Although the entrance fee was rather expensive, it was ultimately worth it and included a very interesting audio-guide. A posh-spoken Slovenian woman sounded in our ears, describing each room in detail, often with interesting (though to be taken with a grain of salt) stories.
Here you can see the view from one of the highest points in the Castle, used so that enemies could be spotted from far away, and the bell rung to alert the occupants of such an occurrence. Nowadays it's meant to bring visitors good luck.
Here you can see the view from one of the highest points in the Castle, used so that enemies could be spotted from far away, and the bell rung to alert the occupants of such an occurrence. Nowadays it's meant to bring visitors good luck.
The lavatory held another amusing story, along with the details that during this time people were using rather uncomfortable-sounding substitutes for toilet paper such as cabbage leaves, or worse, hay. The reason for the importance of said lavatory however, was a somewhat longer story. One of the most famous of the castles owners, a knight named Erazem Lueger. renowned in the 15th century as a robber baron (although romantically compared to Robin Hood in the audioguide) managed to raise the ire of the Holy Roman Emperor (never a good plan) resulting in a siege at this castle for a year and a day. However due to a secret passage that the enemy soldiers knew nothing about, they were able to keep well-stocked, even taunting the army by throwing fresh cherries at them (this was of course chalked up to Erazem having made a deal with the devil).
Things came to head however when a servant betrayed Erazem (for a price of course) and told the attackers that the one weak point of the castle was the lavatory, little more than an outlying tower of the castle. Those sneaky attackers waited until the servant lit a candle in a window, letting them know Erazem was currently occupying said toilet, and fired cannonballs at him, successfully killing him, ending the siege, and giving him an even worse death than Robin Hood!
Peering down the murder-holes (this unsuspecting tourist would be a goner if the black cauldron sitting in the room had indeed been filled with boiling oil!) was a dizzying process, and trying to take a photo even more so. The heights from which the castle stood made me realize how impossible it would have been to break a siege here by any means other than underhand. Another cool factoid I learned here was that in 1986 a Jackie Chan movie was filmed here! Somewhat unsurprisingly after seeing the castle, I also learned that it was the closest he ever came to dying from one of his stunts, after leaping into a tree from a castle ledge and the branch broke, sending him plunging down and resulting in a cracked skull. Thank goodness he was alright and went on to make more epic movies!
After exploring the twisting rooms and alleyways of the castle itself (including the gruesome dungeons of course) we finally traveled up into the cave itself, where the original construction began. Destroying this part of the castle would have been near-impossible from below, making an excellent defensive position. There was almost no information on this area of the cave except that there had once been rooms built here and fire-pits, though what the rooms were used for or when they were occupied they didn't seem to know, only that it was far older than the rest of the castle, and continuously inhabited over time. I had to wonder if it dated back to prehistoric times and perhaps the Neanderthals. Clearly they need to do some more excavations and research to come up with more answers on this part of the complex!
Feeling like the King of the Castle! Overall, a very worthwhile visit.
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