Bled

Bled (ˈbleːt; Veldes, in older sources also Feldes) is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper Carniolan region of northwestern Slovenia. It is the administrative seat of the Municipality of Bled. It is most notable as a popular tourist destination in the Upper Carniola region and in Slovenia as whole, attracting visitors from abroad too. The town was first attested in written sources as Ueldes in 1004 (and as Veldes in 1011). The etymology of the name is unknown and it is believed to be of pre-Slavic origin. The German name of the town, Veldes, was either borrowed from Old Slovene *Beldъ before AD 800 or is derived from the same pre-Slavic source as the Slovene name. Bled is located on the southern foot of the Karawanks mountain range near the border with Austria, about northwest of the national capital of Ljubljana. South of Lake Bled are the densely forested Pokljuka and Jelovica plateaus and the easternmost parts of the Julian Alps, where the Sava Bohinjka river and the parallel Bohinj Railway lead to the Bohinj basin, Lake Bohinj, and the Triglav massif. A number of rises (Grad 599 m, Straža 646 m, Kozarca 558 m, Osojnica 756 m, and Ravnica 729 m) separate the localities of Bled around the lake, the former villages of Grad, Mlino, Rečica, Zagorice, and Želeče. The lake is long and wide. In summer, the surface water reaches and retains a temperature up to until autumn. As such, it is suitable for swimming. During colder winters, the entire lake freezes and can be used for ice skating; the island can then be reached on foot. There is a thermal spring () near the lake, next to the Bled Fault. Its water is used in indoor pools in two hotels. A settlement area since Mesolithic times, the present-day locality probably arose about 600 during the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps. After the Slavic principality of Carantania was conquered by Frankish forces in 788, the area came under Bavarian influence. German King Henry II ceded ownership of the area in 1004 to Albuin, Bishop of Brixen as a sign of gratitude for the assistance the Church was giving to the king in his attempt to strengthen imperial rule in that part of northern Italy.