[2] Javornik was founded in 1403 when Ulrich, the bishop of Brixen, granted Herman Esel the rights to mine iron ore below Koroška Bela.

Javornik was the third iron-working settlement in the modern Jesenice area, after Sava and Plavž, although all were predated by the agricultural villages of Koroška Bela and Murova.

[3] After the Ljubljana-Tarvisio railroad was laid through Jesenice in 1870, the KID company—by then the sole operator of the steel mill—began relocating its plants, up to then scattered throughout the region, to Sava and Javornik.

In 1929, the Javornik facilities were purchased by the Westen brothers, August (1877–1952) and Adolf (1878–1960),[4] who built a new light sheet-metal rolling plant, coming online in 1933.

Places of note in Javornik include the sprawling Acroni steel mill complexes, and a large bridge over the Sava leading to Blejska Dobrava, a small train station on the Ljubljana line.