In winter, no human is allowed inside Predjama Castle Cave, as it becomes a refuge for bats

Let’s first clear up its name: Cave under Predjama Castle (Jama pod Predjamskim gradom), also known as Predjama Castle Cave. If you speak Slovenian, this might already be making your brain itch. The literal translation of Predjama is “in front of the cave”. So the true meaning of the cave’s name is the “cave under the castle in front of the cave”. To be even clearer: Predjama Castle is the castle above the “cave under the castle in front of the cave”.

The exit of the Cave under Predjama Castle is, in fact, above the entrance to the fortress. So, it turns out the cave is simultaneously beneath, behind, and above the surreal-looking castle that gave it its name, at the same time the cave gave the name to the castle.

If that made you dizzy, imagine losing your sense of orientation once your cave guide suggests: “Let’s turn off our lights for a minute and stand here in the dark.”

In that pitch blackness, you start hearing your own breath, and then your heartbeat. You count the beats and wonder: will it really take a minute?

Check out the Cave under Predjama Castle tour video on YouTube!

Deep inside this hidden cave system, blind as a bat but lacking the echolocation to match, you feel both safe and fragile. The cave seems like a long-forgotten home, but even more – like someone else’s home. In winter, no human is allowed inside Predjama Castle Cave, as it becomes a refuge for bats.

Welcome to the Cave under Predjama Castle: a living, shifting world of stone, silence, and wings.

What Is the Cave Under Predjama Castle?

The Cave under Predjama Castle is the second-longest Slovenian show cave, spreading over four floors that are all interconnected, except for Erazem’s Hole and Erazem’s Passage on the top level. The total length of all discovered sections reaches 14 kilometers, though tourists can access only a 700-meter stretch.

The cave system under Predjama is part of the vast karst landscape that defines this corner of Slovenia: terrain sculpted over millions of years by water dissolving limestone into tunnels, chambers, and hidden passages.

Some of these were used to spectacular effect by Erasmus of Lueg (Erazem Predjamski). According to legend, Erasmus came into conflict with the Habsburgs after killing the commander of the imperial army. Fleeing the vengeance of Emperor Frederick III, he retreated to Predjama Castle, allied himself with King Matthias Corvinus, and proceeded to raid Habsburg estates across Carniola.

The cave was his lifeline. Behind the castle, a network of secret tunnels allowed the knight Erazem to set out on his expeditions and remain undefeated through a siege for a year and a day. The tunnel system – the very same one we walk through today – is why he never starved. Attackers could surround the castle, but they could not cut off a man who had the entire karst underworld as his back door.

He even used the tunnels to mock his besiegers, reportedly lobbing freshly delivered cherries at his confused enemies from above.

The cave corridors were Erasmus’s secret power until one of his servants, in exchange for gold coins, flashed a light to signal that the knight had gone to the toilet during the night. The enemy’s bullet found Erasmus and finished him on the spot.

Cave Under Predjama Castle Tour

At exactly 11 am, young cave guide Nejc Prinčič welcomes me and two other tourists at the Predjama Castle ticket office. Even though tours can get crowded in peak summer – sometimes requiring two guides for larger groups – today there are just three of us joining the Cave under Predjama Castle tour. In late August, that’s a small luxury.

Before we enter the bat rooms, a quick stop at the bathrooms – at a place where protective helmets are also distributed. Unlike in “Game of Thrones”, we aren’t wearing them to signal lineage while warding off the enemies’ swords. Our real adversaries on this cave adventure would be the occasional low ceiling (considerably harder than our skulls) and the darkness our eyes are simply not equipped for.

We walk the path downward, saluting the fortress that hangs dramatically above our heads. Nejc unlocks the cave doors and turns the key behind us as we step in. This is a one-way tour. We won’t be heading back.

Equipped with headlights, we enter the first chamber of the mountain. We’ll pass the Stables, the Main Passage, the Cave of Names, the Great Hall, and Fiženca – the exit.

As we move through the chambers, each one tells its own story. The Horse Stable was where Erazem kept his horses, resupplying the castle during the prolonged Habsburg siege in the 15^th century.

Archeological finds in the cave testify that people lived here in the Stone Age. Roman remains were found in the entrance tunnel. And in the Cave of Names, signatures dating back to the 15^th century line the walls (the oldest one mentions 1412!). Millennia of humans insisting “we were here”, long before anyone thought of social media check-ins.

Testing Your Life Choices

The ground is rocky but damp. Today, we enjoy the mineral scent of wet stone and faint earthiness, but it’s easy to imagine early explorers slipping on uneven terrain and sliding into drops that would have been impossible to survive. We cross a chasm via a metal bridge. If it had been wooden, I’d knock on it.

When we hit what appears to be a dead end, the guide tells us a story of servants who enlarged the tunnel for their master back in the age, sparing us, future visitors, the indignity of crawling on our stomachs.

On the other side of the tight passage, where even the shortest person ducks, the space widens. Stalactites and stalagmites occasionally fuse into pillars, lone images of stability in what would otherwise feel like a crevice encouraging existential reflection. The claustrophobic devil on my shoulder is whispering the most fearful scenarios.

But the real survival mode switches on after we climb the rock-carved staircase. The only way forward is steep, ladder-like stairs climbing into the darkness, so far that the headlight can barely hint at where they end.

“Any doubts? Any second thoughts maybe?”, Nejc asks, with the cheerful energy of someone who has watched many tourists wrestle with this exact moment. “The stairs are completely fine. Don’t worry about them collapsing.”

I notice rust on the handrail, where dripping cave water has done its quiet work over the years.

“Yeah, but they still hold”, our guide tries to keep the mood light. “Just take your time. No need to rush. Go slowly. One step at a time. The most important thing is that you don’t slip. And keep your hands on the rails at all times.”

Climbing those 40-50 stairs that bridge the cave abyss, with the singular instruction to “not slip”, is a genuine adrenaline rush. One by one, all three of us make it to the top.

The Hidden Residents – Bats of Predjama Cave

After several more flights of stairs (less daunting now that there’s no void below), we reach the upper chambers and learn the reason why the cave is closed for tourists from October to April. Roosting on the ceiling, black dots shift and fidget as our headlights sweep across them. We’re sharing the dark with bats.

Nejc explains why the access to the Cave under Predjama Castle is strictly seasonal: “If you disturb them during hibernation, they may spend too much energy waking up and falling back to sleep. They might not make it through the winter.”

Predjama’s cave system is home to several species typical of the region, including horseshoe bats and long-eared bats. Clinging to the ceilings and walls of their sanctuary, these creatures are perfectly adapted to the cave. Using echolocation, they turn darkness into an acoustic map, perceiving details where we see nothing: distance, texture, movement.

Our guide dismantles the myth that bats could get tangled in our hair: “Bats’ sonar is so precise they can detect each individual hair separately. And yes, they will avoid it.”

As the ceiling drops low, we literally come within arm’s length of them. One adjusts its position, peers between folded wings, and then resumes its resting business. It is both aware and entirely unbothered by our presence. It’s a grounding moment.

We’re witnessing something ancient, a colony of animals that have been gliding silently through this darkness long before tourists started threading their way through guided routes. This place belongs to them. It’s a home to 80 different animal species. An entire ecosystem. Not a theme park.

As the air gradually warms and daylight begins to appear behind the last rock, our tour draws to a close. For roughly 45 minutes, we were permitted to step inside nature’s own timeline, not as the main characters, for once.

Practical Information for Visiting Predjama Cave

When to visit the Cave under Predjama Castle

Unlike the castle above it, which welcomes visitors year-round, the cave beneath Predjama operates on nature’s schedule. It is open from May to September, when the bats are less vulnerable, and conditions are safer for human visitors.

You can’t wander in alone. Visits are conducted via guided tours only, scheduled daily at 11 am. On weekends, public holidays, and during the peak months of July and August, afternoon slots at 1 pm and 4 pm are also available. Each tour lasts approximately 45 minutes.

The Cave under Predjama Castle entrance fee

The Cave under Predjama Castle is managed as part of Postojna Cave Park. The price of the ticket is 19 euros (22 dollars). Tour bookings are available at postojnska-jama.eu.

What to wear in Predjama Castle Cave

The two general rules are:

1. Ditch the sandals. You’ll want shoes with a proper grip. The terrain can be uneven and occasionally slippery, and flip-flops are not the footwear of heroes.
2. Bring a layer. Karst caves maintain a steady temperature of around 8-10˚C (46-50°F) year-round, regardless of summer heat outside. That chill creeps in faster than you’d expect.

For adventure tours, your guide will walk you through any additional gear requirements beforehand.

Rules of conduct

1. No flash photography.
2. No loud noises.
3. Do not touch formations or wildlife.

Age and accessibility

The standard Cave under Predjama Castle Tour is suitable for children aged six and above.

Getting there

Predjama Castle is located in the village of Predjama, approximately 11 kilometers from the town of Postojna. A shuttle service from Postojna Cave to the castle runs in high season, with a journey time of up to 20 minutes.

The cave complex is roughly an hour’s drive from Ljubljana.

Combining visits

The cave pairs naturally with Predjama Castle above it and Postojna Cave nearby. Together, they form the core of Postojna Cave Park. A combined ticket is available and makes for a thoroughly rewarding day.

Adding the cave beneath Predjama Castle to an already full day is ambitious. If you can, split the exploration across two days and stay overnight at Hotel Jama, which is worth visiting in its own right.

Visiting the Cave under Predjama Castle – Conclusion

Travel often gravitates toward the biggest, the highest, the most photographed. The Cave under Predjama Castle doesn’t compete on those terms.

It isn’t Slovenia’s largest cave, nor its most famous. It doesn’t overwhelm you with scale.

