20 Best Things to Do in Slovenia

Slove­nia is a coun­try with pic­turesque land­scapes and a large num­ber of archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ments and cas­tles pre­served from the Mid­dle Ages. In many cities of the coun­try, cas­tles found­ed many cen­turies ago have been pre­served, which take the vis­i­tor to dis­tant his­tor­i­cal eras.

Who travels to Slovenia and why

Archi­tec­ture lovers should vis­it Ljubl­jana with its numer­ous old build­ings, with its Drag­on and Triple bridges, with the Town Hall and St. Nicholas Cathe­dral. All of them will leave vivid impres­sions.

Fans of his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ments and those who want to feel the atmos­phere of the Mid­dle Ages will love vis­it­ing Sloven­ian cas­tles. Muse­ums are orga­nized on the ter­ri­to­ry of some of them. Excur­sions to the Ethno­graph­ic and Nation­al Muse­ums of Slove­nia will be use­ful. And con­nois­seurs of art will love vis­it­ing the Nation­al Gallery of Slove­nia and the Muse­um of Mod­ern Art.

Fans of out­door activ­i­ties and extreme tourism should vis­it Lake Bled with div­ing and para­chut­ing sta­tions orga­nized at it, an eques­tri­an club and ten­nis courts. The ski slopes of the resort are open for lovers of ski­ing and snow­board­ing. The Škoc­jan Caves and Pos­to­j­na Cave with their unusu­al grot­toes, halls and pecu­liar routes will leave a vivid impres­sion.

architectural memos

Town Hall in Ljubljana

The build­ing of the city munic­i­pal­i­ty was built in the 15th cen­tu­ry and then bore the fea­tures of the Goth­ic style. The town hall was restored in the 18th cen­tu­ry, and at the same time its appear­ance acquired baroque ele­ments. The build­ing stands out with mytho­log­i­cal sculp­tures and a map of Ljubl­jana from the 17th cen­tu­ry on the wall of one of the facades.

Near the Town Hall there is the Foun­tain of the Carniol Rivers with a base in the form of a tre­foil, cre­at­ed by the Venet­ian archi­tect F. Rob­ba. It sym­bol­izes the three rivers of Ljubl­jana: Krka, Sava and Ljubl­jan­i­ca.

Cathedral of Saint Nicholas

The Catholic Cathe­dral is locat­ed in the cen­ter of Ljubl­jana. Dur­ing its exis­tence, the build­ing sur­vived sev­er­al fires, and its cur­rent appear­ance in the Baroque style arose in the 18th cen­tu­ry. High tow­ers with bells are installed on both sides of the cathe­dral, and the cross­roads of the tem­ple is cov­ered with a mas­sive stone dome.

The inte­ri­or con­tains exquis­ite paint­ings by Ital­ian and Sloven­ian mas­ters, mas­sive stat­ues, stuc­co, gild­ing on the walls and columns. The epis­co­pal pul­pit is dec­o­rat­ed with exquis­ite carv­ings, and the ser­vices are accom­pa­nied by the play­ing of an ancient organ.

triple bridge

This unique bridge is locat­ed in the his­tor­i­cal cen­ter of Ljubl­jana. The locals call it Tro­mostovye. It con­nects the banks of the Ljubl­jan­i­ca Riv­er.

Three branch­es of the bridge orig­i­nate at one point and diverge in three direc­tions at an angle to each oth­er, thus con­nect­ing two city squares — Cen­tral and Prešeren. His­tor­i­cal­ly, the old­est of the three is the bridge in the mid­dle. And the oth­er two — pedes­tri­an — were added already in the 20th cen­tu­ry.

franciscan church

The Church of the Annun­ci­a­tion is locat­ed next to the Triple Bridge, on Prešeren Square. It was built in the 17th cen­tu­ry by the Augus­tin­ian monks, and lat­er passed to the Fran­cis­can order. Its design is also attrib­uted to the Baroque style. The walls are paint­ed dark pink and dec­o­rat­ed with white half-columns.

