THE LOWDOWN
Predjama Castle looks like somebody decided a normal hilltop fortress just wasn’t dramatic enough and shoved one straight into a cave. Sitting halfway up a 123-metre limestone cliff in southwestern Slovenia, it has been a fortified site for more than 800 years and is recognised by Guinness as the world’s largest cave castle. The castle was first recorded in 1274, although the handsome Renaissance version you see today was largely built around 1570.
ROUND THE CASTLE
The clever bit is what’s behind it. Predjama isn’t simply leaning against the cliff — rooms, stairways and defensive positions connect directly into the natural cave system running through the rock. Those caves provided hiding places and secret routes to the outside, making the place incredibly difficult to starve into submission during a siege. Inside you’ll find the armoury, chapel, living quarters and dungeon, but the raw cave walls appearing between the man-made rooms are what really make the place feel unlike a normal castle.
THE LITTLE TITBIT
Predjama’s celebrity resident was Erazem of Predjama, a rebellious 15th-century knight who ended up fighting the Habsburgs. During a long siege, legend says Erazem used the secret cave passages to sneak in supplies — and supposedly threw fresh cherries at the soldiers outside just to show them how badly their attempt to starve him was going. Eventually one of his servants betrayed him and signalled the enemy while Erazem was sitting on the toilet, allowing them to fire a cannon at the vulnerable privy and kill him. The exact details are legend rather than solid history, but frankly, being remembered 500 years later for trolling an army with cherries before being assassinated on the loo is quite a legacy.