Where Postojna Cave dazzles with a polished spectacle of floodlit stalactites viewed from an underground train, the Cave under Predjama Castle demands something quieter and more personal: your attention, your footwork, and a willingness to step into genuine darkness.

If you’re drawn to places that feel a little less mediated, places where nature hasn’t been fully translated into something convenient, and places that don’t eagerly try to impress, this cave is worth your time.

Dark, quiet, and inhabited, Predjama Castle Cave proposes an intimate and raw journey into the unknown

Predjama Castle is a Renaissance fortress that resembles a fantasy someone forgot to tone down. Most visitors stop there – snap the photo, circle the courtyard, absorb a story or two.

But hidden beneath the castle, not manicured for mass tourism, this dark, quiet, and inhabited cave proposes an intimate and raw journey into the unknown.

Its moving winged stalactites, its dripping water reshaping stone, its 80-species ecosystem – these are not the only reasons that make Predjama Castle Cave feel alive.

As you move through the darkness, you’re also traveling through history, your flashlight illuminating centuries-old signatures of those who walked before you, through the same passages a medieval outlaw used to outfox an empire.

That’s not a tourist experience. That’s an adventure.

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Sure, odd numbers on one side, even on the other – a perfectly logical setup. Yet, something still seemed off. Since this was not my first visit (I had already dropped by when I explored the jaw-dropping Predjama Castle nearby), I knew Hotel Jama had “Secret Rooms”. But still, the room number layout in this iconic Slovenian hotel was playing games with my mind.

Hotel Jama, at the entrance of the equally enigmatic Postojna Cave, seemed like it wanted me to play a game

“Do you miss some room numbers?”, I asked at the front desk, thinking that surely there had to be some explanation for it, such as “Yes, we avoid the unlucky number 13” (or 4, if they would be in the Chinese area of influence). I was expecting, at least, “Yes, we combined two rooms into one during the renovation, but we didn’t change the lettering”. I didn’t hear these answers. Instead…

“Oh?”, the receptionist’s eyebrow arched high, as I tried to explain my mathematical confusion.

I got her to confirm that, indeed, some room numbers might be missing in certain hotel areas. “But not on your floor”, she insisted.

Fine, I could’ve been tripping while trying to decipher Hotel Jama’s conundrum, finding clues even when there were none. Wrapped in historical mysteries, the property at the entrance of the equally enigmatic Postojna Cave seemed like it wanted me to play a game. What had I checked into? An escape room, or an – escape hotel?

In this Hotel Jama Postojna review, learn more about its Secret Rooms, and their hidden past.

Hotel Jama history

Construction on Hotel Jama (pronounced ‘Yama’, meaning ‘Cave’) began in 1969, above Postojna Cave’s train garage.

Back then, Slovenia was just one of six republics forming Yugoslavia, a federation that was voting for its parliament that year.

Students in Ljubljana were chanting for political freedoms and social reforms, protesting everything from the Vietnam War to non-democratic regimes like the one in Greece.

It was an era of resistance, and rebellion, and Rade Šerbedžija starring in “Sedmina”, a drama where wartime Ljubljana was turning a boy into a killer.

Two years flew by, and by 1971, while Americans were marveling at the grand opening of Walt Disney World‘s Magic Kindom in Florida, socialist Slovenia was busy cutting the ribbon on its own crown jewel – Hotel Jama.

Yugoslavia was led by Josip Broz Tito, a charismatic political figure who didn’t want to take sides in the Cold War between Western capitalism and Eastern communism.

In the early 1970s, despite Tito’s whip hand, Yugoslav republics were slowly gaining greater autonomy within the federation. This was especially true in the economy, which was booming.

Freedom of speech was still under construction, much like the hotel. In 1971, Slovenia first forbade, then released with censor intervention, Boštjan Hladnik‘s movie “Maškarada”, an erotic drama about the indulgent lives of the rich elites.

Simultaneously, the opening of the Hotel Jama, with its luxurious, state-of-the-art facilities, was one of Yugoslavia’s efforts to portray itself as part of a modern and progressive world.

And it worked. The hotel became an instant hit, significantly boosting tourism development in Postojna, equally attracting high dignitaries and curious folks to Europe’s largest show cave.

Besides the natural wonder itself (Postojna Cave entertained 39 million visitors over two centuries), the man-made Hotel Jama helped establish Postojna as a major tourist hotspot.

The secret rooms of Hotel Jama

Decades of use had taken their toll on Hotel Jama. By 2009, the once-glamorous hotel was a shadow of its former self, its facilities worn down and its reputation in tatters. The hotel closed its doors, bankrupt, and in dire need of a transformation to meet modern standards.

The renovation work lasted over six years, three times longer than the time it took to erect the hotel from scratch. When it seemed the 8-million-euro facelift neared completion, the plot twisted.

Bothered by a solid steel door in the inner courtyard that construction workers did not change because no one had a key, Marjan Batagelj, the CEO of Postojna Cave company, ordered cutting through the lock.

When the door was breached in 2016, they stepped inside and found hidden spaces filled with kilometers of dusty wiring, reels of audio tapes, and stacks of paper logs. These were remnants of a secret communication center, deserted and forgotten since 1991, after the ten-day Slovenian War of Independence marked the start of Yugoslavia’s breakdown.

It turned out that, aside from today’s official 156 units, Hotel Jama also had secret chambers all along, rooms and passages hidden from the public eye. Those who ran covert operations from this shadowy underbelly of Cold War intrigue successfully kept their mission confidential for decades, behind tightly sealed lips and doors.

But why would the former regime station such an elaborate spy system in a luxury hotel? Built at a well-connected and strategically significant Postojna Town, a place with a military base, Hotel Jama practically had a guaranteed influx of important political figures. These were probably prime targets of surveillance operations.

What did the most prominent politicians talk about? We won’t find that out just yet. Before hotel representatives could even swift through the Secret Rooms, a squadron of police officers and secret service agents thoroughly combed through the materials abandoned since the communist times.

Hibernation headquarters – cave-inspired comfort

In Hotel Jama’s revamped guest rooms, however, there were no secrets, but more openness, and – choice.

Space dominated by a plush double bed and velvet-like headboard extended into a mirror-covered wardrobe, as well as a glass-walled en-suite bathroom. For those who believe not all intimate moments should be exposed to natural light and audience, the bathroom could be curtained off, ensuring privacy during a toilet break or eyebrow-plucking in front of a vanity mirror.

The stylish walk-in shower was half-screened by a frameless shower glass panel, continuing the idea of removing visual obstacles in the flowing space. In my case, the shower screen was not fully efficient in keeping the water inside; instead, it was leaking into the toilet zone with every usage. They didn’t have that in the 1970s when practicality took precedence over aesthetics.

To be fully transparent, this concept of appreciation for see-throughness was embraced via the spacious room terrace too. Outfitted with two chairs, a table, and an ashtray (don’t use the last one, for a full nature immersion), the balcony was practically an extended living room. Large sliding glass doors separated the outside from (or – connected it with?) the inside, letting in the verdant charm of Postojna’s surroundings and, via the warm wooden flooring, practically bringing the forest into your lap. There was also a flat-screen TV on the wall, but next to such enjoyable nature vistas, I was never tempted to even turn it on.

The elegant room interior was colored in neutral gray and beige tones, practically mimicking a cave, and creating a soothing “hibernate-here” vibe. Green blackout curtains were promising a good night rest, while hints of blue popped up in accents like decorative pillows and a bed runner.

Postojna Cave’s mascot, the olm (Slovenian “human fish”, or “baby dragon” as the locals like to call it), made cameo appearances in the form of room details, like pencils and door handles.

All of this was a result of the renovation that aimed to employ local authenticity while adopting minimalist yet modern interior design solutions.

Browsing history and mystery at Hotel Jama

If you’re the type who needs to squeeze in some work between spelunking and secret-room sleuthing, Hotel Jama’s rooms have you covered. The mini sofa, armchair, or even the desk chair at a long workstation, all make for solid spots to plop down with your laptop.

But as you connect to the Wi-Fi, a little message pops up on your screen: “Other people might be able to see info you send over this network”.

For most, this standard Windows warning about open networks’ vulnerability to interception is easy to ignore. But here, at Hotel Jama, where Secret Rooms were advertised as an interactive documentary experience on everything from in-room leaflets to DND hotel signs (“Pssst! Discover the former regime’s mystery of Hotel Jama”), the alert of a cybersecurity threat easily got a new layer of reading. Was this just a mostly harmless lack of encryption, or was someone, somewhere, watching you Google “the secret rooms of Hotel Jama”?

Feeling a touch paranoid, you might pick up the room’s telephone, ready to call the front desk for more info, as that was exactly what all these ads suggested you should do.

On the room telephone you read a note that the device could connect you to other rooms, but “international and local calls can be made at the reception”. This was planting another seed of doubt – would they be monitoring you if you headed down to the front desk to place a call?

If you are really worried about surveillance at your vacation rental, get familiar with places people hide hidden cameras and microphones!

Something to hide

While I waited in the hotel lobby, which over the years saw so many distinguished guests (some memorized in photographs encased in wooden frames on the walls), I noticed a bookshelf with mostly Slovenian and English titles and a few lonely Dutch and Korean works.

There was an empty space within this collection. A missing book. In the same pattern I saw with room numbers playing hide-and-seek, one title seemed to be gone.

But the book wasn’t taken away, just shoved to the back of the shelf. It reminded me of my childhood visits to the library in the last years of Yugoslavia. Faced with the strict three-book borrowing limit, I used this exact tucking method to hopefully protect some limited wish-list titles from leaving the shelf before my next library visit. It was selfish, I know, and probably not even effective.

