Otlica

Otlica is a dispersed settlement in the hills north of Ajdovščina in the Littoral region of Slovenia. It is made up of smaller clusters of the hamlets of Sibirija, Kitajska, Kurja Vas, and Cerkovna, as well as a number of outlying isolated farms.

Geography

Otlica is located on the high Trnovo Forest Plateau, overlooking the Vipava Valley. The part of the larger plateau known as the Otlica Plateau is named after Otlica. Together with the ridge-top villages of Predmeja, Kovk, and Gozd, it is part of an area locally known as Gora.

Names

The name Otlica is derived from the Slovene adjective otel 'hollow'. It refers to a karst sinkhole about west of Navrše Hill ; the bottom of the sinkhole leads to the opposite side of the Gora Ridge through a passage high and wide that opens above a footpath to Ajdovščina. In folk tradition the mountain was therefore referred to as being hollow. The hamlet of Siberija is so named because of its exposure to the frost and the bora wind, and the hamlet of Kitajska is a reference to the large number of children that people living there had.

Church

The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to the Guardian Angels and belongs to the Koper Diocese.