One of the most exceptional castles in the world is Predjama, built in the mouth of a cave complex at the end of a valley in southwest Slovenia.

It is set halfway up a 400-foot vertical cliff face, its records date back to 1202, as well as, is listed by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest cave castle.

Its Renaissance facade dates back to the 1580s, and the word “majestic” doesn’t do justice to it. 

It may look quite ordinary, but the story behind it isn’t.

The story focuses on robber baron Erasmus von Lueg, a local Robin Hood hero who ran from the castle in the mid-1480s after killing Count Pappenheim, Marshal of the imperial Habsburg Court, in a duel whose legitimacy was disputed.

In retaliation, a siege was ordered on Predjama by Habsburg Emperor Frederick III.

But Erasmus stood firm, aided by a network of secret tunnels burrowed into the rocks that allowed him to bring in provisions and collect rainwater.

He mocked his opponents by sending them fresh cherries brought in from the Vipava Valley, 13 miles west, using those underground passages.

The end would come, after a year and a day, when Erasmus was betrayed by a servant.

When Erasmus went to the outhouse located on a third-floor terrace, the servant lit a wooden torch as a signal. Moments later, a cannonball came whistling through the air, killing Erasmus in the middle of his last bowel movement.

The outhouse has clearly been rebuilt in the intervening years.

The manner of Erasmus’s death hasn’t escaped the attention of “Game of Thrones” fans who point at the similar, undignified end of Lord Tywin Lannister, who was shot with a crossbow while on his bathroom throne.

They also note that Predjama’s last owners, the Windisch-Grätz family, who used the castle as a hunting lodge until the end of World War II, have on their coat of arms a wolf, the seal of the Stark noble house.

As it happens, author George R. R. Martin visited the castle one evening in June 2011, after a book signing event in Trieste.

“On the way home, we stopped at the most amazing castle, built into the mouth of a huge cave. Definitely have to model some castle in Westeros on this one, it was an eyeful, especially by night,” he said in a blog post.

Legend and history are only part of the appeal of Predjama castle. You really have to visit to comprehend how human enterprise was so organically bound to nature.

Approaching the castle from any direction, it’s almost completely hidden, only visible at the last moment — whereas sentries around the castle would’ve been able to spot anyone coming immediately.

Once inside, it’s obvious that safety rather than comfort was the biggest concern in the Middle Ages — the castle is impregnable but the cold and dampness make it almost unlivable.

Nowadays, entering the castle would require passing through a drawbridge. The original entrance was higher up where two faint doors can be glimpsed. They were reached via ladders that could quickly be withdrawn.

Back in the day, visitors would first enter the courtroom, where rough justice was dispensed. Few of the ruler’s subjects would be allowed further than this unless they were unlucky.

Behind a thick wooden door, there’s a torture room, which, uniquely, is situated in an actual cavernous dungeon. The preferred punishments here were the rack, on which prisoners were stretched, and the horse, a painfully pointed triangular device they were made to straddle.

One of the most pleasant spaces follows. The dining room is insulated by walls that are nearly five and a half feet thick, and warmed by the small but functional kitchen, in which a fissure doubles as a natural extractor hood.

A climb up more stairs to the third floor reveals the gun loops, arrow slits and murder holes used to pour boiling oil or molten resin onto the besiegers.

That’s where the open terrace is located. Here there’s a view of the whole valley, as well as the most famous outhouse in Slovenian history.

Next to it is the bedroom. It’s the warmest room, as it’s the only one with a fireplace. Castle keepers lived here until the 1980s.

Upstairs is an attic that served as a barracks and a lookout. The views down the Lokva Valley are uninterrupted and gorgeous.

The barracks have been converted to an armoury museum showcasing medieval weapons like battleaxes, halberds, crossbows and flails.

Source: Agencies