To atone for my silly childhood sins, I reached into the book gap, and pulled out Elizabeth George‘s mystery novel “Something to Hide”. Oh, come on! That had to be intentional, right?

As I returned this book about detectives sorting through people’s secret lives to its rightful place, I half-expected the shelf to swing open, revealing a secret passageway – that’s how charged for a Bond-style adventure I was!

But no hidden door, just Kevin Klun Valenčič appeared before me, a tour guide who would take me on a journey through the double life that Hotel Jama lived during its three communist decades.

Kevin was never there, though. A young man who would lead me through the intrigues of the former regime, was born in 1991, when Slovenia proclaimed independence, and Secret Rooms got abandoned.

It was also the year when Oliver Stone‘s “JFK” would come out, a movie where Kevin Costner played a district attorney investigating a conspiracy behind President Kennedy‘s assassination.

Named after the popular movie star, my guide seemed destined to untangle the webs of intrigue and espionage.

A doorway to deception

Our adventure began on the first floor, where a magnetic key unlocked the door to Room 1117. Inside, an empty space, with just a neon sign flickering “Nothing is as it seems”.

In front of the room, a TV screen was showing something radically different – a snapshot of a retro-style ambient.

Back in the 1970s, this floor wasn’t some cryptic minimalist art installation. It was a buzzing lounge/restaurant, radiating glamour and sophistication. With clean lines, bold orange armchairs, hanging globe lamps, and geometric ceiling patterns, the interior reflected the modernist style popular in Yugoslavia at the time, blending function with understated luxury. It was a perfect space to play the role of a cosmopolitan meeting point for diplomats, scientists, and other high-profile guests.

You could practically imagine Hotel Jama’s public spaces buzzing with sounds of lively conversation and clinking glasses. Guests basked in the hotel’s warm, inviting atmosphere, blissfully unaware of the monitoring operations in the secret rooms beneath their feet.

But how did this surveillance hub blend so seamlessly into the hotel’s infrastructure, ensuring that no guest (or even most staff) would suspect its existence?

Next to the hallway’s fire extinguisher, we spotted Room 1118 and opened the door we would never exit through.

Big Brother’s bar

The entrance corridor displayed vintage Postojna Cave tickets, faded tourist maps, and even tourist glossaries, all evoking nostalgia. But already the next room was scaring you off with the bygone era.

Six vivid red bar stools were lined up, but no barista in sight. It was a self-service bar that offered no cocktails – only a free flow of conversations would pour into our ears. The telephone switchboard-resembling devices were practically time machines enabling fly-on-the-wall gossip experiences.

The Slovenian secret service had declassified 30 wiretapped conversations from the communist period, and manual cord switching allowed us to listen in.

“Yes, we’ll be having cabbage”, said one guest.

“Cabbage. Then there’s no need for a salad”, replied the other one.

“Anything to drink?”, a waiter asked a question I would not hear only once that evening.

There was not much context given to the recordings in this audio buffet, leaving it up to listeners to interpret whether innocent exchanges were caught in the web of surveillance, or we were hearing the lingo of spies, possibly even double agents.

Conversation 25. Two female voices on the phone, arranging a cinema date. They would watch “Lawrence of Arabia” with Omar Shariff and Peter O’Toole. But they planned to meet 15 minutes before the projection, so that they could have “a nice slow stroll to the movies”. Their convo sounded suspicious, and if they knew their phones were bugged, a public space rendezvous would’ve probably enabled an exchange without the need for a spy dictionary.

In these “Big Brother” times, listening to old conversations could be oddly addictive. Even when the recordings revealed nothing more than dietary preferences or social plans, the experience let us enter the spy’s shoes. Their listening jobs, in the pre-AI century, surely involved long hours of boredom before they would catch a juicy lead worth exploring further.

Hotel Jama’s secret passage

A vintage red phone booth in the corner of Room 1118, a relic of the analog era, had Narnia-style capacity. Picking up the rotary-dial phone didn’t just summon the voice of a mysterious stranger on the other side of the line. After playing with a monitoring paranoia, the instruction said: “Step through!” And I obliged.

Retro telephone receivers hanging from the ceiling, teasingly out of reach, and another neon sign on a bare concrete wall (this time flashing a philosophical warning “It’s all true / a lie”) were the next installations reinforcing the earlier notion that we shouldn’t always trust the first impression.

“When someone says that something is 100% true, or 100% a lie, that simply isn’t true”, Kevin said, making my brain freeze in the loop.

“I want to believe”, Fox Mulder in me whispered through. But, with no Superman-style phone booth quick change, I was still just a journalist on an assignment, practically Clark Kent in an alien world. Or even more precisely – the underworld.

Like in Doctor Who‘s TARDIS, Hotel Jama’s time machine was also “bigger on the inside”. A secret staircase unfolded behind the booth, leading deeper into the hotel’s hidden architecture. This was no ordinary staircase. It cut through double walls and concealed corridors that had seen more secrets than an incognito browser window.

The telephone booth was, of course, a modern gimmick. In the past, when the first floor hosted a restaurant, the backstage exit probably had a more practical disguise.

You could come to work your waiter’s shift in a quiet hotel but then step into a portal to spy operations. The ordinary hotel staff could transform into covert operatives.

Just like for me on the visit day, this seemed to be a one-way road; once you were exposed to deep-buried secrets in the bowels of the hotel, there was no coming back.

Inside the spy bunker

The bottom floor of Hotel Jama revealed a treasure trove of 20th-century gadgets. The four rooms were fitted with typewriters, listening equipment, radios, and complex telephone contraptions, with a red phone line enabling secure connection directly with Belgrade, the Yugoslavian capital.

Concrete walls and exposed wiring emphasized the nature of this space – it was designed for function, not aesthetics.

Everything was presented in a state that it was found in, and how UDBA, the State Security Service of Yugoslavia, left it, with bottles, newspapers, and other period knickknacks. The staging of the scene included a thick layer of dust on furniture.

You could picture the operators, hunched over their desks under adjustable table lamps, ears pressed to headphones, and eyes scanning endless paper reports.

The lack of windows meant there wasn’t even a hint of daylight to remind them what hour it was. The enemy never slept.

Of course, exhaustion would inevitably hit, shutting their eyes and ears. A gallery-level bed offered a rare reprieve. We could only peer at this spy nap station through a mirror, as climbing up was not permitted. Only secret agents were entitled to siestas there.

There’s no good intelligence work without a clear mind, after all.

Escape route from Secret Rooms – you can run but you can’t hide

As we walked through this spy cave, a nerve center of analog intelligence, designed for surveillance and eavesdropping, we listened to the only audio recording actually found among the information rubble in these rooms. It was a military-coded report, cryptically rattling off numbers and coordinates of occupied territories, delivered by an operative identifying himself as “Planina 1”.

On the walls of this espionage hub, the shadows of typists were working hard to transcribe the mumbo jumbo into actionable intel.

At the end of their working shift, agents could just easily walk a half-floor up via the same staircase, and vanish through a secret exit – a dressing room connected to a train garage/maintenance room. From there, they could slip into Postojna Cave, and blend in as ordinary visitors among the crowds.

My tour of the Secret Rooms ended at Hotel Jama’s lobby, right where it began. Kevin handed me a brown-paper folder stamped “strictly confidential”. Inside was a file, surveillance number 067/1.9, marked as intended only for the eyes of the President and his inner circle. I certainly hoped Kevin would not get into trouble for sharing it with me!

The file described the suspicious behavior of a “visitor” who had been snooping around, asking “too many questions”. The report said that the supervised individual disappeared from monitoring control while in the telephone booth. There were no details of the incriminating call, but the photograph of the suspect was attached. It was me, snapped through a peephole in the phone booth.

A meal worth investigating

That was the problem of the times. You never knew who was a regular employee, a random visitor, or possibly an agent with a secret mission. The best spy would never (or always?) leave space for doubt.

After the entire experience of Secret Rooms, my radar for potential undercover operatives sharpened up.

There I was, enjoying the buffet dinner at the hotel’s Magical Garden restaurant. As I nibbled on a delicious Carniolan sausage (Kranjska klobasa, Slovenia’s pride and joy), a young waiter approached me.

“Anything to drink, sir?”, he asked, and I froze mid-bite. Déjà vu hit me.

“No, no cabbage for me”, I wanted to say while his lips moved. But I was more drawn to his groomed handlebar mustache, such an obvious reference to Hercule Poirot. Oh, are we getting detectives, again? Is there another mystery coming up?

The waiter tried to upsell wines, but as someone who spent a summer working for a wine hotel, I again had, if I can quote that not-so-secret report, “too many questions”.

“What type of wine is your house wine?”, I asked.

“We have red and white, sir”, he replied.

“Yeah, but what grapes go into it?”, I said, and the question launched an avalanche of question marks in his gaze. “You know, for these other wines, the menu specifies Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot… But what is Krasno belo or Krasno rdeče exactly?”

“Hm, I’d have to check, sir”, his mustache twitched. “But I can say that these are all like French wines, but produced here, in Slovenia.”

I didn’t want my Poirot waiter to sweat further, so I just went for local Radenska (Slovenian mineral water, produced in Slovenia), and decided to keep my mouth shut. By stuffing it with food.

For a buffet, the offer was quite solid. I enjoyed a creamy squash soup, grilled cheese with roasted tomatoes, zucchini with baby spinach and pine nuts, vegetable casserole, fregola sarda with Mediterranean veggies, and turkey strips in the cream-peanut sauce.

The salad bar was respectable, though the dessert was a bit sparse – just two cakes (custard-cream, and fruit panna cotta). Thankfully, there were fruits and ice cream for backup.

The restaurant itself was elegant, with chandeliers and all, its large glass walls framing the golden hues of sunset. I let the spy universe rest and focused on enjoying good food in a beautiful setting.

