These are the steps down to St. George’s Chapel located at Ljubljana Castle. The chapel was constructed in the fifteenth century, although there was a large earthquake in the area in 1511 which might have required some rebuilding. We thought at first that it was shut as Bev man-handled the door to get us in, but it just transpired that we needed to use the internal entrance.
It’s a beautiful and peaceful space, that would have once been the spiritual heart of the castle.
The colourful ceiling and the crisp stencilling and decoration on the walls. Some of this was a Baroque modernisation from the eighteenth century, as they wanted to make the interior feel that bit more on-trend.
There are Austro-Hungarian coats of arms, but there are also some from the Carniola Duchy. This Duchy had been important and powerful, but the 1815 Congress of Vienna fiddled around with the wider political landscape. This is also the gallery where the wealthier folk would have watched mass from a dignified distance, the two storey nature of the whole arrangement was quite handy for separation of the rich and the poor.
There’s St. George and the dragon theme is important to Ljubljana as it’s their city emblem.
This was one of my favourite rooms in the castle complex, it was colourful, vibrant and peaceful. It was restored during the works that took place a few years ago as part of the restoration of the entire castle complex.