The Houses · H-05
Karst House
Upper Carniola · Established 1988 · Open to visitors
Karst House keeps better records of itself than any other house, including the one that keeps the archive.
- Region
- Europe
- Residential places
- 14
- Residential periods
- Fourteen places. Residential periods of seven to twelve days during the reading period; three to seven otherwise.
- Public gathering
- Open Table, monthly, and a public lecture in the summer reading period.
- Arrival
- Ninety minutes from Ljubljana. The last three kilometres are unsurfaced.
- Access
- The house is step-free throughout at ground level. The cave work is not accessible and is not required of residents.
- Correspondence
- Write to the steward at Karst House, in Slovene, German, Italian, or English.
The house
The house was established in 1988 in a stone building above a sinkhole, with the encouragement of a regional speleological society that wanted somebody living close enough to notice when the water changed colour.
From its first month the house kept a daily log — weather, water, visitors, work done, meals cooked — and it has never missed a day. The logs run to sixty-one bound volumes. Every one has been digitised, indexed, and reconciled; the house's public record is complete to the week.
The translation bench grew out of necessity: the regional archives are in three languages and the correspondence in four. It now translates for other houses as well.
The work
- Cave and watershed stewardship with the regional society: monitoring, clearance, and the water-quality log.
- Translation between Slovene, German, Italian, and English, for the regional archives and for the Institute's own correspondence.
- Custody of the European regional archive, and the summer reading period.
Observance kept here
The reading of letters
At the evening meal on the first day of a residential period, correspondence from previous residents is read aloud. The reader is chosen by whoever cooked.
The shared forms, here
- The Boundary Walk
- Water first. Sinks, springs, and the two culverts are checked before anything else on the sheet.
Local participation
- Water and path work after rain, called at short notice.
- The weather entry, written before the evening meal.
- Separation
- Given to the steward in any language the member prefers to use. No form is required.
The steward
Tomaž Vrhovec
Watershed technician · steward since 2009
Municipal water authority for eleven years before the house. Keeps the daily log and has not missed one.
Records
Other houses
- Fell House — Scottish Borders
- Cedar House — Aomori Prefecture
Entry H-05 · reviewed 21 February 2026