A morning in the shadows of Yugoslavia

Besides dinner-time Radenska with three hearts (each representing the nations of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes), breakfast also brought a nostalgic trip down the YU-flavored memories.

If you wanted to taste local, Hotel Jama allowed you to appreciate the traditions from the other side of the border too. Skip President cheese, and try the creamy Zdenka instead; this Croatian processed cheese comes with a century-old tradition!

Another iconic food product on Hotel Jama’s morning menu was Čokolino, the chocolate-flavored breakfast cereal that has been comforting the region’s kids (and, let’s be honest, adults) for half a century. Vegan and lactose-averse guests could mix this ready-to-eat porridge with soy or rice milk.

Of course, there was also an expected selection of cold cuts and cheeses, croissants, and fruits, some sweet cheese pies, and leftover panna cotta from dinner.

Besides the usual coffee and tea, the drink station was offering four juice varieties – orange, grapefruit, apple, and green. While the servers were rushing around proudly displaying a Slovenian flag on their shoulder, I wanted to ask them about what went into the “green”. But in the end, I settled for orange juice.

Despite the prominent sign shouting “Taste the Freshness”, these were clearly just rebottled industrially-processed tetrapak juices.

I asked the waitress if it was possible to get a freshly squeezed orange juice, and she confirmed. Sadly, what arrived was a disappointingly watered-down version of what one would expect to get when ordering such a staple breakfast drink at a 4-star hotel.

The breakfast menu at Hotel Jama clearly had some intriguing ideas that complemented the overall concept of a modern hotel built on the cornerstone of the past, but it also had a lot of (not-so-secret) room for improvement.

Adrenaline underground – from hidden rooms to bat treks

Hotel Jama definitely provides comfort right at the entrance of Postojna Cave, one of Slovenia’s largest tourist attractions. If you book a room here, you can count on the convenience of free parking, but also the vicinity of all the things to do.

Besides the basic cave visit, you should take a peek into the Vivarium (where you can meet cave critters that could double as alien extras in a sci-fi flick), and the EXPO Cave Karst exhibition (a deep dive into secrets of geology).

But also, join more than one guided tour! I enjoyed my private Postojna Cave visit with the guide Stanislav Glažar, who seemed to know every stalactite by name. I also learned a lot during the group Trek through Three Caves (Postojna, Pivka, and Black Cave) led by the enthusiastic Peter Gorjup. But the highlight of my underground experiences in Postojna was the adrenaline-pumping trek through the Cave under Predjama Castle with an expert cave navigator Nejc Prinčič and some sleepy companions hanging around – a colony of bats.

As for Hotel Jama itself, it did lack some almost expected amenities, such as a spa, or at least a small gym. Maybe Room 1117, instead of just being a storage for a neon sign, could moonlight as a fitness corner? Just a thought.

But what the hotel lacked in treadmills, it compensated by leaning on intriguing and immersive tour experiences. Secret Rooms tour was certainly one such smart project.

I loved being escorted by my tour host Kevin, a dedicated spy storyteller. Yet, having previously tried the self-guided tour too (with an audio guide, and a photo ban), I must admit I preferred the strict loneliness, where questions could remain unanswered. There’s something undeniably thrilling about wandering the unknown halls in secret agent mode, with instructions whispered right into your ear.

If you want to pick Hotel Jama as your Postojna accommodation, you can reserve your stay via Booking or Agoda. But more often than not, you can find even better conditions on Trip. Compare all the prices for your booking dates, and pick the most affordable one! For even more reviews of Hotel Jama, head to the dedicated Tripadvisor page. 

Conclusion – The Renaissance of Hotel Jama

With its roots as a relic of a bygone political era, Hotel Jama managed to evolve into something far more captivating than just a Brutalist icon with cascading tiers and sharp geometric lines that evoke an aesthetic of efficiency and order.

This building that seamlessly blends into the rocky terrain of Postojna, almost like a natural extension of the famous cave system it was designed to serve, showed that there was an afterlife to totalitarian and utilitarian 1970s when overt purpose (tourism) and covert function (state security) coexisted under the same roof. One was greeting guests with brochures and buffets, the other eavesdropping on whispered conversations through miles of hidden wiring.

With a welcoming facade and vibrant outdoor terraces contrasted with its hidden secret, Yugoslavia made an effort to present a hospitable, progressive image while maintaining its strategic defenses.

Secret Rooms were a space where information flowed in only one direction and nothing was meant to leave. The new hotel management ebraced something radically different

Fast forward to the present, Hotel Jama has been renovated to meet contemporary standards, from softer landscaping of greenery, ornamental grasses, and colorful flowers, to clean minimalism of interior design and energy efficiency. However, it still remains a unique monument of previous times, with history as a central part of its allure.

The Secret Rooms were a space where information flowed in only one direction and nothing was meant to leave. The new management embraced something radically different – transparency (both literal, with glass walls flooding rooms with natural light, and metaphorical, by revealing the hotel’s secretive past).

The truth is out there. Well, so is the lie, as the neon sign so sincerely confessed. In tourism, where marketing success is measured by stories that sell, even the greatest fantasies can become lucrative realities.

Hotel Jama reminds us that the unseen – the untold – is often what lingers longest in our minds.

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Disclosure: My stay at the Hotel Jama was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

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The post Hotel Jama Postojna Review: Secret Rooms, Hidden Charms appeared first on Pipeaway.

The grandiose size was not the only factor securing Postojna Cave the title of one of Europe’s most spectacular caves. There was an aesthetic appeal in this journey to the underground world. It wasn’t a descent into hell but into a cathedral of peculiar beauty.

In the deep darkness of Postojna Cave, baby dragons are swimming through the water

As the first neighbor of UNESCO-protected Škocjan Caves, the largest European subterranean canyon, Postojna is the most popular poster child for the Kras Plateau, the region that borrowed the name to karst, this specific limestone landscape phenomenon.

The fascination with this place doesn’t stop at rocks, though. In the deep darkness of Postojna Cave, a very special ecosystem evolved, with some fascinating animals.

One train ride away, and some hiking through the underground galleries, and the path brought us to a place where whispering was prescribed as a rule.

The “keep quiet” caveat could have meant that we were approaching something vulnerable or, on the contrary, something rather dangerous. After all, the fantastic creatures swimming through the water in front of our eyes were human fish, also known as – baby dragons.

Keep reading this honest Postojna Cave review to find out what makes it one of the best caves in Slovenia, and why it is a brilliant choice for anyone looking for a memorable hiking expedition. Welcome to the largest European show cave!

Why does Slovenia have so many caves?

Slovenia is one of the smaller European countries, with its size being a popular joke material in neighboring Croatia. But under the 20 thousand square kilometers of Slovenian territory, lies a large, less visible world of wonders: more than 13 thousand caves!

With approximately one hundred new caves discovered every year, the experts believe this number is just the tip of the iceberg. They estimate that two-thirds of natural treasures resting under Slovenian feet still wait to be revealed.

These caves are a result of forces of nature shaping the limestone for millions of years. Rains, streams, and rivers pouring down and through the mountains affected this soft and porous rock, creating unusual formations above and under the ground.

The caves of Postojna are just a part of these impressive subterranean systems of natural tunnels and chambers, a gigantic secret in the tiny country of Slovenia.

There is a castle near Postojna Cave that has its own caves too. For a completely different experience, visit the Cave under Predjama Castle!

Postojna and caves

Postojna is a small town with fewer than 10 thousand inhabitants. But with the most popular European cave attraction, the number of visitors passing through the town was reaching 1 million in pre-pandemic years.

Postojna lies on the Pivka River, the main sculptor that carved out the five caves of the Postojna System: the famous Postojna Cave, the artificially connected Pivka Cave and Black Cave (Črna Jama), movie-location-favorite Otok Cave, and the last discovered Magdalena Cave that is accessible only to experienced explorers.

Where is Postojna Cave located?

If you look at the map of Slovenia, Postojna Cave is located in its bottom-left part, in the Municipality of Postojna.

Postojna Cave location is just 1.5 kilometers away from the center of the town, so you can reach it on foot. It is an easy, 15-minute walk.

If you are driving from Koper or Trieste, it will take you 45 minutes. The ride from the capital of Ljubljana is just half an hour long.

How long is Postojna Cave?

Postojna Cave is more than 24 kilometers long! But just over five kilometers of the entire Postojna Cave length are accessible to visitors. More precisely, you will pass 3,7 kilometers by train, and 1,5 kilometers on foot.

But how deep is Postojna Cave, you ask? The deepest point of the cave is 115 meters.

If you were wondering about Postojna Cave’s size in volume, it is estimated the entire system covers 1,7 million cubic meters.

In Greece, one can visit caves where even gods were raised. Zeus Cave is one of the best things to do in Naxos!

Postojna Cave history

How old is Postojna Cave?

The Postojna Cave age is estimated at 3 million years. The limestone in which the cave was formed is 70 million years old.

Postojna Cave geology

Postojna Cave formation is directly linked to the impact of the river Pivka. This karst river sinks under the hill of Sovič, and merges with the Rak River in Planina Cave, finally reappearing on the surface again as the river Unica.

The dissolving action of water has carved the cave as a labyrinth of corridors and chambers filled with a variety of dripstone formations. It is a product of a rather slow process where water passes through limestone and gets oversaturated with dissolved minerals, which are then deposited in the cave.

This is the best exhibition of nature’s sculpture I have ever seensculptor Henry Moore

Over a million years, water dripping creates stalactites, stalagmites, columns, flowstone draperies, pearls, and other forms. The dripstone growth of one millimeter could take anywhere between ten and thousands of years.

