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.

History

The castle was probably begun by the Wagen family to replace their nearby Lihtenberk Castle, badly damaged by an earthquake in 1511. After the last of the family died in 1630 it changed owners until Johann Weikhard von Valvasor bought it in 1672 and fitted it with a graphic studio, a library and a printing press; the cost of publishing The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola left him deep in debt, and in 1692 he sold his estates (Wikipedia, Bogenšperk Castle).

Highlights

• 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.

Good to know

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.

Key facts