Storming the grad

Grad is castle in Slovenian, so today we visited Ljubljanski Grad. Coincidentally, it happened to be Castle Days marking the anniversary of the castle’s purchase by the city of Ljubljana in 1905.

Ljubljana’s castle is typical of European fortress castles. It’s built high on a hill, encircled partly by a river, with a large perimeter wall. In 2006, the city built a funicular that took us to the castle. There we were able to climb the castles’s tower and view the interactive multimedia museum exhibits on the history of the Slovene people.

The castle museum has recently presented the very precious original gilded statue of a 4th century citizen of the Roman settlement of Emona found in 1836 in what is now Kongresni trg (the statue is currently in the National Museum). A replica of the statue and some other Roman artifacts are displayed in both the square and the museum. Unfortunately, the city of Emona didn’t last much beyond the time of the bronze clad memorialized citizen. Founded in the year 14 C.E., it was sacked by the Huns in 452. Later this summer, Ljubljana will mark 2,000 years of habitation with a summer-long celebration.

Many of us packed a picnic lunch that we were able to enjoy in either the castle courtyard or the park grounds outside the castle walls.

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