Cave beneath Predjama Castle

Predjama Castle is built into the mouth of a huge cave in a limestone cliff about a hundred metres high, and behind and beneath the castle lies a cave system that is a major attraction of its own. The system is one of the longest in Slovenia, running for many kilometres through the karst under the Postojna region, and it is a very different experience from the more famous show cave at Postojna, about nine kilometres away. Here the tour is closely tied to the story of the castle above.

That story centres on Erasmus of Lueg, a 15th-century knight and robber baron who took up residence in the fortress. According to legend, Erasmus fell out with the Habsburg emperor and backed the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. When imperial forces besieged the castle, he is said to have resisted for a long time, drawing supplies through a secret path in the cave and even tossing fresh cherries down to the besiegers to prove that he was not short of food. The tale ends badly: he was betrayed by a servant who signalled to the attackers, and he was killed by a cannonball. How much of this is fact and how much embroidery is hard to say, but it gives the cave tour a human angle. The castle as it appears today dates mostly from a later rebuilding in the sixteenth century.

Inside, a guided route leads through passages and chambers shaped by water over a very long time. Stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone formations appear along the way, and the temperature stays cool and constant whatever the weather outside, so bring a warm layer even in midsummer. The cave is also a roosting site for bats, which spend part of the year here, and visitors are asked to stay on the marked routes and keep noise down. Longer adventure tours with helmets and headlamps venture into less developed sections for visitors who want a more physical experience, and the details of what is offered and when change with the season.

Many people combine the cave with a visit to the castle itself, which has furnished rooms and an exhibition about Erasmus, and with Postojna Cave, Pivka Cave and the Proteus Vivarium, all nearby. Because the cave is underground it is a good choice for a rainy day, and it suits families with older children, history lovers and anyone curious about karst landscapes.