Paper short abstract:

In this paper, the author analyzes the events and processes that comprised the creation of a WWI memorial thematic route in Bohinj as a commemorative social process.

Paper long abstract:

On September 3, 2015, a new thematic hiking route was formally inaugurated in Bohinj that connects sites significant to Bohinj's history during the First World War. Bohinj was located at the rear of the Isonzo front line and operated as a passage between the hinterlands and the front line. At the time of its inauguration, this new thematic route was also formally incorporated into the Walk of Peace memorial thematic route, which runs along the Isonzo front in the Upper Soča region from the Alps to the Adriatic. The Bohinj leg of the Walk of Peace marks the paths between the front lines and the hinterlands as they existed during the years of the First World War between the Bohinj and the Upper Soča regions.

In this paper, the author analyzes the events and processes that comprised the creation of the memorial route in Bohinj as a commemorative social process and the ways in which the memorial route is linked to broader narratives of wartime social memory linked to different groups of local social actors. More specifically, the author examines the ways in which local actors view the potential and the dangers of commemorating local heritage, particularly the region's WWI heritage, as a resource for tourism both locally and regionally defined.