A great place to learn about Postojna Cave geology in more detail is the EXPO Postojna Cave Karst exhibition, an interactive display of processes that shaped this part of the Slovenian underground. In the rooms adjacent to the world’s largest exhibition on caves and karst, one can even peek into the world of butterflies, as well as the development of Earth and life over 4,5 billion years.

When was Postojna Cave discovered?

As testified by visitors’ signatures, people have been entering the first passages of the cave since the 13^th century. The earliest autograph on the wall of the Old Signatures Passage dates back to 1213.

But the official date of discovery of what we call Postojna Cave today is the 14^th of April, 1818. On this day, the local lamplighter Luka Čeč, while preparing the cave for the visit of the Austrian Emperor Franz I, crossed the river, climbed some rocks, and disappeared.

After some time, he returned to his worried colleagues with eyes wide open. Allegedly, his first words were: “Here is a new world, here is paradise!”

This simple man not only discovered the new and the most beautiful part of the cave.

Thirteen years later, he also disproved the scientists’ claims that life without the sun is impossible. In September 1831, on a stalactite below the Great Mountain, Luka Čeč discovered a small brown beetle – today known as the slenderneck beetle.

It was one of many (more than 150, as a matter of fact) animal species that were later confirmed to inhabit Postojna Cave. Slovenian underground became the cradle of a new, literally groundbreaking science of subterranean life – speleobiology.

Postojna Cave train ride – the tourism booster

Two centuries of Postojna Cave tourism were boosted by inventions in transporting visitors to its furthest parts. Exploring the cave on foot, equipped only with torches and candles, was a several-hour-long and back-breaking activity.

When the emperor Franz Joseph arrived with his wife, Elizabeth, in 1857, they were taken around in sedan chairs.

But on June 16, 1872, the first cave railway in the world was launched here. Two carriages, each transporting four passengers, were pushed by the cave guides. Luckily for them, Postojna Cave is mostly horizontal.

Postojna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire known as Adelsberg, would become a part of the Kingdom of Italy after World War I, and change its name to Postumia. In 1923, the Italian authorities renovated and extended the cave railway, introducing the petrol-powered engine. The first one could pull 20 passengers through the cave, but with the influx of visitors, more powerful locomotives were purchased, able to carry 150 visitors.

The real tourism boom in Postojna Cave happened after World War II, when it became a territory of Yugoslavia. From 1956, battery-powered electric locomotives pulled the carriages. The transfer from a single-track railway to a circular double-track line in the 1960s further increased the daily capacity of the cave.

In the timeframe of 200 years, more than 40 million people visited Postojna Cave. The number includes 15 emperors and empresses, 21 kings and queens, 67 princes and princesses, 54 presidents of states, 37 prime ministers, and hundreds of other eminent guests.

One of the famous visitors was Thomas Cook, the father of organized travel. He discovered the cave in 1868 and then included it in his first trip around the world in 1873.

Hop on Postojna Cave’s underground train!

At Batu Caves in Malaysia, religious fairs boost tourism. The extreme Hindu piercing festival of Thaipusam attracts millions.

Postojna Cave visit

My visit to Postojna Cave surely didn’t have the historical importance of those imperial visits of the 19^th century, but I still received the privilege of somewhat royal treatment. I would be exploring the cave with a dedicated cave guide, and I do believe a one-on-one encounter of this kind is the best way to experience such a massively popular tourist destination.

My cave host, Stanislav Glažar, bombarded me with surprising facts as soon as we met. Pivka, the mighty river that shaped Postojna Cave, sometimes exhibits its power outside, too. Heavy rainfalls combined with snowmelt were known to create extreme floods at the cave entrance.

The last one in February 2019, peaked at 7 meters above the usual levels, essentially drowning the road and Postojna Cave parking lots. As markings on one building show, extreme floods have become more common in the last decades, happening even in autumn, such as the one in November 1987, or September 2010.

Deeper in the cave, I will open a discussion about another natural hazard – earthquakes. While they do happen, the tremors mostly blend into the underground noises visitors are not accustomed to, Stanislav claims. Evacuations are extremely rare.

If you were shaken by anything, it would probably be the temperature difference between the outside and the cave interior.

If walking from Postojna town to the cave like me, reserve enough time to get to your tour without rushing! While I did arrive in time, the effect of some sweat under my shirt got extremely multiplied once inside.

Postojna Cave temperature is 10 degrees Celsius, and while I found it bearable when walking, the train ride had all the elements of the “Snowpiercer”. My light summer hoodie was jealous of Stanislav’s winter jacket.

Monument to electricity

Hopping on an electric train in Postojna Cave is not the only benefit of our experience when we compare it with that of the early visitors two centuries ago. The difference between seeing the cave illuminated by torches, candles, and burning bundles of straw, and seeing it with modern electric lights is like comparing the view of the night sky with the naked eye and seeing the universe with the James Webb telescope.

The arc lamps in the cave were introduced on July 15, 1883, much before even some major European capitals saw their first electric bulbs (Ljubljana included!). Visitors were exiting the cave in tears as if they were enlightened.

The first part of the cave that was illuminated was the Ballroom, a dance hall that the train would quickly pass through, but it would not leave you unimpressed. After the First World War, a giant Murano glass chandelier was installed here, and it added to the surreal experience of Postojna Cave’s unique 10-minute train ride.

Another remarkable cave formation that would go unnoticed without proper lighting is a dripstone resembling a hanging curtain. Having a tour guide pointing out where to look during the Postojna Cave train ride was another advantage that larger tour groups just do not get the privilege to experience.

If you want to enjoy the full splendor of modern technologies, consider visiting Postojna Cave between Christmas and New Year. In the period of festivities, the biblical story of the birth of Jesus is brought to life in the Living Nativity scene, and the cave interior gets an additional touch of light magic.

Spain also has a tradition of unique nativity scenes - from living ones to artworks sculpted in sand!

From Calvary to Brilliant via Spaghetti Hall

The place where we alighted the train also had a Biblical name – the Calvary. Also known as the Great Mountain, this enormous space was a striking sight. After what could have been experienced as mainly a fun train ride, it was here that I fully became aware of the gigantic proportions of Postojna Cave. Hundreds of stalagmites rose up as a forest of natural skyscrapers, headlined by a 16-meter-tall giant, the result of 150 thousand years of water dripping.

Again, my tour guide opened up the barrier to special pathways, allowing me to experience the view from the top of the cave, where larger groups were not allowed. By the time we finished, the rest of the train crowd had rushed up further into the cave, hidden by the lights turning off and silenced by the cave walls. It almost felt like I had a privileged private visit, sometimes literally, when my guide would leave me for some moments, while he would wander off-path, to check some scientific instruments.

Continuing to deeper parts of the complex, the so-called Beautiful Caves, we crossed a large chasm. The man-made construction is called the Russian Bridge, after Russian prisoners of war who were brought to the cave in 1916 and forced to build it. It still holds well.

Here, the formation known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa caught my eye. But among the caves that got names after the color of rocks, depending on the amount of calcite or iron (White and Red Halls), my favorite was the one that was named after the shape of the stalactites. The Spaghetti Hall literally looks as if someone has thrown thousands of thin noodles in the air, and they got stuck on the ceiling. These hanging strings supposedly grow a centimeter every 400 years!

The star of Postojna Cave postcards is, however, the Brilliant, a five-meter-tall stalagmite made of pure calcite, which gives it a strikingly bright shine, especially when contrasted to the neighboring ornament-rich pillar.

Proteus Anguinus – Postojna Cave dragon

The most fascinating sight in Postojna Cave is, however, not offered by a rock, but by an animal – the elusive amphibian, the world’s only vertebrate living exclusively underground.

The olm, scientifically known as proteus anguinus, is completely adapted to living in the darkness. It is a pale, eyeless being, 30 centimeters in length. While having a snakelike body, it has four short legs counting ten digits in total. It can breathe both by gills and by rudimentary lungs.

Endemic to the Dinaric karst, olms learned to survive with a very specific metabolism. Their heart beats twice a minute, they can go without food for longer than a decade, and even then, they can still reach an old age of 100 years. If it loses a limb, proteus can regrow it!

Postojna cave’s most unusual tenant was first spotted in the 17th century when bursting underground rivers would bring these extraordinary animals to the surface. As if floods were not terrifying enough, locals who saw the olms believed they were actually the babies of an evil dragon. In winter, the mist would spew from the cave. So if it ain’t the chimney of the elves’ workshop, it could only be a breath of the mommy dragon.

In the culminating part of our Postojna Cave tour, the blind cave salamanders were resting in an aquarium, the only part of the cave where the lighting was intentionally omitted. It was clear why, for the simple people of yesteryears, olms could have fed fears of a fantastic creature living in the dark depths of the mountain.

Greece also has its legends of dragons in the mountains. They believe a dragon fight created some of the prettiest parts of the Zagori landscape. 

The house of dragons – between hope and disaster

Locally called human fish, Postojna Cave baby dragons were classified under their Latin name proteus anguinus, in 1768.

The world’s largest underground creature ended up even in Charles Darwin‘s influential work “On the Origin of Species“ (1859), where he referred to olms as surprisingly rare “wrecks of ancient life”.

Some scholars of the time theorized that olms didn’t even reproduce, but were instead – immortal.

The scientific fascination with the creatures continues today. The 21st century enabled scientists the first glimpse into the reproduction of proteus.

In 2016, we could finally observe the breeding of this unique species. One olm has laid eggs in the aquarium, and 22 babies have hatched.

In 2022, the most biologically diverse cave in the world had a new baby boom, this time with 32 little dragons!

Besides Postojna Cave itself, one can see olm in the Vivarium, the home to a research laboratory, as well as a speleobiological exhibition in the Passage of New Signatures.

