Have you ever wondered where the most beautiful view of Novo Mesto, the Gorjanci hills and Trška Gora are to be found? You can see all three from Kette’s Avenue. This popular path in Novo Mesto is the longest tree-lined avenue in Slovenia. It is named after the poet Dragotin Kette, who lived part of his youth in the capital of the Dolenjska region, attending the last two years of the gimnazija (academic secondary school) in Novo Mesto and sitting the matura (school-leaving) examination there.
Lined on both sides with trees, interspersed with benches, the avenue has been one of the most important and vital public green spaces in Novo Mesto since 1891. It is around 1,500 metres long and planted with around 370 horse chestnut trees, on either side of a gravel path. It is included in the inventory of the most important natural and cultural heritage in Slovenia. In 1987 the municipality of Novo Mesto classified it as an attraction or site of interest, defining it as a monument of designed nature.
The avenue begins by the Nova Ljubljanska Banka building at the junction of Seidlova Cesta and Rozmanova Ulica and runs over Marof, a hill that was the site of a prehistoric settlement dating from the first millennium BC. Before the nineteenth century, this route was the main connection between the town centre and the village of Bršljin. The nineteenth century saw the coming of the railway, and with it a new road (Ljubljanska Cesta or “the Ljubljana Road”) between the town and Bršljin, with the result that this route lost its function as the northern access to the town. Today it connects the suburbs to the old town centre, with its starting point located close to the site of one of the old town gates (the Ljubljana Gate). The brief section that runs past an office building on Novi Trg (New Square) is also the oldest part of the avenue. It was planted somewhat before the remainder, which was planted in 1891.
Kette’s Avenue was named in honour of the Slovene modernist poet Dragotin Kette in 1955. Between 1930 and 1955 it was known as Tavčarjeva Cesta, after the writer Ivan Tavčar. Before that it was simply known as Stara Cesta (“the old road”).
Kette’s Avenue joins up with the footpath along the river Krka known as the Zupančič Promenade, which runs past Loka and ends in Glavni Trg (Main Square) in the town centre. One of the best vantage points along the magnificent chestnut-lined Kette’s Avenue is the summit of Marof, which offers a fine view of Novo Mesto.