Memories and Musings: my Recent Trip to Europe V: Slovenia, focusing on Its Capital

Slovenia! A new country for me. In my recent adventure, it became apparent looking at the map of Europe that I could easily slip Slovenia into my itinerary for a few days. I did so and am so very glad to have finally penetrated this small, lovely country. Already I want to go back.

Slovenia made sense in terms of my themes for the journey - mountains & lakes, and borders & frontiers. As for the first pair, Slovenia's are outstanding, as pretty as you'll see anywhere in Europe; as for the second two...well, let's just say that borders and frontiers in and around Slovenia have shifted many times in history.

The train ride to Slovenia from Austria (Innsbruck in my case)
is filled with beautiful views

Heading towards it from Austria, Slovenia is the entrance to the Balkans. It would take too much time and energy to hash over the ridiculously complicated Balkans in detail, though if you're interested there are several fine books on the subject. For the purposes of this post, just a reminder that most of what constitutes the Balkans today was inhabited in ancient times by a people known as the Illyrians ("And what shall I do in Illyria?" name that play!), then for a very long time it was part of the Hapsburg/Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for a shorter but intense period in the second half of the 20th century, part of Yugo (or "south")-slavia. These old, old lands are among the youngest countries at the edge of Europe, and almost as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed, war broke out in the Balkans. It continued through much of the 1990s. Sad to say religion was part of that nightmare - Roman Catholic Croatia, Greek Orthodox Serbia and Muslim "Bosniacs" were the major players, and what a bloody muddle!

Slovenia (a mostly Roman Catholic country) is the closest of the Balkans to the rest of Europe, and managed to engage in less fighting and stay more sane than its bellicose neighbors. In fact for a time after the fall of the Soviet Union, Slovenia was considered the great success story of the Balkans, first to join the EU, economy stable if not thriving, mix of minorities (among them Serbs, Muslims and Croats) living together relatively peacefully.

An admirable start. But alas, after the promise of its early years, its progress has fallen off, the government is weak, the economy has fallen off, unemployment grown, infrastructure lags well behind its closest EU neighbors, Italy and Austria. One of my two excellent Slovenian tour guides sighed when I naively asked how things were going in her country, and seemed very frustrated but not at all shy to tell me about how the initial excitement had turned into malaise. Previous shifting frontiers, newly created and very artificial borders (my other guide scoffed at the word borders: "lines on a map, no more..."), while not alone responsible for the downturn, certainly have played a role in the change.

Aside: I have family, not-so-distant cousins, in nearby Croatia. Let me amend that. They think of themselves as Croatians, but the village where the clan Hrkach is centered happens to be just across the border from today's Croatia, in Herzegovina. I have never met them, may try to do so in the near future (it has to be sooner rather than later as the title of my blog makes clear: "la vita e troppo breve per Dottore Gianni"). But I am in touch with a few of them via Facebook. They live in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but to offer a trivial example of where their loyalties lie, they cheer for the Croatian footballers, not the Bosnian team. They are displaced Croats. Just over the hills is where they really belong. Or might the BORDER belong just the other side their village? My Croatian family inhabits a frustrating, somewhat uncomfortable "frontier".

From Socerb Castle in Slovenia it is clear just how close the country is to Italy
- to the left is Slovenia, to the right Trieste, Italy, and barely visible
in the background is the Italian coast, Venice and surroundings

Another  tie-in to my reasons for the visit; Slovenia, at least the part of it closest to Italy and Austria, was also caught up in the bloody battles in World War I that I have described briefly in previous posts about my recent journey. The years of the "Great War" were the last for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of course, and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms references some of what is now Slovenia. The mountainous regions particularly in the northwest of that not yet founded land saw fierce fighting. 

"Happy talk, keep talking happy talk..."

If those notes seem a disillusioned, dreary beginning to my descriptions of the visit, they are. Except for chats with my tour guides, however, gloom is not very apparent, at it wasn't in my four days at the capital, Ljubljana. Those days were bright (even if the weather was not) and joyful for me, and seemed so also for many of the Slovenians I came across.

Old Town Ljubljiana, along the River Ljubljanica

In fact the old town in Ljubljana is a wonderful place. Much of it hugs the tiny River Ljubljanica flowing through the city. Recently the city's main square,  along with several bridges that cross it and the area across the river leading towards the castle are pleasantly pedestrianized. Eateries abound, shops are plentiful, the helpful Tourist Information Center is there. Every time I strolled through it the pedestrian zone and its denizens struck me as dynamic and energized.

