Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ljubljana Highlights
Enjoy a ride on the funicular to Ljubljana Castle (
Click here
)
for an over-
view of the city's past and present
Spend an evening at an outside table at Maček (
Click here
)
or any other
riverside cafe
Indulge in fresh fruits, vegetables and some delicious fish at the Ljubljana
open-air market (
Click here
)
Consider the genius of Slovenian architect and designer Jože Plečnik at the
National & University Library (
Click here
)
Stroll through lovely Stari trg (
Click here
)
and marvel that this pretty
place is actually the capital of a European country
Crawl through the waterfront pubs of the Old Town and end up at an al-
ternative club in Metelkova Mesto (
Click here
)
History
Ljubljana began life in the 1st century AD as a smallish Roman city of 5000 inhabitants
called Emona. The city thrived as a strategic crossroad on the routes linking Upper Panno-
nia in the south with the Roman colonies at Noricum and Aquileia to the north and west.
Remnants of the old Roman walls, dwellings and early churches can still be seen
throughout Ljubljana.
Emona was sacked and destroyed by the Huns, Ostrogoths and Langobards (Lombards)
from the mid-5th century; by the end of the next century tribes of early Slavs began to
settle here.
First mentioned in writing as 'Laibach' in 1144, Ljubljana changed hands frequently in
the Middle Ages. The last and most momentous change came in 1335, when the Habs-
burgs became the town's new rulers, a position they would retain almost without interrup-
tion until the end of WWI in 1918.
The town and its hilltop castle were able to repel the Turks in the late 15th century, but
a devastating earthquake in 1511 reduced much of medieval Ljubljana to a pile of rubble.
This led to a period of frantic construction in the 17th and 18th centuries that provided the
city with many of its pale-coloured baroque churches and mansions - and the nickname
'Bela (White) Ljubljana'.
