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Ljubljana owes much of its beauty to the Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik (1872–1957), whose work has put a firm stamp on this city just as Gaudí defines Barcelona and Haussman has marked Paris. His genius lay in the way he replanned the town, with vistas and great open spaces. A former colleague of arch-Secessionist Otto Wagner in Vienna, Plečnik worked in Prague remodeling its castle before returning to his native city in 1921. Here he began transforming Ljubljana, a backwater of the Austro-Hungarian empire for 400 years, into the Slovene capital it had become at the end of World War I, when the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia) was created. He built bridges (most strikingly the Tromostovje, or Triple Bridge, that has become a symbol of the city), churches, the superb university library, and a cemetery, all in a distinctive and original neoclassical-meets-Art Deco style.
This is as close as Slovenia gets to St. Peter's. The vast Baroque wedding cake was built in the first years of the 1700s after the Turks destroyed Ljubljana's...more
One of Plečnik's greatest designs is the colonnaded Central Market along Adamič-Lundrovo Nabrežje, just behind the cathedral. The stalls of the...more
The sprawling hall in the middle of Tivoli Park is the home of the International Center of Graphic Arts (Mednarodni Grafični Likovni). The permanent...more
Though there's been some kind of a fortification on this site for more than 3,000 years, the existing castle is largely 16th- and 17th-century. There's not much...more
Slovenia's national gallery is housed in a pair of 19th-century museums connected by a glass building. One of the old structures displays a collection of...more
This well-curated collection of photographs, artifacts, and amazing displays—including a life-size World War I soldiers' trench—illuminate Slovenian...more
The house and studio where architect Jože Plečnik lived and worked feels like the master just stepped out of the room: His glasses, bedclothes,...more
This splendid church was built in 1936 at the edge of Tivoli Park. The bright, creamy yellow exterior is compact and Eastern-influenced. The dark interior is...more
Formerly the recreational grounds of Tivolski Grad—a 17th-century stately home that is now the International Center of Graphic Arts—Tivoli Park has...more
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