Capturing the spirit of Venice along the river in Ljubljana

Much of the credit for the beauty of the old town goes to Joze Plecnik, who designed a good bit of it. If it feels slightly like Venice, that's what's intended. After all, the area was once part of the then mighty Venetian Republic, and Plecnik wanted to echo that Venice, even if there is only one "canal" in Ljubljana, that being the river itself.  Its hub, Preseren Square, is located at the river's edge. 

Franciscan Church of St Mary, and in front of it the Preseren statue, on the square
named for him

The square is dominated by a large, reddish Roman Catholic church, the Franciscan Church of St Mary, features some of the most interesting buildings in the city, and is home to a statue of its namesake, France Preseren, Slovenia's greatest poet and also a major force for Slovenian pride in the late 19th century. Among many other poems, Preseren penned the lyrics for the country's national anthem. 

The Preseren statue and above the poet,
his muse - naked, tsk tsk

Two stories about the statue, if I may (and who's stop me?) which depicts the poet at work, his muse hovering above him. As many sculpted women are, she is nude. This angered many of the citizens when it was erected, and the bishop was downright outraged. A naked woman sharing the same square on which sits a beautiful church! People don't DO such things! Several furtive attempts were made to cover up the nude, and the poor model who was hired to sit for the muse was disgraced. She left Slovenia for South America and never returned. This tale and the next one I owe to Rick Steves in his book on Croatia and Slovenia.

Preseren is depicted gazing into the distance. If one follows his eye-line carefully one will find that his gaze rests on a bas-relief sculpture of a woman on the second floor of a yellow house. 

Julija, the woman who broke
Pressrun's heart

The love of his life, Julija, broke his heart, as she was uninterested in the poet. Still the city fathers (and mothers?) romanticized and gave a happy ending to this not very Romeo-and-Juliet tale of woe.

The Triple Bridge, leading from Preseren Square across the river

I'm standing on the central section of the Triple Bridge here,
looking up towards the castle

Very close by the statue is one of the best-known bridges in Ljubljana. Called the Triple Bridge, it was single unit until Plecnik realized that creating two bridges, one on either side of the existing bridge, could improve traffic flow in the busy city. Cars have been banned from the area for several years now, but even though only pedestrians are allowed on it, the bridge gets quite cluttered with human bodies. It is a fine bridge (or set of them) but the beauty of it is only visible from above the square.

The Hauptmann House on Preseren Square. Also if you look at the yellow
building on the left you will see where the city fathers placed the bas relief
of Pressruns' love - one floor up, reddish, between the 4th and 5th windows.

another look at the Hauptmann House

Perhaps the other most interesting building on the square is the Hauptmann House, an Art Nouveau beauty, but the square as a whole is a harmonic piece of city planning. 

The Cobblers' Bridge, with an attractive young woman snapping a picture -
I hope she was trying to get me into hers, as I was certainly
trying to get hers into mine

Walking along the river, other sights include the Cobblers' Bridge. A classical colonnade makes it easy to find and identify. On a walking tour the guide told us that the columns were meant to have a purpose, in holding up a roof so that the cobblers could work in rain as well as shine. That part was never finished, but it's just as well as none of the shoemakers are there any more, only tourists, and many of them!

Another look at the Cobblers' Bridge

Beyond the Cobblers' bridge sits the Butchers' Bridge, a wonderfully wide, very modern bridge with a shiny floor that turns to glass at the edges next to the river. Our tour guide warned the women in the group not to stand near either side of the bridge next to the guard rail if they were wearing short skirts, as there is a walkway under the bridge. Apparently men in the know hang out and look up in hope of seeing...something or other revealed! 

The Butchers' Bridge - note the fellow stating on the glassed area - he's got
nothing to worry about, but a woman wearing a short skirt?

Looking across the river one sees why the bridge is named for butchers - the meat market. No butchers' knives today no blood (at least I hope not) but once upon a time it was theirs. The bridge might as well be named the "love-locks" bridge, as locks abound on either side of the bridge. In case you don't know the history of this and other bridges (Paris the prime example), two people in love, buy a lock, place it on the railing and after locking it throw the key into the river. 

Love-lock hell

Each lock signifies love that will last a lifetime, but I'm betting that many of those who have made that eternal pledge come to regret that they placed the lock there, and that they wasted the money on it. At least the locks are somewhat anonymous - better that I suppose than a prominent tattoo with the name of a love who left you behind. Or am I just a bitter old bachelor?

