Ljubljana castle

Situated to be defended

The Ljubljana Castle, as the name tells you, is situated in the capital city of the beautiful country of Slovenia, and overlooks the old city centre. It is one of the most visited sights of Ljubljana. And for a reason!

The castle is very old and dates back to the time when the first inhabitants came to populate Ljubljana. The legend says, that Jason and the Argonauts came all the way up the river Ljubljanica by boat, and at the end of the way, they built a city and the castle afterwards. It has a good position, because it is standing on the top of a hill, so they would see the potential enemies approaching the city.

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By Car, with the Tourist Train or on Foot - how you get there

You have many options how to get to the Ljubljana castle. I am going to list them below:

1. By car: Of course it is possible that you go there by car, but it might be a bit difficult to find the way there, because many of the streets in the old city centre of Ljubljana are one way only, and many of them are for pedestrians only. But once you find the right way, it is easy, and there are plenty of parking spaces at the top of the hill. The only problem can be encountering the cars on the way, because the road is really narrow.
2. By a tourist train: From spring to autumn, you can enjoy the ride to the Ljubljana castle with a tourist train. One way ride with this train is cheaper than a funicular, and probably safer. Usually, not many people choose this train as a way of getting to the top, so you can have almost all the train for yourself. The train can pick you up at many bus stations in the centre of Ljubljana, which are especially marked. You can either buy tickets when you enter it, or in advance in one of many tourist information offices around the city.
3. On foot: there are two possible ways that you can choose from for walking to the top. One is the same as if you would go by car, and the other one is a special path, made just for pedestrians. It is quite steep, but if you choose it, you will reach the top in no more than fifteen minutes.



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4. With funicular: By this recently opened invention, you can go from the bottom to the top of the hill in less that five minutes. However, I would warn you about two things. First one is, that the funicular is not for free, and there is always a lot of people waiting to get a ride with it. Second thing is, that it broke several times since the opening, so I am not sure how safe it is. Once, it has stopped in the middle of the way to the top, and the staff was having big difficulties to rescue all the passengers. But, on the other hand, it has nice panoramic windows, so you can catch a glimpse of how big Ljubljana actually is. Well, if you are coming from a big city, it will seem like a village to you, but it is the biggest and the most populated city in Slovenia.

Activities at the castle

Once you are at the top, you can do many different things, for example:

• See the panorama of the city: there are many great spots on the top of the hill, from where you can admire the view. You can walk all the way around and find the best one. In my opinion, the best one is the one at the front that overlooks the old city centre, but others are not bad either.
• See the panorama of the city from the tower: The first thing that you will notice when you react the top, is a tall tower in the middle of the castle's yard. There is a small fee to pay to get to the top (two Euros), but the view from the top is just great!
• Visit one of many shows, exhibitions and workshops that they organise: throughout the year, Ljubljanski grad is hosting several events and exhibitions. This year, they did several workshops for kids, themed as a medieval life in a castle and then they made an exhibition out of it. Out of workshops for adults, I would strongly recommend you the caligraphy workshop among many others. All of those events are for free, however there is only a limited number of the available spaces, so you have to register for each event online, and you have to be very quick, because the slots are usually reserved within a few minutes. For each workshop, there is an approximate number of two hundred participants, which may seem a lot, but it really is not. At the time of the event, the participants are divided into several groups and each one gets their own mentor. What I really like are the events for kids, because they are really trying to show them, how life looked like in the medieval times, all this presented in a very funny way that they understand.



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• See the interior of the castle: You can choose between a guided tour and a tour with no guide, but both are payable. If you do not want a personal guide, you can, for a small fee of course, rent an audio guide, which is available in several languages, and will guide you through the castle. I think that this is quite useful, but the translations in other languages are sometimes not the best. If you decide not to take a guided tour, there are plenty of informative signs everywhere, and also more than enough brochures in different languages, that will tell you everything you need to know about the castle, and also about the history of Ljubljana.
• See the remainings of some parts of the castle outside: There are several interesting places outside, that can be seen without paying anything. Two of the most interesting things that you can see this way, are the entrance into the dungeon, and the waste hole. If you would like to see the interior of the dungeon, it is possible to do so on the guided tour. It still has skeletons inside, it is very humid, dark and scary. The waste hole is interesting because it is very deep, and leads to an underground cave which was not fully discovered yet.
• Attend the Castle Days event with a royal wedding: Once a year, the staff organizes a series of special events, called Castle Days.

  On these days, members of the staff dress into medieval clothes, and try to recreate the castle life. For example, the most famous and interesting part of the event are knight fights, where two staff members, dressed as knights, ride horses and try to push each other from a horse. I would like to mention, that all of the equipment they are wearing, are only replicas, but they look absolutely real. Even small kids are dressed in the medieval style to represent a medieval family. I highly recommend this event! A part of it is also a royal wedding in medieval style. The point of it is that during the year, an engaged couple is selected through a raffle, and they get an organised wedding, but it has to be held on one of the Castle days, and, of course, in medieval clothes.



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• Eat as a king in a royal restaurant at the top: This restaurant is very famous in Ljubljana and is a member of Hiša Franko restaurants, which is a group of only the best Slovenian restaurants. And it is not as expensive as you would expect from a restaurant with such a high reputation. This restaurant is known for serving the dishes that were famous in this region in medieval times. However, you can also order more traditional dishes. Usually, you do not need a table reservation, because the restaurant is pretty big. Well, except on vacation days and New Year. A friend that used to work there, told me that the restaurant is usually fully booked for the next new year in January already!
• Attend the annual run to Ljubljanski grad: every year, on the day of new year's eve, there is a special event. Mostly students, but a lot of other people too, are trying to run to the top of the hill as fast as possible. This event does not have a long tradition yet, but it is very popular. The registration fee for the event is ten Euros, and you get a T – shirt and a goodie bag. Inside the bag, you will find mostly brochures, pencils and coupons for discounts in various spots around ljubljana (restaurants, shopping centres, points of interest).
• Visit the open – air cinema in summer: Every year in July and August, the yard of the Ljubljana castle is the place of open – air cinema. The movies are projected on one of the walls, and it looks really great to watch movies on warm summer night, with the countless lights of Ljubljana below you. When I was there two years ago, the ticket costed five Euros, and you were allowed to bring your food and drinks with you. But again, there was a limited number of participants allowed – two hundred people. I was there twice and it was always full. The only thing you can do is to arrive earlier, because when two hundred tickets are sold, they will close the entrance.

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