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In a hole: There is no more strategic location for a castle than at the mouth of a cave.
Predjama Castle in Slovenia is a spectacular fortress embedded in a limestone landscape.
Check out the gallery to learn more.
(Credit: JURE MAKOVEC/AFP via Getty Images)
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The modern entrance to the castle is by a drawbridge.
The original path was via a stairway to the doors on the top two floors.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
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An Undignified End: Erasmus von Luegg, a robber baron who was besieged in the castle in the 1480s, met his end when someone fired a cannonball into the latrine while he was inside.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
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The warmest room: Since the castle was built for strategic purposes and with little regard for comfort, most of it is cold and damp, but the master bedroom offers respite.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
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The Armory: The castle barracks have been converted into an armory museum displaying medieval weapons such as tomahawks, halberds and crossbows.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
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Cave Network – The castle is built on a network of caves that can be explored with a guide.
During Erasmus's siege, he used the tunnels to smuggle in supplies.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
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Horse Cave: The castle builders made practical use of every cavern and alcove.
Below there is even a stable for horses built into the rock.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
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Erasmus's resting place: Legend has it that a lime tree was planted to mark Erasmus's grave in a nearby town.
The tree was badly damaged by fire in 2001, but it meant so much to the villagers that its trunk was split and repaired.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
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Record Breaker: The structure is listed by Guinness World Records as the largest cave castle in the world.
The current façade dates from the 1580s, but records say that a castle has stood here on the site since the 13th century.
(Credit: JURE MAKOVEC/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN) --
Predjama is one of the most spectacular castles in the world, built into the mouth of a complex of caves at the end of a valley in southwestern Slovenia.
Situated halfway up a 400-foot vertical cliff, it has been on record since 1202 and is listed by Guinness World Records as the largest cave castle in the world.
With a Renaissance façade dating back to the 1580s, the word "stately" falls short of describing it.
However, for tour guide and historian Vojko Jurca, one of the highlights is, at first glance, a bit disappointing.
"This is it," he says proudly, indicating an outhouse with a sloping roof and boarded-up door.
It may seem inconspicuous, but the story behind it is not.
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The story centers on robber baron Erasmus von Lueg, a “Robin Hood”-esque local hero who fled to the castle in the mid-1480s after killing Count Pappenheim, marshal of the Habsburg imperial court, in a duel. whose legitimacy was disputed.
In retaliation, the German Emperor Frederick III ordered the siege of Predjama.
But Erasmus stood his ground, aided by a network of secret tunnels carved into the rocks that allowed him to bring supplies and collect rainwater.
He outsmarted his opponents by sending them fresh cherries brought from the Vipava valley, 20 kilometers to the west, using those underground passages.
The end would come, after a year and a day, when Erasmus was betrayed by a servant.
According to Jurca, when Erasmus went to the latrine located on a terrace on the third floor, the servant lit a wooden torch as a signal.
Moments later, a cannonball whistled through the air, killing Erasmo in the midst of his latest evacuation.
The latrine was clearly rebuilt in the intervening years.
From Slovenia to Westeros
Finishing Moves: Erasmus was killed when a cannonball hit the castle latrine.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
The manner of Erasmus's death hasn't escaped the attention of "Game of Thrones" fans, who point to the similar and undignified end of Lord Tywin Lannister, who was shot with a crossbow while on his bath throne.
They also point out that the last owners of Predjama, the Windisch-Grätz family, who used the castle as a hunting lodge until the end of World War II, have a wolf on their coat of arms, the seal of the noble house of the Starks.
Coincidentally, the writer George RR Martin visited the castle one afternoon in June 2011, after a book signing in Trieste.
"On the way home, we stopped at the most amazing castle, built at the mouth of a huge cave. Definitely a Westerosian castle to model after this one, it was a sight to behold, especially at night," he says. in a blog post.
Legend and history are only part of Predjama Castle's appeal.
You have to visit it to understand how human initiative was so organically linked to nature.
