Mangart

Where it sits. Mangart rises to 2,679 metres on the border between Slovenia and Italy in the western Julian Alps, the fourth-highest summit in Slovenia after Triglav, Škrlatica and Mali Triglav. Its north face falls in a single sweep of limestone towards the Italian side above the Predil valley; the southern flank drops to Log pod Mangartom and the upper Soča, and the mountain forms the head of one of the most abrupt landscapes in the Alps, where villages at four hundred metres sit directly beneath walls of pale rock over two kilometres high. The nearest Slovenian town of any size is Bovec, half an hour away down the valley, which makes Mangart the natural high point of a trip built around the Soča.

The Italian army's road. What separates Mangart from a hundred comparable Julian peaks is that a road goes almost to the top of it. The Mangart Saddle Road was cut by the Italian army in 1938, in the years when this was frontier territory and the ridge above marked the border; it climbs about twelve kilometres from the Predil road with five tunnels hacked through spurs of rock, and finishes at roughly 2,055 metres, the highest point reachable by car in Slovenia. It is single-track for long stretches with passing places, entirely unguarded in others, and the tunnels are unlit. Drivers who make it to the top park on a shelf below the saddle with the Julian Alps arranged in every direction — Jalovec's shark-fin profile to the east, the Kanin massif west, and on clear days the Dolomites showing as a distant grey serration.

On screen. Amazon's The Wheel of Time brought its first season to this corner of Slovenia rather than to a studio backlot, and the country supplied most of the show's mountain scenery. The sequence in which Rand al'Thor and Egwene al'Vere sit together on a rock with the ranges spread behind them was filmed at the Mangart saddle, and the production worked through the surrounding Bovec area for the fugitive-flight material that dominates the early episodes: the Great Soča Gorge, where Egwene is swept downstream, and Napoleon's Bridge over the Nadiža near Kobarid, the stone arch the group crosses while escaping. The Two Rivers village itself was a built set in a Czech quarry and the White Tower interiors were staged at Barrandov Studios in Prague, so Slovenia's contribution is specifically the wild country — a division of labour that is obvious once you know it, because the Slovenian footage is almost all daylight exteriors with real weather.

Walking from the saddle. From the road head, two marked routes continue. The easier, the Slovenian path, traverses west then doubles back up the south flank to the summit in around two hours; the Italian path is more exposed and equipped with fixed cable in sections, and is the one that gives the mountain its reputation for seriousness. Neither should be attempted casually — this is limestone that stays wet, weather changes fast, and snow patches persist into July. Even without the summit, the saddle itself rewards a short walk: alpine meadow full of gentian and edelweiss in early summer, chamois on the scree, and a view down into the Italian Val Rio del Lago with the turquoise Laghi di Fusine at the bottom.

Wartime scars. This was Isonzo Front country, and the whole area is layered with military remains. Tunnels, gun positions and barracks foundations from the First World War are scattered around the saddle and along the road; the Kluže fortress guards the gorge below at Bovec; and the Kobarid Museum, forty minutes away, gives the definitive account of the mountain fighting of 1915 to 1917. The road itself belongs to a later chapter of the same story, built when the frontier had moved but the strategic logic had not.

Getting there and timing. There is no public transport to the saddle; a car or a very strong pair of legs is required, and cyclists treat the climb as one of the hardest in the country. A toll is charged in season at the bottom of the road. Snow usually closes the route from late October until some point in June, and the opening date varies by several weeks from year to year — check before committing to a long drive. Mornings are best both for light on the north walls and for traffic, since the tunnels and passing places become tense in the afternoon. Nothing about the saddle is wheelchair-accessible, and the toilets and refreshments are back down in Log pod Mangartom or Bovec.