Stregna

Twenty-one hamlets and boroughs, comprised between the 198 metres above sea level of Zamir (the only hamlet on the valley floor) and the 640 metres above sea level of Tribil Superiore, make up the Municipality of Stregna.

An almost exclusively pre-Alpine territory where small groups of houses are scattered in an area characterised by the presence of forests, mostly of chestnut and beech trees.

In the latest 50 years this vegetation has prevailed over cultivations, leaving wide fields, which once were used as pastures, only in the areas of Planino and Kamenika, near Tribil Inferiore, and in the areas of the hamlets of Tribil Superiore and Dughe.

The various hamlets are connected by a panoramic tourist road that, always at a high altitude, links the hamlets of the municipality of Drenchia to the territories of S. Leonardo and Prepotto, near Castelmonte, descending to the valley floor in the area of Cividale on the one side, from the Solarie pass across Volče up to Tolmin and to the Isonzo valley on the other side.

In all the hamlets of the Municipality of Stregna it is possible to make out the typical architectural features of Venetian Slovenia: the houses with the wooden paju (balcony), the seniki (haylofts) that can be seen on the fields of Planino, the skedinji and the kazoni, which once were used as cattle shelters and to store agricultural products.

Besides the environmental aspects linked to human settlement, the Municipality of Stregna is characterised by some events that take place during the year: the Pust (Carnival) that brings bustle to the hamlets during the week before Shrove Tuesday and ends with the funeral of Carnival, Ash Wednedsay-Pepeunica; St. John's Kries (bonfire), which in Tribil Superiore and Tribil Inferiore is lit on the night between 23rd and 24th June; the Burnjak, the great chestnut festival that on the weekends of October enlivens Tribil Superiore with music, cultural entertainment and the rich agricultural and handicraft market.

And, in order to promote the typical product from the Natisone Valleys, which in the past played a leading role in the agricultural economy of this area, the Municipality of Stregna has started the interregional project "Terra di castagne-Prostor kostanja" (Chestnut land), which aims at recovering and setting off the varieties of native chestnuts and which has favoured a new interest in this cultivation and the restoration of historical chestnut groves, privileging the varieties of native chestnuts, such as purčinac, muronica, objak, ranac.

As far as the buildings of worship are concerned, particularly interesting is the Parish Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Cernetig, founded in the 15th century and consecrated in 1496, renovated after the earthquake of 1511 and enlarged in the 18th century, whereas the imposing bell tower, founded in 1544, was raised and completed in 1894. On the façade, besides the portal surrounded by some decorations over the architrave, you can see a niche containing the statue of St. Paul.

The interior is simple and features a recent marble high altar embellished by the statues of the Virgin and of Saints Peter and Paul. Two altars in the side chapels (on the one side Saints Florian, Blaise and Anthony, on the other side Saints Joseph, Agnes and Louis).
Nothing has remained of the many works carried out in the past by artists of a certain level (such as the wooden altarpiece carved, painted and decorated by Adam from Salzburg and Giacomo Martini in 1540).

Besides the parish church, like in the rest of the Natisone Valleys, many are the small votive churches in Slovenian Gothic style, which dominate the villages from the tops of the hills, recalling their ancient function of lookout and communication among towns and valleys. Particularly interesting, also due to its panoramic position, is the church dedicated to St. John in Tribil Inferiore.