In Antiquity, Nanos was known as
Ocra. Strabo reckoned it the last peak of the Alps. In the 1st century, the pass at Nanos was an important route for civilian and military traffic from
Trieste (Tergeste) to
Ljubljana (Emona) and beyond to
Carnuntum at the Danube. It lost its importance when a faster road connected Emona to
Aquileia further north in the 2nd century. Nanos is mentioned as
Nanas in
Johann Weikhard von Valvasor's 1689 work
The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola. Nanos has an important symbolic place in the history and identity of
Littoral Slovenes. In September 1927, the anti-Fascist insurgent organization
TIGR was founded on the Nanos Plateau. On 18 April 1942, the
Battle of Nanos took place at Nanos. It was one of the first battles between the
Partisan insurgence in the
Slovene Littoral, led by Janko Premrl, and the
Italian Army, and was the beginning of the struggle for the western border between the two nations. == Demographics and economy ==