12 Comments CherryPie on Jan 13th 2016
Photos showing Predjama Castle built in the cave mouth and rock face. The last photo shows how the castle collected its water supply. Beneath the water collector is a well to hold the water.
10 Comments CherryPie on Jan 12th 2016
Predjama Castle is a Renaissance castle built within a cave mouth in south-central Slovenia, in the historical region of Inner Carniola. It is located in the village of Predjama, approximately 11 kilometres from the town of Postojna and 9 kilometres from Postojna Cave.
The castle was first mentioned in the year 1274 with the German name Luegg, when the Patriarch of Aquileia built the castle in Gothic style. The castle was built under a natural rocky arch high in the stone wall to make access to it difficult. It was later acquired and expanded by the Luegg noble family, also known as the Knights of Adelsberg (the German name of Postojna).
The legend of Erazem of Predjama
The castle became known as the seat of the knight Erazem Lueger (or Luegger), lord of the castle in the 15th century and a renowned robber baron. He was the son of the Imperial Governor of Trieste, Nikolaj Lueger.
According to legend, Erazem came into conflict with the Habsburgs when he killed the commander of the Imperial army, Marshall Pappenheim, who had offended the honour of Erazem’s deceased friend, Andrej Baumkircher ofVipava. Fleeing the vengeance of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick III, Erazem reached in the family fortress of Predjama. From there, he allied himself with King Matthias Corvinus and began to attack Habsburg estates and towns in Carniola. The emperor commissioned the governor of Trieste, Andrej Ravbar, with the capture or killing of Erazem.
The besiegers bribed one of Erazem’s servants to reveal when his master was in attendance at the privy; the toilet, situated on the top floor and at the very edge of the castle, was the one place that was not impregnable. When the moment came, the servant placed a candle at the window, and, with a single cannonball, the besieging army killed Erazem.[2]
After the reconstruction
After the siege and destruction of the original castle, its ruins were acquired by the Oberburg family. In 1511, the second castle, built by the Purgstall family in the first decade of the 16th century, was destroyed in an earthquake. In the year 1567, Archduke Charles of Austria leased the castle to baron Philipp von Cobenzl, who paid it off after 20 years. In 1570, the current castle was built in theRenaissance style, pressed next to a vertical cliff under the original Medieval fortification. The castle has remained in this form, virtually unchanged, to the present day.
In the 18th century, it became one of the favourite summer residences of the Cobenzl family. Both the Austrian statesman Philipp von Cobenzl and the diplomat Count Ludwig von Cobenzl spent time in the castle.
In 1810, the castle was inherited by Count Michael Coronini von Cronberg, and in 1846 it was sold to the Windischgrätz family, who remained its owners until the end of World War II, when it was nationalized by theYugoslav Communist authorities and turned into a museum.
The hidden passageway
A vertical natural shaft leads out of the original castle, which Erazem ordered to be enlarged, and leads to the exit located at the top of the cliff, 25 meters away from the cliff’s edge. This shaft allowed Erazem to secretly supply the castle with food in the time of the siege; he also used it to continue with his robberies.
12 Comments CherryPie on Jan 11th 2016
The Angel that presided o’er my birth
Said, “Little creature, form’d of Joy and Mirth,
“Go love without the help of any Thing on Earth.”
William Blake
2 Comments CherryPie on Jan 10th 2016
The cave was first described in the 17th century by the pioneer of study of karst phenomena, Johann Weikhard von Valvasor.[4] In 1818, when the cave was being prepared for a visit by Francis I, the first Emperor of the Austria-Hungary, a new area of the cave was discovered accidentally by local Luka Čeč.
- First tourist guide and electric lighting
In 1819, Archduke Ferdinand visited the caves, this is when the caves became officially known as a tourist destination. Čeč became the first official tourist guide for the caves when the caves were opened to the public. Electric lighting was added in 1884, preceding even Ljubljana, the capital of Carniola, of which the cave was part at the time, and further enhancing the cave system’s popularity.