At the end there is a bronze stat­ue of the Vir­gin Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms. From the inside, the walls and ceil­ing of the church are cov­ered with fres­coes, the cor­nices and arched win­dow open­ings are dec­o­rat­ed with gild­ing. But the altar by the Ital­ian sculp­tor Francesco Rob­ba deserves spe­cial atten­tion.

Tivoli Palace and Park

Tivoli Park — the largest in the cap­i­tal of Slove­nia — cov­ers an area of ​​​​500 hectares. This name was giv­en to him by the Napoleon­ic troops in hon­or of the Parisian gar­dens of the same name. The palace itself was found­ed in the 17th cen­tu­ry, and lat­er it became the res­i­dence of the Bish­op of Ljubl­jana. Now Tivoli has been con­vert­ed into a cen­ter for graph­ic arts.

The park is notable for a large num­ber of ponds and foun­tains, pavil­ions, foot­paths and alleys. It hous­es play­grounds, the Sports Palace and a con­cert hall.

Bridge Serpent

This build­ing in the cap­i­tal is pop­u­lar not only because of the sculp­tures dec­o­rat­ing it, but also due to urban leg­ends. The over­pass is locat­ed to the north of Tro­mostovye. Its sec­ond name is the Drag­on Bridge.

Accord­ing to leg­end, once upon a time there lived a drag­on in Ljubl­jana, who was defeat­ed by the hero of ancient myths, Jason, there­by sav­ing the inhab­i­tants of the city from eter­nal fear. In mem­o­ry of this, the bridge is dec­o­rat­ed with stat­ues of green snake-drag­ons with open mouths and raised wings. At night, they look espe­cial­ly real­is­tic.

Church of the Assumption of St. Mary in Bled

This tem­ple is locat­ed on an island in the mid­dle of the famous Lake Bled. 99 steps lead to the tem­ple, and they get to it across the lake on wat­tle boats, rem­i­nis­cent of Venet­ian gon­do­las. Dur­ing the ear­ly Mid­dle Ages, there was a Slav­ic pagan tem­ple ded­i­cat­ed to the god­dess of love.

Built in the 17th cen­tu­ry in its place, the Catholic Church is dec­o­rat­ed in the Baroque style and is com­ple­ment­ed by a tall chapel. Inside the tem­ple there are four altars dec­o­rat­ed with fres­coes and trimmed with black mar­ble. There is a leg­end asso­ci­at­ed with the church: the bell in its chapel sup­pos­ed­ly ful­fills the wish­es of those who ring it.

Termy Dobrna

This is an old ther­mal spa, whose warm springs were known to the Romans. It is locat­ed in the Cel­je val­ley on moun­tain slopes among conif­er­ous forests. Above the springs, indoor and out­door pools of var­i­ous sizes and depths, jacuzzi and sun­bathing ter­races are orga­nized.

Near­by is a park, equipped more than 200 years ago. It is known for its abil­i­ty to accu­mu­late pos­i­tive nat­ur­al ener­gy, because Feng Shui mas­ters took part in its orga­ni­za­tion. While walk­ing along the alleys, you can see rare and unusu­al plants grow­ing every­where, since the park is also con­ceived as a botan­i­cal col­lec­tion.

Museums in Slovenia

National Museum of Slovenia

The muse­um is locat­ed in a two-sto­ry build­ing of the 19th cen­tu­ry, between the build­ings of the Par­lia­ment and the Min­istry of the Inte­ri­or. Its inte­ri­or is dec­o­rat­ed with stat­ues of fairies and mus­es, and fres­coes are paint­ed on the ceil­ings. The muse­um’s col­lec­tions include exhibits found through­out the coun­try and belong­ing to dif­fer­ent eras.

Here you can see house­hold items of the Celts and ancient Romans. Par­tic­u­lar atten­tion is drawn to the pre­his­toric musi­cal instru­ment — the Nean­derthal flute, whose age is esti­mat­ed at 60 thou­sand years. The expo­si­tion also includes col­lec­tions of draw­ings, engrav­ings, and the first books print­ed in Slove­nia. And the numis­mat­ic depart­ment presents a col­lec­tion of var­i­ous coins and ban­knotes.

National Gallery

It occu­pies a vast two-storey build­ing of the 19th cen­tu­ry in the cen­ter of Ljubl­jana. It is divid­ed into two wings con­nect­ed by a glass gallery. Its halls dis­play works of art from the Mid­dle Ages to the mod­ernist peri­od.

