Predjama Castle (Predjamski grad)

- Slovenia

PREDJAMA AND POSTOJNA ON YOUTUBE

Predjama Castle (Predjamski grad) is the world’s largest mountain castle, situated 900km from Postojna Caves, in Predjama, a village with only 85 inhabitants, in the historic region of Inner Carniola, about 50 minutes drive from Ljubljana. Built in renaissance style in 1570 the castle is a very iconic site, in the middle of a rock. But it was originally built in gothic style by the Patriarch of Aquileia. The first time the castle was mentioned was in 1274 as the German name Luegg. The mountain setting made the castle hard for enemies to conquer. It was for a time the seat of the noble Luegg family.  Erasmus of Luegg, son of Trieste’s governor, was the notorious lord of the castle in the 15th century, known as the “robber baron”.  ,
In 1511 the secondly built castle was destroyed by an earthquake. In 1570 the current castle was built, and has renamed almost unchanged. Famous Austrian statesmen and art collectors, and the Cobenzl family have spent time in the castle.  The Austrian-Hungarian Windischgrätz family owned the castle until the end of the World War II, when the Yugoslav Communist authorities turned it into a museum.
Visitors receive an audioguide and are able to visit most rooms, like the living room, bed room, the chapel, the torture chamber. The castle also has a cave, that can be climbed.
The famous Hong Kong actor Jackie Shan was wounded in 1986 during film recording of “The Armour of Gold” in the castle. Predjama is also said to have inspired the massively popular fantasy series Game of Thrones. It was also featured in the world famous Slovenian industry band Laibach's video "Sympathy for the Devil". The architecture in the Predjama village is Austrian and just like the rest of Slovenia, looks really wealthy.

To visit both Postojna Caves and Predjama Castle, that is a must, it is highly recommended to go through some of the guided tours, such as Viatour. You can arrange this trip on your own if you have a car, but if not, it is very expensive to take the train to the village of Postojna from Ljubljana, despite it is only 40 minutes away. On top of that you have to walk from the train to the entrance of the cave and then there are 900km left to Predjama, and shuttle buses only go there during high season so it will be both much cheaper and way more convenient to go with a guided tour, that most likely will pick you up at your hotel.

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