While Vivarium does shed light on the life of Postojna Cave animals in an interactive way for audiences, I found this area of the complex overcrowded and understaffed. That combo could only result in uneducated members of the public using their flashlights in search of these vulnerable creatures, just for a lousy photo. I believe visitor management in Postojna’s Vivarium could seriously be improved.

Scientists are using groundbreaking technologies to try to raise babies of even functionally extinct species. Check out the fantastic photographs of the last northern white rhinos, made by Slovenian photographer Matjaž Krivic!

The world’s only underground post office

My tour of Postojna Cave finished in the gigantic Concert Hall. With 3 thousand cubic meters, the largest cavern of the Postojna Cave system has become famous for its excellent acoustics. It successfully hosted performances from soloists via octets to entire symphony orchestras. The audience capacity is impressive as well: it can welcome 10 thousand people!

Before hopping back on a train that brings you out of Postojna Cave, there is a gift shop where you can supply yourself with a range of souvenirs, from magnets and mugs to olm-shaped toys.

But maybe the best present you can take from the cave is one that revokes nostalgia for the times gone by, when writing letters by hand was still a thing.

You can actually purchase unique postcards and proteus postmarks, and send them via the only underground post office in the world.

The original post building opened back in 1899, near the Dance Hall, during Austrian rule. But in 1927, the Italians built a new one in the Concert Hall.

On Postojna Cave’s busiest days, post officials had to stamp an almost unbelievable number of 90 thousand postcards.

Conclusion – Is Postojna Cave worth visiting?

First known as Grotte de Adelsberg, then Grotte di Postumia, and today as Postojnska jama, Postojna Cave was silently waiting while political powers fought over the territory of today’s Slovenia.

As it usually happens, nature outgrows the actions of humans, and Postojna Cave is a monument to forces older and stronger than our civilization.

That is not to say that the environment will always outlive the people. Proteus or olms are an example of a vulnerable species, depending on how we treat nature around us.

Postojna Cave Park is an inspiring place where one can take a glimpse into previously unseen worlds, and hopefully, even learn about ourselves

There have been instances when human fish were given to dignitaries as presents, but these champions of survival would die as soon as the temperature rose above the one in their natural habitat.

Animals that could hold secrets to longevity and recuperation are masters of adaptation, but they have been evolving over centuries. And humans prefer radical and instant gratification.

While they can fast for a decade, olms can live only in the purest waters. Their underground habitat is constantly under pressure from how we treat nature above the ground.

Postojna Cave Park is definitely an inspiring place where one can take a glimpse into previously unseen worlds, and hopefully even learn about ourselves.

For millions of years, water has been sculpting the world beyond human view. It could have been on another planet, but it was right under the same soil we walked on.

When left alone, nature can become a creator of exceptional beauty and a mother of life in the least favorable circumstances.

Hopping on the world’s first underground train, in operation for a century and a half, and exploring the ever-surprising karst underworld is an adventure expedition worthy of Jules Verne’s novels.

Visiting Postojna Cave is one of the best things to do in Postojna, and a reason enough to book a trip to the secret worlds of underground Slovenia.

Postojna Cave quick facts

Postojna Cave address

The exact address of the cave is Jamska cesta 28, 6230 Postojna, Slovenia.

Postojna Cave pronunciation

The correct way of pronouncing Postojna is [post-oy-nah]. You can hear a native Slovenian speaker pronouncing it here.

Postojna Cave’s opening hours

From November to March, Postojna Cave tour times are at 10:00, 12:00, and 15:00.

With the arrival of spring, tours become more frequent, culminating in the summer months when Postojna Cave’s working hours start at 9:00 and end at 18:00.

How long is the Postojna Cave tour?

Postojna Cave tour duration is typically 1,5 hours. But if you want to include the Vivarium and EXPO Postojna Cave Karst exhibitions in your visit, double that time.

Postojna Cave tickets

An adult ticket for Postojna Cave costs 27,90 Euros. Persons from 16 to 25 years of age pay a discounted entrance fee of 22,30 Euros. The entry fee for children from 6 to 15 years of age is 16,70 Euros. Postojna Cave’s price for children up to 5 years is 1 Euro. Speaking of children, visiting Postojna Cave with a baby is possible; footpaths are adapted to prams of a maximum of 80 cm width. Just make sure that it is foldable, so you can load it on the train.

Combining several attractions of Postojna Cave Park will entitle you to additional savings on the ticket price.

For instance, if you are an adult, and besides Postojna Cave, you also want to visit Vivarium, EXPO Cave Karst, “Life within a Billion Years” and “Butterflies of the World” exhibitions, the package will cost you 39,20 Euros.

If you want to combine the Postojna Cave visit with Predjama Castle (strongly recommended!), these two attractions will cost you 40,30 Euros.

The price of the full park experience would be 46,60 Euros.

There are additional adventures you can undertake in the park, from cave trekking to VIP tours. For exact ticket prices, consult the official park page.

Are dogs allowed in Postojna Cave?

While you can arrive at Postojna Cave with a dog, your pet will not be allowed to accompany you inside the park attractions. You will have to leave it in one of the provided kennels. This service is free for ticket holders.

Postojna Cave weather

Postojna Cave is open year-round, regardless of the weather forecast (well, excluding the rare events of extreme rains resulting in flooding).

The temperature inside Postojna Cave is quite stable throughout the year, between 8 and 10 degrees Celsius.

Make sure to wear suitable clothing and comfortable shoes. If you need to rent a pelerine coat at the entrance of the cave, it will cost you 5 Euros.

Getting to Postojna Cave

The town of Postojna is accessible by car, bus, or railway. The nearest airports are in Ljubljana, Trieste, and Rijeka. You could also consider flying to Venice, Milan, Pula, or Zagreb.

There are hourly buses from Ljubljana to Postojna. You can also join this excellently rated Postojna Cave tour from Ljubljana, with a professional English-speaking guide.

If you are traveling from Bled to Postojna Cave, you can join this small-group tour.

Postojna Cave is a 45-minute ride away from the town of Koper. If coming from this coastal Slovenian town, join this day trip. Travelers from Piran should join this tour.

Arriving from Italy is not complicated either. From Trieste, it will take you less than 1 hour over the A1 motorway. For peace of mind, join this Postojna Cave tour from Trieste, with the lowest price guarantee.

If you are heading to Postojna Cave from Venice, the ride would be around 2 hours. Keep in mind that Postojna is a stop on the Venice-Vienna railway line.

Postojna Cave visit is popular among tourists spending their holidays in Croatia, too. From Rijeka, you will get to Postojna Cave in under an hour. A trip from Zagreb to Postojna Cave will take 2 hours of your time. From further locations, such as Zadar, reserve at least 4 hours for the ride.

Visitors from Zagreb should consider this grand Slovenian tour that includes Postojna Cave, but also Ljubljana, and Lake Bled. Day trips are also available from towns such as Rovinj, Pula, and Rijeka.

Where to stay when visiting Postojna Cave?

The most convenient place to stay when visiting Postojna Cave is Hotel Jama, practically at the doorstep of the cave. Completely renovated in 2016, this 4-star hotel has superb reviews on booking sites. A double room is available for 136 Euros, but for the exact prices of your dates, visit this link. Read my detailed review of Hotel Jama here!

Another 4-star option is Hotel Kras, the elegant accommodation in the center of Postojna, with magnificent views of the Nanos Plateau. You can get a double room in this hotel for 90 Euros. Check out their availability and prices here.

If you are looking for eco-friendly options, your best pick is ECO Hotel Center. You can find a double room at this 3-star accommodation already for 64 Euros. Check out their availability and prices for your dates here.

For those of you who prefer staying closer to nature, an option worth considering is Camping Pivka Jama. From mid-April to mid-October, you can rent a two-bedroom bungalow here, starting from 53 Euros. For actual prices and availability for your dates, click here.

One of the most economical options for staying in Postojna is Youth Hotel Proteus. Bed in a dormitory starts from 20 Euros, while a single room can be purchased for 29. For updated prices and availability for your dates, click here.

For other accommodation options in the vicinity of Postojna Cave, click here.

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Disclosure: My Postojna Cave visit was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

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The post Postojna Cave In Slovenia: Train Ride Into an Underground Dragon Lair appeared first on Pipeaway.

In 2015, Guinness Book of World Records recognized the uniqueness of Predjama Castle

In the Middle Ages, fairytale castles in Europe were springing up like mushrooms. Those fairy tales had thousands of faces. From Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, which inspired Disney’s vision of Sleeping Beauty’s home, to Bran Castle, Dracula’s hangout in Transylvania, these magnificent buildings fed a variety of storylines. Some were stimulating fantasies, others – fear.

With over 500 castles in Slovenia, the small country squeezed between the Alps, the Adriatic Sea, and the Pannonian Plain, almost caught up with Wales, the European castle champion.

But beyond the quantities, the castle integrated into a cave above the tiny village of Predjama, in the already fascinating municipality of Postojna, is unique in the world. In 2015, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Predjamski Grad as “the largest castle built in the entrance to a cave”.

This spectacular höhlenburg, a one-of-a-kind grotto castle, is a product of a particular encounter between nature and architecture. It inevitably raises a million questions, answered by a history of facts and fiction blended together.

I have visited Predjama Castle twice, once from the outside and once from the inside. In this Predjama Castle guide with photos, learn all you need to know about Slovenia’s most extraordinary building. Find out how to see Predjama Castle, and grab crucial information necessary for your visit. Welcome to Predjama!

While Predjama Castle could resist year-long sieges, the most visited castle in Switzerland fell after a 3-day attack. Learn more about Chillon Castle, an island castle that served as an inspiration even for "The Little Mermaid"!

Why is Predjama Castle famous?