The per­ma­nent col­lec­tions are “The Art of Slove­nia” and “Euro­pean Artists”. The lat­ter presents the works of famous Ger­man, Span­ish and Dutch mas­ters. Goth­ic sculp­tures and repro­duc­tions of medieval tem­ple fres­coes are col­lect­ed in sep­a­rate rooms. It also hosts exhi­bi­tions of con­tem­po­rary art — paint­ing and sculp­ture.

Modern Art Museum

The muse­um, locat­ed in Ljubl­jana, is housed in a 19th-cen­tu­ry build­ing that pre­vi­ous­ly served as a bar­racks. He is part of the inter­na­tion­al net­work L’In­ter­na­tionale, which pro­motes con­tem­po­rary art.

Its expo­si­tions include works by Andy Warhol, Kaz­imir Male­vich, M. Abramovich, Baldessari, V. Kupriyanov and A. Monastyrsky. There are also exhi­bi­tions of works of art by mas­ters of East­ern Europe of the 20th cen­tu­ry. The col­lec­tion is con­stant­ly updat­ed with new works.

Slovenian Ethnographic Museum

This cul­tur­al insti­tu­tion is locat­ed in the his­tor­i­cal cen­ter of Ljubl­jana. There are tens of thou­sands of exhibits show­ing the life of the peo­ples who inhab­it­ed Slove­nia, as well as arti­facts asso­ci­at­ed with African, Asian and South Amer­i­can peo­ples.

The halls dis­play items of ancient cloth­ing, tools and tools for prac­tic­ing var­i­ous crafts: pot­tery, emboss­ing, bas­ket weav­ing. The archive of the muse­um con­tains many doc­u­ments, maps, pho­tographs and old books. There are also exhi­bi­tions relat­ed to the his­to­ry of music, reli­gion and folk cus­toms.

Castles of Slovenia

Ptuj

The fortress is locat­ed in the city of Ptuj on the banks of the Dra­va Riv­er. One of its tow­ers has been pre­served since the first for­ti­fi­ca­tions were built on this site in the 9th cen­tu­ry. The cas­tle con­sists of sev­er­al baroque build­ings con­nect­ed by gal­leries. Now it has been turned into a muse­um with fas­ci­nat­ing exhibits.

The first floor is ded­i­cat­ed to the his­to­ry of music and musi­cal instru­ments, on which ancient works are per­formed dur­ing excur­sions.

The theme of the sec­ond floor is inte­ri­or items. It is filled with lux­u­ri­ous fur­ni­ture, tapes­tries and car­pets, house­hold items of aris­to­crats. The cas­tle gallery has been turned into an exhi­bi­tion of Goth­ic and Baroque paint­ings. Also here are col­lect­ed nation­al and car­ni­val cos­tumes from dif­fer­ent regions of the coun­try.

bled castle

The citadel ris­es above Lake Bled on an impreg­nable cliff. It was first men­tioned in the chron­i­cles of the begin­ning of the 11th cen­tu­ry. The build­ings that make up the cas­tle rep­re­sent all major archi­tec­tur­al styles: Romanesque, Baroque, Goth­ic and Renais­sance. The com­plex is sur­round­ed by a sol­id wall and a deep moat, and you can get here through a sus­pen­sion bridge.

In the court­yard of the cas­tle there is a chapel and sev­er­al res­i­den­tial and util­i­ty rooms. Now a muse­um is orga­nized on its ter­ri­to­ry with archae­o­log­i­cal finds, house­hold items of knights and a col­lec­tion of ancient weapons.

Maribor Castle

The ancient cas­tle is locat­ed in the city of Mari­bor and is the only one of the three fortress­es that once exist­ed in the city that has sur­vived to this day. It was built in the 15th cen­tu­ry with the direct par­tic­i­pa­tion of Emper­or Fred­er­ick III. The old­est ele­ments were dec­o­rat­ed in the Goth­ic style, the lat­er ones in the Renais­sance and Baroque styles.

Now the cas­tle is more like a palace — with its white walls, brick-red roof tiles and a tall tow­er.

