Lago del Predil sits at about 960 metres in a high valley of the Julian Alps, a few minutes’ drive from the Slovenian border. Its blue-green water, pale limestone shore and ring of steep peaks make it one of the most photographed mountain lakes in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy’s north-eastern corner.
Where Lago del Predil is
The lake belongs to the municipality of Tarvisio in the Province of Udine. It lies in the Val Rio del Lago, just beyond the old mining village of Cave del Predil and below the Predil Pass, the road crossing into Slovenia that gives the lake its name. In Friulian, Slovene and German it keeps an older name taken from Raibl, the historic name of Cave del Predil.
Roughly 1.5 kilometres long, 500 metres wide and about 30 metres deep, it covers around one square kilometre, making it the second-largest natural lake in Friuli-Venezia Giulia after Lago di Cavazzo. Its basin is most likely glacial, held back by a moraine or by repeated landslides near its outflow. The Rio di Saletto, coming down from Sella Nevea, feeds it and slowly carries gravel into the lake.
The mountains around the lake
The lake sits beneath peaks of the Canin (Kanin) range. Cima del Lago, known in Slovene as Jerebica, rises to 2,125 metres to the south, while the jagged Cinque Punte, reaching 1,909 metres, stand to the north-east. The Mangart and Montasio massifs frame the wider valley. In early summer, snow lingers in the gullies above the water, and on calm mornings the peaks reflect almost perfectly on the surface.
The legend of the flooded village
Local tradition says a village once stood where the lake lies today. On a bitter winter night a woman and her child, travelling from far away, knocked on door after door asking for shelter, and only one family took them in. By morning the valley had flooded, leaving just a small island with that family’s house, and the two strangers had vanished. The small island in the lake gives the story its setting.
Things to do at Lago del Predil
- Walk the shore: a trail circles the lake in about two and a half hours, passing a waterfall on its final stretch.
- Swim and sunbathe: in July and August the beaches fill with day-trippers cooling off in clear alpine water.
- Visit the fort: the Austro-Hungarian army built a fort beside the lake in 1885–1887 to guard the road to Tarvisio. It was badly damaged in the First World War, and its ruins are open to visitors.
- Explore Cave del Predil: the village mined lead and zinc for centuries, with records going back to a deed of 1320, until the mine closed in 1991.
- Winter ice: in winter the lake freezes over and the waterfall becomes an ice-climbing wall.
Getting there and best time to visit
Drive south from Tarvisio on provincial road SP76 towards Cave del Predil; the lake appears on the right a few kilometres further on, and the road continues over the Predil Pass to Log pod Mangartom and Bovec in Slovenia. Tarvisio itself sits close to both the Austrian and Slovenian borders.
Summer brings the warmest water and the busiest beaches. September and October are quieter, with sharp light and autumn colour in the beech and larch forests, while winter pairs the frozen lake with skiing at nearby Sella Nevea and Tarvisio.
For another mountain lake with a strong sense of enclosure, explore Oeschinen near Kandersteg. For a larger lakeside setting, compare Lake Tahoe.
Related reading
- The Luca Vuerich Bivouac: Shelter High in the Julian Alps
- Ten Italian Coastal Settings: Islands, Towns and Different Rhythms
- Palmanova, Italy: Reading the Star-Shaped Fortress Town
- Gaiola, Naples: Islets, Marine Life and Submerged History
- Spello: Roman Gateways, Mosaics and Flower-Filled Streets
- Riomaggiore: Harbour, Hillside Vineyards and the Cinque Terre
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