From primitive humans looking for a hideout from snow and rain to modern men who celebrated life itself (such as the fisherman who built the Agios Stefanos chapel in Greece), caves were always seen as shelters. Okay, sometimes also as homes of beasts that demand virgin girls for a snack. But in general, the danger was mainly outside the cave.

Archaeologists have found evidence that humans have lived in Predjama caves since the Stone Age. People of the Middle Ages followed the example of their ancestors and decided to build a castle in this hardly accessible location.

Perched halfway up on a 123-meter-high limestone cliff, under a natural rock arch, the dramatic structure was built and rebuilt, surviving, being destroyed, and resurrecting until modern times.

Today, serving as a national museum, Predjama Castle is one of Slovenia’s most visited tourist attractions.

Its secret tunnels, legends, and mere location in the karst landscape the region became known for, provided fascination to, firstly, many tenants, and then even more numerous visitors.

The karst landscape got its name after the Kras region, the Slovenian plateau between Trieste, the Adriatic Sea and Vipava Valley. The Romans gave it the Latin name Carsus, Karst in German. As the prime example of a water-soluble rock formed over centuries, it became a generic term for all limestone landscapes.

Cave under the Karst castle

The castle of Predjama would be a masterpiece of architecture already as a fortress in the middle of a rocky wall. But there is an even larger surprise in the belly of the mountain.

The enormous Cave under Predjama Castle reaches a length of 14 kilometers, making it the second largest in the country. The Slovenian underground champion, Postojna Cave, is the first neighbor, only 9 kilometers away.

Predjama Castle cave was the place to park your horse in the Middle Ages, but today, it is home only to a colony of bats. Their hibernation is the main reason why the cave is closed to visitors in winter.

From May to September, tourists can enter the first 700 meters of the cave, but those who seek adventure can challenge themselves with an even deeper trek.

Unlike Postojna Cave, the cave under Predjama Castle is not illuminated by electricity. One enters its tunnels equipped with a flashlight, which provides an authentic experience of early cave explorers.

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Predjama Castle history

Who built Predjama Castle, when, and why?

Even if its exterior suggests a Renaissance origin, there is an even older history of Predjama Castle. It was first built in Romanesque/Gothic style, probably in the late 12^th or early 13^th century, on the site of a tiny settlement embedded in the cave since the end of the first millennium. The castle was first mentioned in historical records in 1274.

Just like with other monumental buildings of the period built on the mountain rock (such as Mount Athos monasteries in Greece, or Lalibela churches in Ethiopia), the church money was behind the castle of Predjama too.

The Patriarch of Aquileia, the influential ancient city of northeastern Italy, ordered the construction of an unconquerable fortress. The sharp-drop location was promising difficult access, thus guaranteeing greater protection.

Over time, the patriarchs would give Predjama Castle into possession of a variety of knights. And one of these will become a legend.

Erasmus of Lueg

The fact that stories portray Erasmus of Lueg (Erazem of Predjama or Erazem Predjamski in Slovene) as a noble knight or as a cruel bandit tells us that he was right in between the major powers fighting for dominance.

One storyline, possibly projected to belittle his historical significance, portrays Erasmus, the son of the Imperial Governor of Trieste Nikolaj Lueger, as a baron robber. The Slovene version of Robin Hood would supposedly oppose the tax system of Duke Ivan the Wolfsnout by stealing from the rich and providing for the poor.

The other storyline puts Erasmus Lueger at the center of a conflict between Austria and Hungary. Andrej Baumkircher from Vipava, Erasmus’s best friend, was one of the knights who changed sides, leaving the Habsburg Monarchy and joining the forces of the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. Austrian Emperor Frederick III had Andreas killed, which obviously affected Erasmus. At a reception in Vienna, while defending the honor of his friend, he murdered one of the emperor’s relatives and fled to Predjama Castle, the strategic outpost for Hungarian cavalry advancing west.

Both stories end with the Slovene burgrave besieged in the castle, testing its impregnability. With a water source at disposal and secret tunnels leading out of the mountain and providing access to food and other supplies, the siege lasted longer than a year.

Erasmus of Lueg was laughing at the enemy’s attempts to starve him out. To show off, he supposedly bombed them with fresh cherries, which Vipava Valley is famous for. On some occasions, he allegedly targeted his confused foes even with luxury products such as roasted pig, fish, and – ox!

Successors of Erazem Predjamski

Erasmus of Lueg lost his life in Predjama Castle as a 34-year-old. The siege came to an end when one of his servants betrayed him. The invaders bribed the servant to light a candle in a window, which would give a signal that his master was in a vulnerable position. Erasmus was shot by a cannonball at the spot, and according to derogatory rumors, the spot was – his toilet seat.

Yearlong attacks did not only end with the death of Erasmus Lueger but also left serious damage to the “impenetrable castle”. The emperor gave it to the Oberburgs, then to the Purgstall family, who immediately started the reconstruction. However, their efforts were in vain, as a massive earthquake hit Predjama in 1511 and practically destroyed the castle again.

In 1567, the castle of Predjama was leased to the Cobenzl family, and they reconstructed it in Renaissance style in 1570. It pretty much resembled what we can see today. But in the days, Erasmus’ evacuation route also served as an entrance point for sneaky thieves. The baron decided to brick the “secret” passageway that connected the castle with the neighboring villages. Cobenzl family was Predjama Castle’s owner until 1810.

The 19^th century saw the Austrian aristocracy moving into the castle. The first heir was Count Michael Coronini von Cronberg. In 1846, Prince Alfred von Windisch-Grätz took over and used the fort as a hunting lodge.

After the Second World War, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was founded, and the state authorities confiscated the building. Now nationalized, the castle was turned into a museum, today owned by the Republic of Slovenia. Nobody lives in Predjama Castle anymore. Well, unless you count some visiting animals and – ghosts.

Is Predjama Castle haunted?

In 2008, the production team of “Ghost Hunters International”, the TV reality series investigating the sites of paranormal activities, visited Predjama Castle and did their best to portray it as a spooky and ominous place.

With so many residents that lived (and died) here, would it be possible that some souls got trapped among the rocks, never to leave? The SciFi Channel explorers posed this question seriously, aiming to use scientific methods to discover the ghost of Erasmus or any other talkative spirit hanging out in the dark castle corridors.

In “Tortured Souls”, episode 13 (ominous, of course!) of the first season of GHI, the investigators centered their search in the supposed torture chamber, as well as the caves underneath.

They claimed to have detected unnatural magnetic fields, as well as unusual sounds such as footsteps, knocking, and mysterious voices behind the walls. Were those really manifesting spirits of Erasmus, or potentially people who died during the 1511 earthquake?

The evidence is, like usual in such cases, inconclusive. There is a lot of “Did you hear that?” moments in the episode. The researcher asked the ghost: “Do you know you don’t have to be here anymore?” The same guy then claimed: “I’d swear I heard ‘I know’”.

The Ghost Hunters episode doubled as free marketing, propelling Predjama Castle to the list of the most haunted places in the world (where haunted castles are not the least terrifying).

The ghost is hungry

The clearest recording of what the American ghost hunters call an electronic voice phenomenon in Predjama Castle sounded like: “Look!”

Anticipating the issue that medieval knights and peasants certainly did not speak modern English, the ghost specialists rushed with an expert explanation: “We speak English, but it seems they have a basic understanding.”

Of course, if there had been a Croat on the team (me, for instance), I could have said that what sounds like ‘look’ in English was actually a Croatian word for ‘onion’. Would that mean that the ghost of Erasmus was still trying to keep the castle supplied with food?

Jokes aside, the Ghost Hunters International gave a wannabe-serious explanation of how the voices of the past could have gotten trapped in Predjama Castle.

With alchemic zeal, they explained that the basic materials these cave rocks are made of are salt (one of the researchers actually licked the stalagmite to confirm it), water, iron, and quartz. Supposedly, that’s a recipe for a mountain as a battery! Now, did I say ‘jokes aside’?

To quote one of the ghost hunters: “I’ve been to many spooky places, but never heard anything like that before.”

Predjama Castle’s ghostly appeal is just another valid reason to make a stop here on your road trip through Slovenia.

A man in Indonesia also heard voices, and they told him to build an unusually shaped temple. Read more about the Chicken Church, the most bizarre architecture venture on the island of Java!

Predjama Castle in movies

The SciFi reality (and if that’s not an oxymoron, what is?) was not the only production that brought the Slovenian castle to TV and cinema screens.

One of the first movies that recognized the potential of Predjama Castle as a film location was “Zorikan the Barbarian”. Roberto Mauri directed the not-really-successful 1964 Italian adventure on a Christian-barbaric struggle over a stolen religious relic. If you really must, you can watch the movie here.

Much more accomplished in depicting the battle over a mysterious treasure guarded by monks was the “Armour of God” (1986). With Jackie Chan in the main role and the role of a director, Predjama Castle became a focal point of the cult classic action movie. Slovenia was also the place where Jackie Chan almost died. The actor famous for doing his own stunts had to jump off a cliff and grab onto a tree. But the branch snapped, and Chan fell from a height of 5 meters. He cracked his skull, with a piece of bone damaging his brain, resulting luckily only in some hearing loss in his right ear.

In 1988, Peter Vezjak directed a music video for Laibach at Predjama Castle. The famous Slovenian avant-garde band made the cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones, and the fortress served well as a filming location for the band’s sinister sound.

The Slovenian castle also made an appearance in the South Korean romantic drama series “Black Knight” (2017). The script follows a businessman and a travel agent who spent their childhood together but got separated, reuniting as adults in Slovenia, with Predjama Castle playing its essential part. The love story became a hit on Korean TV, seeing a surge of visitors to the Predjama Castle home country.

Was Predjama Castle in Game of Thrones?

