Koren Stream
Short Cross-border Watercourse
The Koren is a stream just six kilometres long with several springs below Škabrijel. Despite its small size, it is of particular significance as an international watercourse. It flows through the southern part of Nova Gorica, crosses the border at Erjavčeva Street, and continues mostly underground through Gorizia before emptying into the Soča.
Regulating the stream was one of the brigadiers' key achievements in the town's construction. The formerly meandering and flood-prone Koren was redirected into a straight channel, and the surrounding area was developed to accommodate the construction of a new town.
When the town was built, the entire municipal sewerage system was also directed into the stream. For this reason, the first blocks were built closer to the stream than on the other side of the Magistrala road, allowing shorter sewer pipes to be installed. This determined the town's future urban development.
All wastewater from the industrial zone located along the upper part of the stream was diverted into it. The stream also served as a drainage system for Gorizia, where it was covered shortly after World War II. It was only decades later that all sewage was finally channelled into a common canal and redirected to a treatment plant south of the town, between Vrtojba and Miren.
Nowadays, fish and ducks swim in the stream again, and a concrete tribune has been built alongside it. In Gorizia, the long-forgotten valley of the stream was transformed in 2025 into the Parco della Valletta del Corno, now the city’s largest park.
Based on Ravnikar's original plan, seven buildings were built along the main Magistrala (six Russian blocks and the municipal building), as well as four residential blocks designed by architect Danilo Fürst (1912–2005) on the south-western side.
The construction of these blocks, rather than other buildings along the central Magistrala, also determined the town's subsequent development, with most of the population moving from the Magistrala road to the area between the Koren Stream and Erjavčeva Street. This shift also defined the town centre for several decades.
Avtor: Blaž Kosovel