Bled

The town was first attested in written sources as Ueldes in 1004 (and as Veldes in 1011). The etymology of the name is unknown and it is believed to be of pre-Slavic origin. The German name of the town, Veldes, was either borrowed from Old Slovene *Beldъ before AD 800 or is derived from the same pre-Slavic source as the Slovene name.

A settlement area since Mesolithic times, the present-day locality probably arose about 600 during the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps. After the Slavic principality of Carantania was conquered by Frankish forces in 788, the area came under Bavarian influence. German King Henry II ceded ownership of the area in 1004 to Albuin, Bishop of Brixen as a sign of gratitude for the assistance the Church was giving to the king in his attempt to strengthen imperial rule in that part of northern Italy. In 1011, Henry II signed another deed of donation that added the castle and an area of land the size of thirty king's farms. That area, between the Sava Bohinjka and the Sava Dolinka, became known as the Lordship of Veldes (German: Herrschaft Veldes). …

Bled is located on the southern foot of the Karawanks mountain range near the border with Austria, about 50 km (31 mi) northwest of the national capital of Ljubljana. South of Lake Bled are the densely forested Pokljuka and Jelovica plateaus and the easternmost parts of the Julian Alps, where the Sava Bohinjka river and the parallel Bohinj Railway lead to the Bohinj basin, Lake Bohinj, and the Triglav massif. A number of rises (Grad 599 m, Straža 646 m, Kozarca 558 m, Osojnica 756 m, and Ravnica 729 m) separate the localities of Bled around the lake, the former villages of Grad, Mlino, Rečica, Zagorice, and Želeče. The lake is 2.12 kilometres (1.32 mi) long and 0.5 to 1 kilometre (0.31 to 0.62 mi) wide. In summer, the surface water reaches 25 °C (77 °F) and retains a temperature up to 18 °C (64 °F) until autumn. As such, it is suitable for swimming. …