Ski jumping in
Planica began to develop when the village of
Rateče received railway connections. The first K20 hill was built in 1930, located in the middle of the Planica-Rateče road, with some remains still visible today. On 20 December 1931, the ski resort Dom Ilirija (now Dom Planica) opened at the initiative of Joso Gorec, who was at the time the General Secretary of the Yugoslav Winter Sports Association and a member of the Ilirija Ski Club Ljubljana. Next to the hotel, a swimming pool and tennis courts were built,
1932–1934: Construction and opening In 1932, Joso Gorec asked constructor
Stanko Bloudek to construct a large hill, so he drew plans for the K80 hill, which was the largest size allowed by the
International Ski Federation at the time. Bloudek found a suitable location and did a geodetic survey, started the construction, but soon ran out of money.
Ivan Rožman, the owner of a construction company, immediately stepped in and drew plans for the K90 hill. Gorec decided to rather build a larger hill using Rožman's plans instead of Bloudek's plans, who was then left out. In 1933, construction began and was completed in only two months, from October to December. Problems arose before construction started as local farmers from the Rateče area did not want to sell the land, but they eventually changed their minds and sold it. On 4 February 1934, Bloudkova velikanka, constructed by Ivan Rožman, was officially opened with the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia National Championships in front of 2,500 people.
Franc Palme won the competition with and set the first two hill records and the national record at the same time. There were also three invalid world record distances with touches or crashes: Birger Ruud at ,
Gregor Höll at , and
Sigmund Ruud at .
1935–1941: Hill expansion, naming arguments and world records Bloudek returned to Planica and took control over the hill as a constructor/developer until his death in 1959. On 15 March 1936,
Josef Bradl became the first man in history to have officially jumped over 100 metres, landing at . The distance had to be displayed as 101 metres on the scoreboard due to lack of space. Two years later, Josef Bradl won the Ski Flying Study competition with another world record at with minor hill improvements. On 2 March 1941, the last Ski Flying Study competition before the
World War II outbreak in Yugoslavia was held, with 15,000 spectators in attendance. After two scheduled rounds and
Rudi Gering's world record distance at , the organizers wished to end the event due to safety concerns, but it continued on Germany's request. The fourth and final round had a series of long jumps:
Heinz Palme reached , but a ground touch invalidated his world record distance. Then Gering set the world record at , winning the official afternoon competition. Right after him the rest jumped in that order:
Hans Lahr (111 metres),
Paul Krauß (112 m), and Franz Mair (109 m with fall).
1947–2001: The last hill world record, World Cup, and collapse On 24 March 1947, the first post-war competition was held. The winner of the Ski Flying Week was
Rudi Finžgar, who also set a new national record of during training. Between 14 and 17 March 1948, there was a four-day international ski flying week competition in front of a total 20,000 spectators.
Fritz Tschannen won the competition, and also set the last world record on the hill at . There were also two world record distance crashes by
Janez Polda (120 metres) and Charles Blum (121 metres). In 1954, the hill was renovated as a new concrete judge tower was built. In the same year, the last international competition on the old hill was held. For many years after the collapse of the hill, there were plans to rebuild it. A decade later, in July 2011, they demolished the inrun, the judge tower and the television tower, The last
construction point of the old hill was at K130 and the last hill size at HS140. File:Ing. Stanko Bloudek pod planiško skakalnico, največjo na svetu, ob Tednu smučarskih poletov med 17. in 24. marcem 1947.jpg|Stanko Bloudek at the foot of the hill at the 1947 competition File:Reportažni avtomobil RTV v Planici 1963.jpg|Old hill in 1963 File:Porusena Bloudkova velikanka.jpg|Old hill after the 2001 collapse
2011–present: Reconstruction In July 2011, the Slovenian government and the
Planica Nordic Centre signed a contract for the complete renovation of the hill, worth €6.2 million. At the same location where the original large hill was standing, which is also part of the Slovenian culture heritage, they rebuilt the hill at the hill size of 139 metres with a new profile, inrun, and judge and television towers. Right next to the large hill they built a new normal hill with the hill size of 104 metres. Both hills were designed by Slovenian architects Matej Blenkuš, Miloš Florijančič and Klemen Kobal. The first person who jumped on the new HS139 hill was Aleš Hlebanja.
Primož Peterka was honoured with an inaugural jump on the new HS104 hill. == Events ==