Pohorje Sawmills

Along the Lobnica and Bistrica streams, a small-scale wood industry began to develop long ago in the form of stream sawmills known as 'Venetian sawmills'. This activity involved several processes: logging, transporting wood, operating sawmills, processing logs for various uses, and transporting the finished products to larger transport routes. In the mountainous part of Pohorje, almost every farmer had their own sawmill. The land organization of the farms was such that each farm had at least a part of a stream running through it. In the valley, only larger farmers had sawmills, often combining this with other crafts, such as crate production. Both sawn timber and other wooden products were mainly intended for export to Egypt, Hungary, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Israel, and the south...

Owners of larger forest areas and sawmills could also build water chutes or 'riže' for transporting wood down to the valley. Compared to other methods of transportation, these had a very high transport capacity. The construction costs were very high. The 'riže' were large wooden channels that carried water and floating logs to the sawmills and down the valley. They were made from hewn or sawn wood. Each 'riža' usually lasted about seven years. At the start, the 'riže' had weirs that were closed during dry periods; when enough water accumulated, the weirs were opened, and the water carried the prepared wood down to the valley.