Approaching the castle from any direction, it is almost completely hidden, only visible at the last moment, while the sentinels surrounding it would have been able to spot anyone approaching immediately.
Once inside, it is clear that safety, rather than comfort, was the main concern in the Middle Ages: the castle is impenetrable, but the cold and damp make it almost uninhabitable.
Today, the entrance to the castle involves going over a drawbridge.
The original entrance was higher up, where two dim doors can be glimpsed.
They were accessed by stairs that receded rapidly.
In the old days, visitors first entered the courtroom, where harsh justice was meted out.
Few of the ruler's subjects were allowed to go further, unless they were unlucky.
Behind a thick wooden door is a torture room which, unusually, is located in a real dungeon.
The preferred punishments here were the rack, on which the prisoners were stretched, and the horse, a painfully pointed triangular device on which they were made to ride.
Next, one of the most pleasant spaces.
The dining room is isolated by walls almost five feet thick, and heated by the small but functional kitchen, in which a crack functions as a natural extractor hood.
You can also inspect an original latrine, a seat that juts out over the cliff and allows gravity to do the dirty work.
Erasmus would have used straw, dry moss, and cabbage leaves instead of toilet paper, or at least before he was blown to pieces.
"Murder Holes"
The castle barracks is now a weapons museum.
(Credit: John Malathronas)
If you climb more stairs to the third floor, you will discover the handles of the cannons, the loopholes and the murder holes or machicolations that were used to pour boiling oil or molten resin on the besiegers.
There is the open terrace.
From this point there is a view of the entire valley, as well as the most famous latrine in Slovenian history.
Next door is the bedroom.
It is the warmest room, since it is the only one with a fireplace.
The castle keepers lived here until the 1980s.
Upstairs there is an attic that served as a barracks and a lookout point.
The views of the Lokva valley are uninterrupted and beautiful.
The barracks has been converted into a weapons museum displaying medieval weapons such as axes, halberds, crossbows and flails.
Interestingly, a corridor in this place leads directly to the torture room.
Presumably anyone sleeping during the service could be casually dragged into it.
From here you can also enter the bowels of the cave, exploring until the light from the entrance is reduced to a point, allowing you to contemplate the surroundings.
The extensive system of limestone caves in southern Slovenia is called karst, from the Latin name Carsus for the plateau above Trieste.
Being the best known calcareous terrain for centuries, the word has become generic, describing any calcareous terrain with cavities like a Swiss cheese with holes.
Beneath the castle, a large cave stretches for 14 kilometers, the second longest after the nearby Postojna complex.
There is no tourist infrastructure in this large cavern, but it is possible to visit it during the summer months with the proper caving equipment, lamps and a specialized guide.
It is closed in winter because a colony of Schreiber's long-toed bats use it to mate and hibernate.
Vipava Valley: Slovenia's Beautiful Hidden Treasure
memorial tree
The castle's Renaissance façade dates from the 1580s.
(Credit: Jure Makovec/AFP via Getty Images)
Back at the castle, a one-way system leads to the Knights' Hall, notable for its Gothic niches and ox-blood painted ceiling.
Here and there you can see how the structure's builders made efficient use of its rocky situation.
A small well near the exit became a kennel for hunting dogs, while the mouth of a cave under the castle served as a stable.
Leaving the castle, guide Vojko has one more stop on his tour: a nearby village where a diseased lime tree is propped up in the cemetery of Our Lady of Sorrows.
The church was consecrated around 1450 by the Bishop of Trieste, the future Pope Pius II.
"Legend says that this linden tree was planted on the grave of Erasmus," says Vojko.
The tree was badly damaged by fire in 2001, but it meant so much to the villagers that tree surgeons were called in and its trunk was split and repaired.
It still proudly survives, like Predjama Castle itself.
To learn more, visit: postojnska-jama.eu/en/predjama-castle
John Malathronas is a travel writer and photographer.
Follow him on @malathronas
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