- Cave rails
In 1872, cave rails were laid along with first cave train for tourists. At first, these were pushed along by the guides themselves, later at the beginning of the 20th century a gas locomotive was introduced.
- Blackening of the entrance
During World War II, German occupying forces used the cave to store nearly 1,000 barrels of aircraft fuel, which were destroyed in April 1944 by Slovene Partisans. The fire burned for seven days, destroying a large section of the cave and blackening the entrance.[5][6][7]
- After World War II
After 1945, the gas locomotive was replaced by an electric one. About 5.3 kilometres (3.3 mi) of the cave system are open to the public.[8] In June 2015 the cave administration reported that cave divers managed to explore a further underwater section of the cave leading towards Planina Cave, thus lengthening the cave system from 20,570 m (67,490 ft) to 24,120 m (79,130 ft).[9]
Postojna Cave’s most beautiful stalagmite is called the Brilliant. Looking at this marvellous shiny white limestone formation, you cannot but agree that it is entirely worthy of its name. The approximately 5-metre-tall stalagmite ‘Brilliant’ is located at a spot with a strong and even drip from the ceiling. A thin layer of pure calcite sinter is deposited constantly and evenly by the water trickling down the rounded crown of the stalagmite, which gives the stalagmite an outstandingly white and shiny appearance. It therefore comes as no surprise that the stalagmite has been the symbol of Postojna Cave and the Slovenian Karst for decades. Standing right next to it is a baroque-like pillar.
Picture from Wiki
The olm (Proteus anguinus) has always excited people’s imagination. Initially, it was believed it was the dragon’s offspring brought onto the surface by high waters. As a matter of fact, there might be some truth to these old beliefs. The olm is a neotenic animal, which means that adult olms retain most of their juvenile features. And if the olm decided to grow up… wouldn’t it perhaps really turn into a dragon?
The olm or proteus (Proteus anguinus) is an aquatic salamander in the family Proteidae, the only exclusively cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe. In contrast to most amphibians, it is entirely aquatic; it eats, sleeps, and breeds underwater. Living in caves found in the Dinaric Alps, it is endemic to the waters that flow underground through extensive limestone of karst of Central and Southeastern Europe, specifically southernSlovenia, the Soča river basin near Trieste, Italy, southwestern Croatia, and Herzegovina.[2]
It is also occasionally called the “human fish” by locals because of its skin color, similar to that of white people (translated literally from Slovene: človeška ribica and Croatian: čovječja ribica), as well as “cave salamander” or “white salamander”.[3] In Slovenia, it is also known by the name močeril, which translates as “the one that burrows into wetness”.[4] It was first mentioned in 1689 by the local naturalist Valvasor in his Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, who reported that, after heavy rains, the olms were washed up from the underground waters and made local people believe that they saw a cave dragon’s offspring.
This animal is most notable for its adaptations to a life of complete darkness in its underground habitat. The olm’s eyes are undeveloped, leaving it blind, while its other senses, particularly those of smell and hearing, are acutely developed. It also lacks any pigmentation in its skin. It has three toes on its forelimbs, but only two toes on its hind feet. It also exhibits neoteny, retaining larval characteristics like external gills into adulthood,[5] like the American amphibians, the axolotl and the mudpuppy. The olm is the only species in the genus Proteus and the only European species of the family Proteidae.
12 Comments CherryPie on Jan 9th 2016
Miramare Park, which at one time had no vegetation, and has now a surface area of 22 hectares (54 acres), stands on a rocky promontory overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The site was planned and arranged by Carl Junker, according to the wishes of Archduke Maximilian who carefully followed the building of his residence. As far as the botanical aspect was concerned, a gardener, Josef Laube, was called in but was replaced in 1859 by Anton Jelinek, a Bohemian who had taken part in the frigate Novara’s expedition around the world.
