Water Infrastructure in Kras in the Nineteenth Century Between Continuity and Change

The article discusses the still poorly researched development of the construction of water infrastructure on the Kras Plateau in the nineteenth century, with special emphasis on the cadastral municipalities of Lokev and Dutovlje. The increasing role of the state (beginning with the Habsburg monarchy at the time of the Theresian reforms with final implementation during the time of Austria-Hungary) in supplying the inhabitants on the Kras Plateau and its livestock with drinking water proves to reach a turning point in the middle of the nineteenth century. The research is based on detailed early nineteenth-century land cadastre, on documents from the second half of the long nineteenth century and kept in the Sežana district board fonds in the Provincial Archives of Koper, on unstructured interviews, and field observations.