The Slak Trail is a hiking trail commemorating the Dolenjska accordion virtuoso and popular folk music legend Lojze Slak (1932–2011), who was born in Mirna Peč and had a vineyard and vineyard cottage on Trška Gora near Novo Mesto. The wine made by Lojze Slak in his vineyard on Trška Gora was of very good quality – a Dolenjska Cviček that won him several awards and medals at the Cviček Festival in Novo Mesto and earned him the flattering title of Cviček Ambassador.
Lojze Slak was the founder and leader of the Lojze Slak Ensemble, one of the best-known and best-loved exponents of popular folk music in Slovenia. Playing a traditional folk instrument, the diatonic accordion, Slak effectively created a new strand within the popular folk genre. He is also considered the father of the diatonic accordion as we know it today. His musical legacy is a remarkable one. Some of the ensemble’s tunes became standards during Slak’s own lifetime. They include “Čez Gorjance”, “V dolini tihi”, “Mama, prihajam domov”, “Po dekle”, “Čebelar” and many others.
The circular trail is just over eight kilometres long and takes around two hours to complete. It runs past the vineyard cottage of the composer Marjan Kozina, the ruins of Bajnof (Weinhof), a country mansion mentioned in written sources as a winery almost 900 years ago, and the famous Marian pilgrimage church at the summit of Trška Gora, where a group of noble trees known as the Trška Gora limes have been growing for more than 400 years. The trail then continues on past Slak’s own vineyard cottage and Krkin Hram and ends on the estate of the Grm School of Agriculture in Sevno.
A traditional Hike along the Slak Trail is organised each May by the Trška Gora Winegrowers Association of Novo Mesto.
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