With its unique appearance and mythical aura, Predjama Castle seems to be a logical set choice for “Game of Thrones”, HBO’s successful fantasy drama.

While the castle didn’t make it to the screen, it did enchant the author of the novel, George R. R. Martin, in 2011.

After visiting Predjama Castle at night, he called it “amazing” and “an astonishing fortress-in-a-cave”, worthy of modeling a Westeros castle on it in his “Song of Ice and Fire” book series.

Nevertheless, the true GoT fans already found connections between the world of Slovenian and fictional knights.

In the series, Tyrion shot Lord Tywin Lannister while he was sitting on the least noble throne – the loo.

Besides the similarity with Predjama Castle legend of the death of Erasmus, the viewers also noticed the resemblance between House Stark’s sigil and the one of the Windisch-Grätz family, both featuring a wolf.

If these coincidences did not satisfy your desire to see Predjama Castle in some TV fantasy, the good news is around the corner.

In 2022, the castle was closed to the general public for a day, as “The Witcher” crew was filming scenes at the site. This means that, in the third season, the Netflix show on medieval monster hunters could offer another incentive for visiting Predjama Castle, which already has a respectable legend portfolio.

If you are a fan of "Game of Thrones", then you should know that the series was partly filmed in the neighboring country of Croatia. Explore Hotel Belvedere, one of the shooting places in Dubrovnik, the King's Landing! Alternatively, you could also visit the island of Malta that also played as a set in the series!

Predjama Castle tour

The best way to navigate between facts and fantasy at this cultural monument is by joining the Predjama Castle tour.

My guide, Luka Fatur, a man in his 20s, met me at the entrance, in front of a drawbridge that once kept unwanted visitors away. Today, it is a fixed feature, enabling anyone to pass under the coat of arms of the Cobenzl family, the 16^th-century castle renovators, and between the two stone pyramids, more modern additions of possibly Freemason origin.

As I would learn from Luka, the history of Predjama Castle was intertwined with hearsay, and distinguishing the facts was not always the easiest task.

The four floors of Predjama Castle’s interior were filled with furniture and life-size dummies depicting medieval life, not always in the most documentary way. Some of the things we could see were castle originals, but many were replicas or imported objects replacing the ones that were taken away to museums.

Predjama Castle as a giant dungeon

We entered the courtroom where justice was supposedly served, leading the convicts to solitary confinement behind a thick wooden door, or to Predjama Castle dungeon cave, where they would be tortured with a variety of punishment devices. None of this had historical proof, but it made a solid background for international ghost hunters.

Passing through the castle, and trying to reflect on the life of the days, I was imagining that its darkest corners were not as terrifying. Cold and moist, with moss and mold thriving on its thick rock walls, already the castle itself seemed like a place where living equaled punishment. One didn’t have to end up in a damp prison, or as a trophy on the wall (like horns of hunted deer could testify), to learn that living here was nothing close to a fairytale.

Besides the kitchen, only the master’s bedroom supposedly had a fireplace. The bedroom was connected to the castle chapel by windows, which enabled the master to listen to the word of God from a warm seat. At the same time, the priest had to count on his own fat reserves to warm up, as the large-bellied dummy suggested.

If you think Predjama Castle's dungeon was a scary place for prisoners, wait to see what they do to people in Am Phu Cave, the hell cave of Vietnam!

How to survive a siege in a hanging castle

Predjama Castle armory displayed swords, halberds, battleaxes, flails, shields, and full knight attire. Luka brought me behind the ropes dividing the world of mortal visitors and historical artifacts, and I had the privilege to hold some of the weapons on display. I appreciated the VIP treatment, but it all seemed surprisingly lightweight to me. I imagined that the authentic Middle Ages saw only strongmen becoming knights.

On the top floor, my tour guide showed me the room with murder holes through which the defenders of the castle could pour boiling oil on invaders. Obviously, I wasn’t allowed to try out this line of Predjama Castle defense, nor to use the latrine where the bowels of Erasmus and contemporaries would drop their own set of bombs over a dozen-meter drop.

The castle of Predjama offered splendid views of the Vipava Valley, but it was a poor consolation during the time of a siege. Luckily for Erasmus, the secret passage led from Predjama Castle through the cave and out to the other side of the mountain, which essentially secured his survival.

The cave part of the castle was actually the nucleus of its development through the ages. People were living here already in the 9^th century, and the addition of a system of pipes collecting the rainwater enabled the residents to survive during the biggest hardships.

For a modern take on places we live in, visit Vitra Museum in Basel!

Conclusion: Is Predjama Castle worth visiting?

I will not say that Predjama Castle is a great place for history lessons. With a variety of noble families claiming their spot in the world’s largest cave castle and conflicting political powers fighting for influence on the border between empires, detecting the truth becomes an arduous endeavor.

Maybe that’s exactly the reason why Predjama Castle became a fertile ground for numerous legends, from this and the other world. It feels as if it tried to melt a variety of plots into a single story, but paradoxically, still keep it solid.

Its heroes experienced everything from romance to betrayal, from dark ages torture to hunting feasts, from broken skulls to bewitched relics, from confronting the attacker with anecdotal audaciousness to silent tapping in the murky corridors while hiding from the sleepless ghosts of the past.

Predjamski Grad is not exactly on earth, not entirely in the skies, but somewhere in between

Predjama Castle is a Slovenian heritage site that offers a myriad of amusing perspectives, but it definitely charms with the beauty of its architecture that defied the odds of gravity and the ravages of time.

At one of the most unlikely sites to build anything else but a danger-warning signpost, people were determined to construct a gigantic house, not exactly on earth, not entirely in the skies.

Right in between the underworld and the heavens, amidst the hard-working peasant hands below and entitled crowned heads above, Predjama Castle survived for more than eight centuries as a fascinating monument to human persistence.

 
Predjama Castle quick facts

How do you pronounce Predjama?

Predjama Castle pronunciation could be a real tongue-twister to non-Slavic speakers. The correct way to pronounce Predjama is [pɾɛdˈjaːma]. If you still need help saying it aloud, find the audio of the pronunciation here.

The name Predjama literally means “in front of the cave”.

Where is Predjama Castle located?

Predjama Castle’s location is in the historical region of Inner Carniola in Slovenia. The mountainside castle is just above the village of Predjama, some 11 kilometers northwest of the town of Postojna.

How do you get to Predjama Castle?

The town of Postojna is easily reachable by bus or train from Ljubljana, but to get all the way to Predjama, using a car or the Postojna Cave Park shuttle bus is the best option.

Alternatively, you could join an organized Predjama Castle tour from Ljubljana, which will take you both to the castle and Postojna Cave in a minivan for 51 Euros. Join the tour here.

If you want to travel from Lake Bled to Predjama Castle, you can join this tour for 79 Euros.

Visiting Predjama Castle from Trieste is possible by joining this tour for 75,31 Euros.

For those of you who wish to visit Predjama Castle from Zagreb, and see Ljubljana and Postojna on the way, the solution is this tour for 120 Euros.

Have in mind that an admission ticket to the sites is not included in these tours.

Predjama Castle tickets

Predjama Castle ticket price for adult visitors is 17,50 Euros. Students and children, basically anyone between the ages of 6 and 25, have reduced admission to Predjama Castle, at a price of 14 Euros. Children up to 5 years of age pay a symbolic entrance fee; they can witness Predjama Castle for 1 Euro only.

Predjama Castle audio guide comes in 17 languages (Slovenian, Croatian, English, German, Italian, French, Hungarian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), and is included in the ticket price. Alternatively, you can download a free mobile app.

Predjama Castle parking will cost you an additional 5 euros for a day.

Dogs and other pets are not allowed inside Predjama Castle.

The combined ticket to Predjama Castle and Postojna Cave costs 40,90 Euros. If you want to have a full Postojna Cave Park experience (a few more exhibitions included), you will pay 49,50 Euros. If you bought the combo ticket, you can avoid paying for the parking by using the provided shuttle bus between the sites.

Can you see Predjama Castle without paying?

Yes, you can see Predjama Castle without paying if you don’t wish to enter inside. Visiting the village and taking Predjama Castle photos from outside is free of charge. If you avoid the opening hours of Predjama Castle, you won’t even have to pay the mandatory parking fee for your vehicle.

Predjama Castle’s opening hours

From November to March, Predjama Castle operates from 10 am to 4 pm. In April and October, the closing time extends to 5 pm.

If you come in the warmer months, between May and September, the opening hours of Predjama Castle will be from 9 am to 6 pm. In July and August, the closing time extends to 7 pm.

Occasionally, on dates such as Halloween, Predjama Castle organizes special night tours.

How much time does it take to visit Predjama Castle?

For a leisurely experience, I would reserve at least 1 to 2 hours for visiting Predjama Castle.

Predjama Castle virtual tour

If you don’t plan to visit Slovenia soon, or you have already visited Predjama Castle but want to refresh your memory, you can also enjoy the virtual tour of the castle from your home. You can find it here.

Where to stay when visiting Predjama Castle?

There is no hotel in Predjama where you could stay. Your best option is to pick accommodation in the town of Postojna and organize a transfer from there.

Probably the most convenient place to stay is Postojna Cave Hotel Jama. This 4-star hotel is located right in the middle of the Postojna Cave complex, and Predjama Castle is just a shuttle bus ride away. The price could be between 130 and 200 Euros per night, depending on the period. Read my Hotel Jama review first, and then check the prices for your desired dates here.

For a more affordable luxury choice, pick Hotel Kras in the city center. A night in a double room in this 4-star hotel could cost you between 70 and 110 Euros. Check the availability and prices here.

Budget travelers could opt for staying in the Youth Hostel Proteus, where a single room can be rented for 29 Euros per night already. Check the availability for your dates here.

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