One of the peculiar sculptures on the Butchers' Bridge

More interesting than the ill-advised love-locks are the sculptures, modern, flamboyant and slightly frightening affairs all done by a local artist who according to our guide hangs out there much of every day, eager to explain the brilliance of his works to passers-by. Our guide pointed him out to our group, at which point we huddled together - safety (from the ravings of an over-proud artist) in numbers!

Another statue on Butchers' Bridge

A busy restaurant area in the Old Town - the river is just off camera to the right.
Ljubljana's  joint are  jumping!

Across the river there are several other places of interest, as well as many more restaurants and the like. Town Hall offers a beautiful courtyard, which the city is happy to have tourists visit - 

The fine Town Hall of Ljubljana - note the white
banners on either side, proclaiming GREEN - see below

the courtyard, not the offices.  

Mural in the Town Hall courtyard depicting the Roman era

There are murals of different phases of Ljubljana's history, a wonderful map of the city in I think the 17th or possibly 18th century, 

Old map of the city in the courtyard of Town Hall

even a window with a drawing of a woman, barely visible there (our guide needed to point it out carefully), looking out. Not Preseren's belle dame sans merci again?

Woman barely visible behind the grid in the Town Hall courtyard

The Town Hall is proud and right to be, as it was named the Green European Capital City for 2016.

Wall of greenery celebrating Ljubljana as 2016 Green Capital of Europe

Banners announce it, and to the left of the building as you exit is a wall of many different kinds of greenery. Stroll in that direction for more cafes along the river...in fact stroll in either direction and you'll find them as well. 

Outside in front of Town Hall Robba's statue of three rivers

Also just outside the Town Hall is a fountain/statue depicting the three major rivers of Slovenia. Clearly a bow to Bernini's Four Rivers statue in the Piazza Navona in Rome, it's nicely done sculpted by an Italian Francesco Robba who, during the Baroque Era came to work on a commission in the city and decided to remain, giving the Ljubljana many such works, including a charming smaller piece in the Town Hall Courtyard and much religious statuary.

Smaller Robba statue in the Town Hall Courtyard

I mentioned the meat market above, but that is only one small part of a large, daily market featuring fruits and vegetables, cheeses, and other edibles. The vendors are very friendly. I bought many taste treats there.

One of the namesakes of the Dragon Bridge

And another

At the far end of the market one more well-known bridge, The Dragon Bridge, worth a look, but as it sits at the very edge of the pedestrian area be careful as there is car traffic on it, a lot of it. The dragons are bold and wonderful, however. Why dragons? 

Less intimidating dragons on the wall next to the river

Ljubljana is nicknamed the City of Dragons, with three legends competing as the basis. The first suggests that Jason and the Argonauts, after stealing the golden fleece, got lost, ended up on the Danube and somehow managed to find the Ljubljanica River, where a fierce dragon awaited them and Jason slew the it. 

At least one Slovenian craft brewery features a dragon!

More than one dragon, in fact!

If that legend seems somewhat tortured into existence, you might prefer the legend of St George and the dragon, which so many places all over Europe claim that you may as well believe it. The third might relate to the first two. In Slavic myth the dragon represent the god Veles, who opposed the supreme thunder god Perun. Could this Veles have been the dragon that either Jason or St George slew? YOU be the judge heh heh.

Nice if underwhelming castle courtyard

Something to look up to on the same side of the river lies only a few blocks from it. In fact you can't really get past it, as it sits atop a steep hill: the city's castle. Apparently one can walk (hike) up to it, but just beyond the market there is a convenient funicular which offers views of the city on the ways up and down. I must confess that the castle, while it has some shops and a few small museums, is only worth the trouble for the view, but it's an easy ride up and back, so why not have a look?

view of the city from the castle ramparts  - might be nicer on a clear day

I've only touched the surface of what is to be explored in Ljubljana, but honestly I only touched the surface of the city in my visit. I could and maybe should have spent another day or two there, but one of the reasons I chose Ljubljana as a base is that an excellent tour company, Slovenia Explorers, offers several day trips from the city. I arrived late afternoon on day one, days two and three were spent on full day tours, so the fourth was the only full day I had to discover Ljubljana (I describe these in the next post - something to look forward to!). 

A glimpse of the cathedral (and above it the castle) from river's edge

I love spending time in churches - St Mary's would have been fun, and the cathedral is only a few blocks away. And I love looking through museums - at least two or three in the city seemed appealing. But I did none of that this time around. Maybe next time?