The Franciscan Church of the Annunciation (Slovene: Frančiškanska cerkev Marijinega oznanjenja or commonly Frančiškanska cerkev) is a Franciscan church located on Prešeren Square in Ljubljana, the capital ofSlovenia. It is the parish church of Ljubljana – Annunciation Parish. Its red colour is symbolic of the Franciscan monastic order.^[1] Since 2008, the church has been protected as a cultural monument of national significance of Slovenia.^[2]

Built between 1646 and 1660 (the bell towers following later), it replaced an older church on the same site. The early-Baroque layout takes the form of a basilica with one nave and two rows of side-chapels. The Baroque mainaltar was executed by the sculptor Francesco Robba. Many of the original frescoes were ruined by the cracks in the ceiling caused by the Ljubljana earthquake in 1895. The new frescoes were painted in 1936 by the Sloveneimpressionist painter Matej Sternen.^[1]

The front facade of the church was built in the Baroque style in 1703–1706 and redesigned in the 19th century. It has two parts, featuring pilasters with the Ionic capitals in the lower part and pilasters with Corinthian capitals in the upper part. The sides of the upper part are decorated with volutes and at the top of the front facade stands the statue of Our Lady of Loretto, i.e. Madonna with Child. It has been made of beaten copper by Matej Schreinerupon a plan drawn by Franz Kurz zum Thurn und Goldenstein. The faces and the hands were modelled by Franc Ksaver Zajec. The statue replaced an older wooden statue of a Black Madonna in 1858. The facade also has three niches with sculptures of God the Father above the main stone portal, and an angel and the Virgin Mary in the side niches, work by the Baroque sculptor Paolo Callalo. There is a stone entrance staircase in front of the church. The wooden door with reliefs of women’s heads dates to the 19th century.

After breakfast we visited St Nicholas’ Cathedral and the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation. Both were decorated in a similar style inside. After these visits we went to look inside the Galerija Emporium department store to look at the Art Deco features of the building. There was not much to be seen on the inside so we left slightly disappointed  and went on to visited some bookshops before going for a walk past the opera house and modern art gallery. We noticed a distinctive Austrian style chalet which we went to investigate. When we got closer we found it was the American embassy. As there were police and security guards outside I decided not to chance taking a photograph.

We walked on and this took us past other embassies although we did not see the British one. By now it was lunch time and I suggested that we might be walking the wrong way to get back into town. Mr C wasn’t convinced so he got the map out to establish where we were. One of the locals stopped and asked if we needed help then pointed us in the right direction (thank you). The walk back to town took us past the Roman Wall which I had wanted to see anyway.

As part of the Ljubljana package, we had been given a voucher for a free boat ride so after lunch we made our way down to the mooring point for the panoramic boat ride. As we got on board we were offered drinks and everyone remained quiet until I said that I would like a glass of bubbly. It would have been rude not to During the cruise we were informed that the boat had been fully hand built in Lake Bled and that it had taken eighteen months to build. We were provided with an interesting commentary as we sailed along

After alighting the boat, we stopped off at a highly recommended ice cream outlet and chose our preferred flavour, mine being blueberry sorbet and fig and walnut ice cream. We were expecting one scoop of each flavour but we were given two of each. Very decadent!! Once back in the hotel we put our feet up for a well earned rest before returning to town for our evening meal.