An introduction to my home town.

With less than 300.000 people, Ljubljana is the smallest capital city in the EU. It is also the city where I’ve lived my entire life, besides studying abroad, so I can definitely tell you quite a bit about it.

Ljubljana is known as the city of dragons, as even our coat of arms features a dragon (why? here), which is right up my alley, because I love dragons and that is probably not a coincidence. 🙂 The city is located at the heart of the Slovenian chicken – yes, our country is shaped like a chicken, which I think is awesome. Its central location makes it a great starting point for exploring the rest of Slovenia and pretty much everything is within a few hours driving distance. Since there are way too many interesting things to do in Ljubljana and you can read about them in my Local’s guide to Ljubljana guest post or the official tourist pages, I’ve tried to condense this post down to my favourites to give you a feel for the city and hopefully inspire you to visit.

Let’s start with my absolute favourite: the Dragon bridge, which was initially built as an experiment in 1900. A newly discovered way to reinforce concrete was tested out in Ljubljana, rather than in Vienna, as the consequences of a bridge failing in Ljubljana were deemed less severe. It features bronze statues of dragons, which had turned green due to the exposure to the elements, and these dragons have been one of my favourite spots in Ljubljana for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest childhood memories is sitting on top of one of the dragon statues, while my mother screamed at my father that I will fall into the river, which is conveniently called Ljubljanica.

Ljubljana is walkable and quite nice in any weather. Most of what visitors are interested in is located in the city centre, so there is little need to venture outside of it. A couple of years ago the central part of Ljubljana was declared traffic free, which had been a great decision as far as I am concerned, and the city centre has been extensively renovated. Every time I visited home while studying abroad, the city looked a bit nicer – I know a part of that feeling was my missing home, but they’ve really done a good job.

The main Prešeren’s square is the heart of the city, named after France Prešeren, who is considered our most important poet and the central figure of our national cultural holiday on the 8th of February. As he was madly in love with Julija Primic, who was his muse and did not return his love at all, his statue at the main square gazes towards a small sculpture of Julija on Wolf street, where she had lived until marrying someone else.

The other important sights include the Ljubljana castle on top of the hill, the historical Old town and the (too) many churches and numerous museums, which are sometimes free to visit, so make sure you check for special offers before buying your ticket. My personal cultural favourites are:

• The recently renovated City museum of Ljubljana with a very attractive and easy to understand historical walk-through exhibition, where you can learn all about the Roman origins of Ljubljana, which used to be called Emona, and see one of the world’s oldest wheels.
• The National gallery, because it houses the original Robba’s fountain and because some of the Slovenian painters knew what they were doing very well – you can see a bit more about Slovenian impressionists in this post or about Ivana Kobilca here.
• The fun and interactive House of Illusions.
• The National museum of Slovenia is also great for history enthusiasts – it houses a 46.000 years old Neanderthal flute, the swords found in the Ljubljanica river and a dugout canoe from the Ljubljana marshes (the entire Ljubljana region is built upon marshlands).
• In terms of alternative culture, there is also Metelkova city, a squat turned arts and culture social centre where I spent most of my teenage years.

Like everywhere, the city centre has many interesting architectural creations, with the most famous being the works of Jožef Plečnik, who also worked extensively in Prague. He designed Križanke, the outdoor theatre, and the Triple bridge, which would be my favourite bridge, if it wasn’t for the Dragon bridge. You can learn more about Plečnik and his work at the Plečnik house museum. His other works include the National university library -NUK, which is a magnificent must-see inside and out with a cosy cafe, and the Central market arcades. The entire Central market area is very nice and you can find fresh produce from the farmers’ market there almost every day. Walking down to the fish market in the lower levels also provides some spectacular views of the river (and fishy smells). During the summer you can find the Open kitchen food festival there, which is a great way to try out some Slovenian food.

Impressions of Ljubljana

Another thing I love about my home town are all the charming cafes, as we quite like our social coffee time. I had to make a special post for all my recommendations on where to eat, drink and party, because there were just too many options to list here. There are also several beautiful fountains (my favourite is the Robba’s fountain), statues and interesting shops, both retail and second hand, as well as the Sunday antique flea market near the Cobbler’s bridge.

Ljubljana of course hosts many seasonal events, such as Christmas and Pust, and lots of outdoor festivals, like the Ljubljana festival and the Film under the stars summer movie festival. In the summer the main square becomes a zone with its own independent weather, which is a quirky recurring art installation. We also have a square named after the French revolution, apparently a big hit with the French, and an annual chocolate festival.

As is proper for a city which calls itself a green and sustainable destination, Ljubljana has a large number of parks and little nature retreats within the city, as well as a Zoo. The closest park to the city centre is also the largest, the Tivoli park, which features a promenade with a photography exhibition, a small hill named Rožnik with frequent seasonal events, and you can even feed some squirrels there if you are lucky. A bit outside the city centre is park Špica (“the Pointy tip” park), a recently renovated river bank area with nice terraces, where you can find many coypus, giant beaver-like rodents, which have decided to make the centre of Ljubljana their home. Most of us think they are cute, as long as they stay on the river banks and out of the streets. Even further out of the centre is also the pond of Koseze with a nice view of the mountains surrounding Ljubljana.

Last but not least, Ljubljana is full of quirky details and little things which make it special, so go explore and keep your eyes open. I hope you decide to visit and if you do, let me know in the comments below!

The details of Ljubljana