The inte­ri­or halls are dis­tin­guished by lux­u­ri­ous dec­o­ra­tion: paint­ed ceil­ings, carv­ings and fres­coes on the walls. The Mari­bor Muse­um oper­ates on the ter­ri­to­ry, which con­tains an expo­si­tion of clothes and uni­forms of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the nobil­i­ty in dif­fer­ent peri­ods of his­to­ry.

ljubljana castle

The most famous archi­tec­tur­al struc­ture of the cap­i­tal is locat­ed in the old part of the city, on top of a high hill. You can get to it on foot along the hill­side or by funic­u­lar. The fortress was found­ed, accord­ing to some sources, in the 9th cen­tu­ry, accord­ing to oth­ers — in the 12th cen­tu­ry.

At var­i­ous times, the cas­tle served as a defen­sive struc­ture, a bar­racks, a prison and the res­i­dence of the rich nobil­i­ty. It received its present appear­ance and the fortress wall with tow­ers dur­ing the recon­struc­tion. The old­est build­ing was the Chapel of St. George, on its upper floors there is an obser­va­tion deck with an overview of the whole of Ljubl­jana.

Celje Castle

The fortress in the city of Cel­je has become a sym­bol of the city and the coun­ty of the same name. It is locat­ed on the Gra­js­ka moun­tain, and its con­struc­tion took place at the begin­ning of the 13th cen­tu­ry. In the east­ern part of the cas­tle, Fred­er­ic’s tow­er with a square base stands out, built accord­ing to ancient tech­nolo­gies for the con­struc­tion of defen­sive struc­tures. The thick­ness of its walls is more than 2 m.

In the west­ern part of the cas­tle there are out­build­ings and a foun­tain. Views of the Savinya Riv­er and the city panora­ma open from the ter­ri­to­ry of the fortress. His­tor­i­cal recon­struc­tions and per­for­mances are some­times held here.

In a local restau­rant, you can try nation­al Sloven­ian dish­es and drinks pre­pared accord­ing to old recipes. Also, a knight­ing cer­e­mo­ny is held here for every­one, how­ev­er, for a fee.

natural attractions

lake bled

This reser­voir is locat­ed in the Julian Alps. It has the sta­tus of the “pearl of Slove­nia” and is sur­round­ed by the Triglav Nature Reserve. What makes the lake unique is the emer­ald shade of the water, which is espe­cial­ly clean. It flows here from the Bohinj glac­i­er and is dilut­ed with springs. A sta­ble sub­alpine cli­mate is pre­served around the reser­voir.

Lake Bled is a pop­u­lar spa resort. Ski slopes are laid on the slopes of the near­by moun­tains, there are also plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties for out­door enthu­si­asts. Here you can choose from sev­er­al sports: div­ing, ten­nis, sky­div­ing, horse­back rid­ing, ski­ing and snow­board­ing.

Postojna Cave

The attrac­tion is a labyrinth of karst caves, in which tun­nels, halls, ascents and descents have formed. Pos­to­j­na Pit is locat­ed on the Kras plateau near the town of Pos­to­j­na. The length of the under­ground labyrinth is about 20 km, and the air tem­per­a­ture, which is main­tained here, bare­ly reach­es +10 ºC.

Elec­tric light­ing was pro­vid­ed in the cave, and a rail­way track was laid on a stone foun­da­tion, along which an elec­tric loco­mo­tive car­ries excur­sion groups. The labyrinth and its halls are char­ac­ter­ized by excel­lent acoustics, so musi­cal events are peri­od­i­cal­ly held here.

Skocjan Caves

This labyrinth is locat­ed in the Karst mas­sif on the bor­der with Italy — near the vil­lage of Škoc­jan. It is carved by a riv­er going under­ground and opens with two recess­es sep­a­rat­ed by a nar­row stone pas­sage.

The most inter­est­ing objects along the path of the tourist under­ground route are the Tikha Jama grot­to with a large num­ber of sta­lac­tites and sta­lag­mites, as well as the 145 m high Mar­tel Hall. The caves are illu­mi­nat­ed with mul­ti-col­ored lights and foot­bridges are laid.