Cave del Predil

Cave del Predil (German: Raibl, Slovene: Rabelj) is a frazione subdivision of the comune of Tarvisio in the Province of Udine, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy. The hamlet is located about 15 km (9 mi) south of the town centre, in the valley of the Rio del Lago (Seebach) river on the road to the Predil Pass of the western Julian Alps, close to the border with Slovenia.

Map of 33018 Cave del Predil, Province of Udine, Italy

The lead and zinc mining settlement was established about 1320, then part of the Carinthian possessions of the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg. The bishops also gained control over the trade route across the mountain pass leading to the city of Cividale del Friuli, the importance of which however diminuished, after the Friulian land s had been conquered by the Republic of Venice in 1420. Bamberg finally sold the area to Empress Maria Theresa in 1759, who incorporated it into the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy.

With the Duchy of Carinthia, Cave del Predil until World War I was part of Austria-Hungary, and by the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain came under control of the Kingdom of Italy. Its mines operated until 1991, since then the population has strongly decreased. A tunnel, originally used for water drainage and then for transport of miners and political refugees escaping from Communist Yugoslavia, connects it with Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia.