Boundary Cave and other land cadastral boundary marks around Socerb Castle and the Rosandra valley

Abstract

In this paper we will describe the former boundaries of the cadastral municipalities in the Slovenian-Italian cross-border area between the Socerb castle and the Rosandra valley. Today, the villages of Socerb and Beka are located on the Slovenian side of the border, and Mačkolje (Caresana), Prebeneg (Prebenico), Dolina (San Dorlingo della Valle), Boljunec (Bagnoli della Rosandra), Kroglje (Crogole), Gornji Konec (Bagnoli Superiore) and Botač (Bottazzo) on the Italian side. At the time of the Franciscan cadastral survey in this area (from 1818 to 1822), i.e., at the time of the Austrian Empire, these villages, except for Mačkolje, belonged to the district of Fünfenberg, which was part of the province of Istria. Therefore, the same type of cadastral municipality boundary marks from the Franciscan or a revised cadastral survey can be found here as elsewhere in the present-day territory of Slovenia. In addition to the twelve boundary stones with inscriptions, we will also present two natural boundary marks: inscriptions carved on the entrance walls of a cave and inscriptions carved on the smooth rock wall. We will also show that the boundary stones in the Primorska region, which have the same shape as the former cadastral municipality boundary stones, could also have once marked former common lands of agrarian communities, here called jusi, and these were not always the same as the cadastral municipality boundaries.