconstructed) building at all.

Since Lake Bohinj Accommodation and its surroundings are an endless inspiration to create, we have finally found a solution with the name we found on a small leaflet given to us by the Bohinj tourist organization about Alpine Flower Festival Bohinj.

We linked the historical, natural-environmental and fairy-tale components, and finally decided on the name of the new Bohinj hotel to be Sunrose 7

Fairy tale number 7 represents the story of the circle of life of a beautiful alpine place - from Bohinjska Bistrica to the alpine botanical garden on the south slopes of Črna prst mountain, where the Sunrose flower grows. From there onwards one goes over the 7 major peaks of the ridge and further along the Valley of the Triglav Seven Lakes to the summit of Triglav, and the route ends at restaurant Kavarna pod kostanji under the chestnuts trees at Triglavska cesta 7; an intimate adult-only hotel in Bohinj for a break from everyday life, with a unique offer in a unique way.