We spent 2 nights in Ljubljana, Slovenia and stayed at a hotel called Occidental Ljubljana (https://www.barcelo.com/en-gb/occidental-ljubljana/) in a room with a view of Ljubljana Castle – all of these pictures were taken from our hotel room. It was really cool! It was also a good-size room and was only €100 a night (around $115) for this Superior Castle View room.
The pink Franciscan Church of the Annunciation in Prešeren Square is one of the highlights of any trip to Ljubljana. If you’ve seen one picture of Ljubljana, it probably had this church in it. Just in front of Prešeren Square is the “Triple Bridge” (Tromostovje). The central stone bridge of the 3 has been in place since 1842 (at which time it replaced an older wooden bridge) and the 2 side bridges meant for pedestrians were added 1929-1932. (https://www.visitljubljana.com/en/poi/triple-bridge/).
Further along the river is another iconic bridge – the Dragon Bridge (Zmadski Most). It was built in 1900-1901 and has 4 dragons on it. This bridge also replaced an older wooden bridge that had been there since 1819 (https://www.visitljubljana.com/en/poi/dragon-bridge/).
The Church of St Nicholas is a historic cathedral in Ljubljana. While several churches were here before it, this one was built from 1701 to 1706, although there have been additions and modifications over the years. One of those additions was a really unique side door depicting 20th century bishops of Ljubljana.
While walking around town, we came across this interesting sculpture. It extends the length of an alley in old town. It has around 700 small bronze faces in a gully; the faces express a variety of emotions (happiness, sadness, crying, etc). (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bronze-faces-locksmith-street-kljucavnicarska)
And of course we had to visit Ljubljana Castle up on the hill (https://www.ljubljanskigrad.si/en/). You can find a detailed history of the castle on their website here: https://www.ljubljanskigrad.si/en/why-to-the-castle/history-of-the-castle-en-us/. The middle picture below is the Castel vine, a descendent of a 400 year old vine, was a gift from the City of Maribor (in the wine region of Slovenia) to the City of Ljubljana.
We got the ticket that came with audioguides. Chris had his knit cap on because he was cold so when he got tired of holding his audioguide up to his ear, he stuck it under his knit cap to hold it against his ear. It actually worked pretty well!
Within the castle (and included in our ticket) is a Museum of Puppetry! They had great information on puppetry in Slovenia and had a great collection of historic puppetry.
The earliest puppets appeared in Slovenia back in the 15th century. The first Slovenian puppet show was one called Dead Man in a Red Coat (1910). It was a small, unique museum within the castle and definitely worth a visit if you’re at Ljubljana Castle.
We also got to climb up the tower and had some amazing views. We could see the Franciscan Church easily from the tower and we could also see our hotel room!
But the best part of the view was the mountains. They initially looked like clouds because the white snow caps looked like they were floating above the ground. Then as it cleared up some we realized they were huge mountains! We learned from another couple that these are the Julian Alps. They make up part of the Southern Limestone Alps and span northwest Slovenia and northeast Italy. It was an amazing sight! As you can see I took a lot of pictures of these!
This is the same tower we had just been up on, viewed from the ground. You can see that huge cloud moving in so we were up there just at the right time before the clouds obscured our view.
There’s a chapel within the castle called St. George’s Chapel in English (Kapela sv. Jurija in Slovenian) that was built in 1489 and dedicated to St. George – the famous dragon slayer. It’s a small chapel but is beautiful inside.
Inside the castle there is also a Castle Vineyard and Wine Shop. They have a great selection of Slovenian wines and you can choose various options for tastings. The Slovenian wines had a unique taste to them but they were good. I loved being able to try local wines that might be harder to get anywhere else so this was a great opportunity for that.
After we left the castle, we explored the area slightly further away from the old town center. We found Roman Walls that date back to 15 AD (restored in the 1930s).
Then we made our way back into Old Town for dinner. We wanted to try traditional food so we found a local restaurant/brewery called Gostilna Sokol (https://www.gostilna-sokol.com) that had great food (and beer). I got mushroom soup in a bread bowl and Chris got sausage with sour cabbage and roasted sautéed potatoes – both were really tasty.
To cap off the night, we checked out a pub a friend recommended called Sir William’s Pub – they had a great beer selection with a very knowledgable bartender.
After a full day of sightseeing in Ljubljana, we made our way back to our hotel to enjoy our castle view before we had to leave the next day. Ljubljana is definitely worth a visit!
