Alpguides have guided interesting tour on the top of the needle for several years. The rock tower of the Needle is about 4km north of Luče and towering above the road to Solčava.
Local legend about The Needle
Once upon a time, a giant so huge lived at Raduha, that he used a fully grown pine tree as a walking stick. He would roam the forests between the villages of Luče and Solčava, where he hunted bears, chamois, and deer, and he would quench his thirst in the Savinja River.
He had everything, but he didn't have a wife. So he searched and searched all over the woods of the Savinja Valley, until he finally found a wife to his liking. The giant’s wife was taller than the tallest pine tree, but still she barely reached the shoulders of her husband. When she washed the giant’s pants, the Savinja River stayed dirty for three days and three nights. The giant had no shirt, since the abundant hair growing on his back and strong chest kept him warm, but during an especially cold winter’s night he decided that he’d like to have one nevertheless. He asked his wife to sew him a shirt, to which she replied: “How can I make you a shirt if I don’t have a needle?” The giant had no choice but to climb to the top of Raduha, where he ripped a huge piece of rock from the top of the mountain and shaped it into a needle with his bare hands and teeth. Then he went on to hunt as many wild animals as he needed to get enough hides for his shirt. Finally, he handed the hides and the needle to his wife, saying: “Make me a shirt to keep me warm even in the coldest of winters!” His wife sewed for days on end to make a nice shirt for her husband. But one day a big rock came crushing down from the top of Raduha to the meadow where the giant’s wife was sewing, crushing the poor soul to death.
When the giant returned home from another day of hunting and saw that his wife had perished, he screamed so loud that all the mountains echoed with his sadness. In a fit of mighty rage he grabbed the needle and threw it into the valley, where it stands to this day, perched above the Savinja River. He hid into a cave so that no living being ever saw him again, and he no longer drank from the Savinja River. Nowadays he gets his water from an underground cave which is the source of the Intermittent Spring, which now turns dry whenever the giant is drinking at the cave.
If you ever come to the Logarska Valley, take a moment and visit the Intermittent Spring, which is right next to the road not far from Solčava. Close to the spring you'll also be able to spot the rocky Needle jutting into the sky, which was used to sew the unfortunate shirt that was never finished.
Lojze Zupanc
