You might not immediately think of a sluice gate when searching for beautiful architectural constructions, but Jože Plečnik wasn’t your ordinary architect. The gate that spans the Ljubljanica in Poljane perfectly straddles the line between monumental and magnificent, a grand farewell to the eponymous river as it leaves the heart of the city.

This magnificent sluice gate was completed in 1944, but original plans date back to the early 1930s. Plečnik envisaged it as a farewell to the Ljubljanica River as it exited the city centre as well as an additional footbridge. The gate was designed to cleverly function with no technical elements for raising and lowering visibility. Along with other Plečnik works, the sluice gate was named as a protected monument of national significance in 2009.