Ljubljana, Slovenia: Revisited

It’d been a while since I’d been in the capital of Slovenia. There was much I didn’t remember. I only had six hours back then so what I saw didn’t sink in. The only thing that stayed in my mind was the magnificent bronze door of the Cathedral.

There are two, both added in 1996 to mark a joint event: the 1250th anniversary of Christianity in Slovenia and Pope John Paul II’s visit to the country. The main door, the Slovene Door, features the pope himself looking down on the country’s history as it unfolds. This one, the Ljubljana Door, shows the six bishops of the twentieth century standing over the enshrouded body of Christ.

Originally built in the Gothic style in the eighteenth century, the cathedral was rebuilt later in the Baroque.  I tell you that in case you’re into architecture. Me? I’m more about the paintings and the statues.

I’d never seen a depiction of Abraham wineing and dining the angels before. Afterwards, they told him and his wife Sarah that they were to have a child. Cause for celebration indeed.

Ljubljana is very walkable. The Ljubljanica flows through the city, a river first spanned in Roman days. It’s bridges are remarkable.

Dragons are what Ljubljana hangs its hat on. The Art Nouveau bridge was built of reinforced concrete at the start of the twentieth century, one of the largest bridges of its kind to be built in Europe. It replaced Butchers’ Bridge – an old wooden bridge built in 1819. The city still has a Cobblers’ Bridge, though.

The Triple Bridge is a stunning piece of architecture by the man whose name is synonymous with the city: Jože Plečnik. As we walked across, we noticed two couples on either side. One couple had their phones trained on the other. All were in biking gear and noticeably American. The chap on the left got down on bended knee and proposed.

I’ve often wondered about these public proposals. What if she says no? I supposed he’d be embarrassed in front of an audience of random strangers, but surely it would sting. He didn’t have to worry though – she seemed happy enough with her lot.

The banks of the Ljubljanica are lined with cafés and restaurants. It’s a bustling part of the city that has a laziness to it. No one is in a hurry to go anywhere.

We dropped in to see the frescos in the seventeenth-century Franciscan Church of the Annunciation. Originally painted red, it faded to a salmon pink that was so popular that they stuck with it. Originally home to the Augustinians, the Franciscans took it over. The altar is the work of Italian sculptor Francesco Robba, who visited the city, fell in love with a local girl, and stayed.  He’s probably better known for the fountain that bears his name – the Robba Fountain.

To the left of the main altar is a glass-fronted coffin home to the mummified remains of St Deodatus of Nevers. I’d never heard of him before – so many saints! I read that he was possibly born in Ireland to wealthy French parents around 560 AD. The patron saint of rain, he stands against thunderstorms, evil spirits, and plague.

Juxtaposed with all this old stuff is the more modern architecture, beautifully brought to life in petrol stations.

Between 1950 and 1970, four unique petrol stations were created across the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia that typified a distinct time period of mid-century modernism in Yugoslavia. All four were created by the Slovenia-based oil company named “Petrol“. These petrol stations were of a pioneering design that combined the material sciences and engineering innovations occurring through the early 1950s and combined these advances with the modernist architectural aesthetics of a style of regional building design called “Slovene Structuralism“. Out of this combination came a series of mushroom-shaped concrete structures whose streamlined gravity-defying shapes inspired one think to the future, while simultaneously ushering in some of the very first ‘modern’ service stations in Slovenia. Early examples in the 1950s featured only modest floating roof sections off of the primary structure, but as the building technology progressed into the 1960s, expansive umbrella-like concrete mushrooms could constructed which fully sat on a single pillar, offering ideal protection and cover for the weather-conscious motorist. This floating cantilevered engineering pushed the boundaries of architectural design at that time in Slovenia, allowing architects to reassess the creative and innovative applications with which cantilevered concrete construction could be employed.

The buildings across the city are remarkable in their detail and their colours. I particularly liked the front of the Emporium.

Service in Slovenia is excellent. People are friendly and helpful and stray snippets of English punctuate most conversations:

Blah, blah, blah, basically, blah blah blah it was obvious blah blah blah political suicide.

It’s a lovely spot. One well worth visiting. Again.

Where to eat in Ljubljana

We ate at Pop’s Place one day because it was where Jack Ryan Jr ate in the novel Line of Sight by Mike Maden. I loved the Netflix series where Ryan is convincingly played by John Krasinski of the US version of The Office. They do a mean whiskey sour, too, but you can only order cocktails if you’re eating. Home to the BEST burger in the city, it’s worth one meal at least.

Being in a country with a coastline, however small (Slovenia’s Adriatic coastline stretches approximately 47 km (29 mi) from Italy to Croatia), is always a reason to have fish. Google threw up some good reviews of Vino in Ribe, a chain of small fish restaurants serving an excellent homemade white wine that made the wait in the rain more palatable.

Where to drink in Ljubljana

After a long search, we finally found a cocktail bar that warrants a post of its own.