Bogensperk Castle

Bogenšperk was bought in 1672 by Janez Vajkard Valvasor, who set up a copperplate workshop and printing press in it and there produced The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, published in 1689: fifteen books and well over three thousand pages describing the land, its castles, customs, caves and the intermittent lake at Cerknica, illustrated with engravings that remain the main visual record of the country before the eighteenth century. He went bankrupt paying for it and sold the castle in 1692.

What you actually see

• The Valvasor rooms - the study and workshop of the author of the 1689 Glory of Carniola.
• The printing press - a reconstruction of the copperplate and press operation.
• The engravings - reproductions of the plates that record seventeenth-century Carniola.
• The chapel and collections - hunting, geodesy and wedding rooms in the ranges.

When to go

April to October for full opening; winter hours are short and often weekends only. Weekdays are quiet. The approach road is narrow and awkward in snow.

Honest expectations

The collections are uneven and some rooms are filler. Interpretation is mostly in Slovene and English material is thin. The castle is remote and needs a car.

Nearby

Litija is below, and Sticna Abbey is south.