Predjama Castle dominates the landscape in the idyllic village of Predjama, just nine kilometers from the famous Postojna Cave.
The imposing and impregnable castle, nestled in a 123-meter-high vertical wall, has been standing there with its romantic appearance for over 800 years. The picturesque setting is completed by the Lokva stream, which flows underground beneath the castle.
Predjamski Grad History
The first mention that testifies the existence of the Predjama Castle dates back to 1202 and in the course of its history it has seen several owners change, such as the patriarchs of Aquilea, the Habsburg family and the knight Erasmus Lueger. Erasmo, a local squire, during the war between the Emperor of Austria Frederick III and the King of Hungary, decided to side with the latter, attracting the wrath of the Austrian sovereign. Frederick III, in fact, decided to behead a friend of Erasmus and, in response, Erasmus himself killed a relative of the emperor. The knight then took refuge in his impregnable manor to escape the death sentence hanging over his head. Erasmus, now an outlaw, continued his looting and stealing from the merchants' caravans, irritating the emperor even more. It was so that Frederick III entrusted the capture of Erasmus to the Triestine lieutenant Gaspare Ravbar. Legend has it that, because of the betrayal of one of his servants, Erasmo had the worst in 1484 on the Austrian troops, engaged in a siege lasted over a year.
The interiors of the castle are very simple compared to the external structure. The rooms are arranged on several levels and furnished according to the taste and style of the time and in some parts you can see clearly the intervention of man on the rock.
In the Castle you can visit a collection of original objects, including weapons and armor of the time: swords, crossbows, spears and bows as well as the first firearms, which radically changed the concept of war in the Middle Ages. The best equipped room is the Knight's Room located in the dining room, where you can discover court life in the late Gothic period, while in the Renaissance room on the third floor there is an exhibition of hunting trophies of the last owner of the Castle, Prince Windisch - Graetz.
Under the Castle the karst world forged even four floors of the Cave under the Castle, the second longest cave in Slovenia. In the Middle Ages the entrance was used as a stable for horses, but its caverns and tunnels were inhabited even earlier as evidenced by the presence of an archaeological site dating back to the Stone Age. The tourist route is 700 meters long and has 250 steps with areas where you can stop. It allows the visit of the Stable, the Name Gallery, the Main Gallery, the Great Hall and the Fiženca where the access to the surface is located.