Ljubljana Castle
I bought some new shoes yesterday, good walking shoes. No-one seemed to sell socks though, but not to be thwarted I decided to wear them IMMEDIATELY and then my next decision was to walk up (not take the funicular) to the castle. Up a very steep path and at quite a distance. Now i have a blister on my toe...
It was pretty difficult getting good photos of the castle because it is so huge. So I've cheated and added a sketch from the guide book.
I changed back out of my new shoes as soon as i got into the castle (always have your jandels at the ready), paid the hefty entrance fee and wandered. Aimlessly. Because i couldn't align the map with the audio thingy, with the signs, with the flow of the people. *sigh*.
(half way up the stairs, but a way to go to get to the top..)
But in a nutshell - it was the property of the Hapsburgs in the 1300s, was in French hands for four years when Napoleon came to visit (read 'conquer') went on to become army barracks, then a prison (for 'Turks, Protestants and Peasants'), fell to ruin in the 1800s and then in the 1950s housed the 'poor homeless' in the area, the last of whom moved out of the salubrious real estate in the 1960s when it was renovated as a cultural centre. (check out the artwork depicting the plague - 'the dance with death'. And I should mention that incarceration was replacing public shaming (community sport) and was designed to rehabilitate. Ha!
One political prisoner was Erasmus someone, but he escaped - we'll hear more of him tomorrow, but suffice it to say, he came to a shitty end.
The castle has its own chapel (St George) named after the dragon slayer, but symbolising the slaying of the superstitious medieval beliefs by the introduction of Christianity. Apparently. (check out the frescoes - i love a good fresco).
I tumbled back down the castle hill and rewarded myself with Krempeta! And so the pendulum swings - exercise, calories...
It was pretty difficult getting good photos of the castle because it is so huge. So I've cheated and added a sketch from the guide book.
I changed back out of my new shoes as soon as i got into the castle (always have your jandels at the ready), paid the hefty entrance fee and wandered. Aimlessly. Because i couldn't align the map with the audio thingy, with the signs, with the flow of the people. *sigh*.
But in a nutshell - it was the property of the Hapsburgs in the 1300s, was in French hands for four years when Napoleon came to visit (read 'conquer') went on to become army barracks, then a prison (for 'Turks, Protestants and Peasants'), fell to ruin in the 1800s and then in the 1950s housed the 'poor homeless' in the area, the last of whom moved out of the salubrious real estate in the 1960s when it was renovated as a cultural centre. (check out the artwork depicting the plague - 'the dance with death'. And I should mention that incarceration was replacing public shaming (community sport) and was designed to rehabilitate. Ha!
One political prisoner was Erasmus someone, but he escaped - we'll hear more of him tomorrow, but suffice it to say, he came to a shitty end.
The castle has its own chapel (St George) named after the dragon slayer, but symbolising the slaying of the superstitious medieval beliefs by the introduction of Christianity. Apparently. (check out the frescoes - i love a good fresco).
I tumbled back down the castle hill and rewarded myself with Krempeta! And so the pendulum swings - exercise, calories...
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