The park, on which work began in 1856, represents a classic example of a mixed, artificial implantation of ligneous forest-trees and bushes and it succeeds in blending the charm of a typically Northern environment and a Mediterranean context. In contrast to the baroque garden, the English one – on which Miramare is modelled – introduces a new relationship with nature, resulting from a different sensibility towards the material world. This is why, when strolling along the paths in the park, you can breathe in an atmosphere that is tightly bound up with the life of its owner and his romantic relationship with nature, which was typical of his epoch.
Before 1856, the park area was bare, with only some shrubs and thorny bushes. Today, on the other hand, there is a group of different species of trees that are, for the most part, of non-European origin or in any case, that are not native to the area. Within a period of ten years, cedars of Lebanon, North Africa and the Himalayas were planted, along with firs and spruces from Spain, cypresses from California and Mexico, various species of pine fromAsia and America, to which some exotic specimens, such as the giant sequoia and theginkgo biloba, were added. Miramare was conceived as a private garden and not as a park. In fact it does not have a monumental entrance or a driveway up to the castle. It was a garden of wonders, not intended for public use, even though the archduke opened it to the public a few days per week. Watercourses, pools, twisting paths, trees placed according to natural models, some grassy areas, are typical of English gardens. The roughness of the ground favoured the irregular lay-out of the promontory, combining the artificial transformation with the natural environment.
The park is also characterised by the presence of some buildings included in Junker’s project: the Castelletto – inhabited off and on by Maximilian and Charlotte – on which work began at the same time as work on the castle; the greenhouses, intended for the growing of the plants to be placed in the park; the ruins of the chapel dedicated to Saint Canciano, in whose apse is preserved a cross made from the wood of the frigate Novara, which was laid up in 1899; and lastly a little house, used nowadays as a coffee-shop, the “Swiss house“, placed at the edge of the swans’ lake.
Up until 1954, Miramare became the headquarters for German, New Zealand, British and American forces of occupation respectively. Finally in 1955, the complex was reopened to the public under the name Miramare Park, whose management was entrusted to the Sopraintendenza per i Beni Architettonici ed il Paesaggio e per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.
Today the gardens play host during the summer season to spectacles such as the musical “Sissi“, reliving the story of the Empire in its natural setting, and various concerts.
We have been to Trieste where we spent a week in our delightful villa, a veritable jewel in this southern clime, and facing one of the most beautiful gulfs in the world. It is impossible to imagine so thoroughly blue a sea in the North. When I first discovered it, I was overcome by an indescribable enthusiasm.
Charlotte of Belgium. 1857*
*From Castle Miramare historical and museum park by Rossella Fabiani
6 Comments CherryPie on Jan 8th 2016
Within the Gulf of Trieste, the Bay of Grignano is enclosed on one side by a promontory that extends northwards. Tradition has it that this was the place where, on a cold spring day in 1855, Maximilian of Hapsburg had to put ashore from a boating trip because of a sudden squall of bad weather and strong gusts of the local wind, the Bora. Struck by the tough untamed beauty of the coastline and the nearby hilly outcrop the archduke is said to have decided to buy this entire site and use it to realize what had perhaps been the dream of his life: the creation of a park and palace befitting his rank. He would name the place using the Spanish word Miramar, though he himself often used the Spanish version, Miramare – the name which is still used today.
The entire zone would become a key feature of the Trieste coastline. Now owned by the state, both the castle and the park were the fruit of the decisions taken by Maximilian himself, given that he personally oversaw the stages of design and construction. As a result, the building and grounds as they stand today are an expression of Maximilian’s character and passion, a unique testimony to his wide-ranging cultural interests. The furnishings and interiors of the castle are almost entirely original, and the park contains various rare species personally chosen by the archduke himself. To know Miramar is to know Maximilian – and, through him, to become aware of the various trends in architecture in the mid nineteenth-century Europe.*
Miramare is a delightful place. We have apartments – warm in winter and cool in summer – from which one can hear the murmuring of the sea and observe all the fishing boats as they cut through the blue waves.
Charlotte of Belgium, 1861*
*From Castle Miramare historical and museum park by Rossella Fabiani
8 Comments CherryPie on Jan 7th 2016
