Ljubljana: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Jože Plečnik came home from Vienna and Prague in 1921 and spent the next thirty years redesigning Ljubljana almost single-handed — the bridges, the market, the library, the embankments, the cemetery, the lamp posts and the bollards. Almost no other European capital was shaped so completely by one person, and because he worked with a small budget most of it is stone, brick and timber rather than anything grand. Two hours, flat, and all of it is along the river.
A short history of Ljubljana
At the beginning of the 1st century AD the Romans founded the town of Emona here, and remains of its walls can still be seen in the city centre. From 1335 Ljubljana came under Habsburg rule and stayed in their hands for almost 600 years, under the German name Laibach. Between 1809 and 1813 it was the capital of Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces, and for the first time Slovene was taught in its schools. In 1895 an earthquake destroyed a considerable part of the city, and it was rebuilt in the Art Nouveau style. Between the two world wars the architect Jože Plečnik shaped much of its appearance, including the bridges over the river. In 1991 it became the capital of independent Slovenia.
The ten best sights in Ljubljana
1Ljubljana Castle16 euros with the funicular, or free to walk up in 20 minutes
2Triple BridgeFree, and Plečnik added two bridges to an existing one in 1932
3Dragon BridgeFree, from 1901, and the dragon is the city’s own animal
4Cobblers’ BridgeFree, and Plečnik built it as a square rather than a crossing
5Butchers’ BridgeFree, from 2010, and the sculptures on it are deliberately ugly
6St Nicholas CathedralFree, and the bronze doors were made for the Pope’s visit in 1996
7National and University LibraryFree to see the stairs, and Plečnik’s best building
8Plečnik House8 euros, guided only, and he lived in it for forty years
9Town HallFree to enter the courtyard, and the Robba Fountain stands outside
10National Gallery10 euros, Slovene painting, and the original Robba Fountain is inside
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Ljubljana →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Ljubljana:
Free walking tours in Ljubljana
One architect redrew the whole city
Jože Plečnik came home from Vienna and Prague in 1921 and spent the next thirty years redesigning Ljubljana almost single-handed — the bridges, the market, the library, the embankments, the cemetery, the lamp posts and the bollards. Almost no other European capital was shaped so completely by one person, and because he worked with a small budget most of it is stone, brick and timber rather than anything grand. Two hours, flat, and all of it is along the river.
- Prešeren Square · France Prešeren, the national poet, stands here with a muse over his shoulder, and he is looking at a particular window across the square — the house of Julija Primic, whom he loved and who married someone else. A relief of her was put in that window so the gaze has something to land on.
- Triple Bridge · There was one stone bridge here from 1842 and it was choking. Plečnik’s answer in 1932 was not to widen it but to build two narrower bridges either side of it at a slight angle, for people only — so pedestrians fan out across the river while the traffic keeps the middle. The balustrades are his, and so are the lamps.
- Central Market · The curved colonnade along the river is a market hall with no roof over the walkway — Plečnik put the shops in the wall itself and left the river side open, so the whole thing is a covered street rather than a building. The fish market is down the steps underneath, below the water line.
- Cobblers’ Bridge · Shoemakers had their workshops on the old wooden bridge here, paying rent to stand over the water. Plečnik rebuilt it in 1931 with two rows of stone columns and deliberately left it wide and empty — he wanted a square that happens to cross a river, not a bridge, and people do stand about on it.
- National and University Library · The entrance stair is dark and narrow and climbs towards a bright reading room, which is the whole argument of the building. In February 1944 a damaged aircraft came down on it and the reading room burned; students and staff carried books out through the smoke, and the hall was rebuilt exactly as it was.
- Roman Wall at Mirje · Emona was a Roman colony founded about AD 14, and this is its south wall. When it was excavated in the 1930s Plečnik was asked to present it, and rather than fence it off he put a stone pyramid through it and planted a park along it — so a Roman wall is treated as a garden feature and children climb on it.
A dragon, an earthquake and a castle
On Easter Sunday 1895 an earthquake brought down a tenth of Ljubljana, and the mayor of the day used the ruin to rebuild the centre in the Vienna Secession style that was then brand new — which is why a small Slovene capital has streets of Austrian art nouveau. The castle above survived it, having already been a barracks, a prison and then flats for the poor. Two and a half hours, and the funicular does the hill.
- Dragon Bridge · Built in 1901 to replace a wooden bridge the earthquake had weakened, and it was one of the first reinforced-concrete bridges in Europe — the engineers were showing off a new material. The four dragons were not in the plan: the city asked for winged lions and got these, and the dragon has been the city’s animal ever since.
- Vodnikov trg · This open square is the market the locals use, and it stands on the ground of a monastery that the earthquake finished off. On Fridays from March to October the whole square turns into Open Kitchen — forty or fifty cooks selling one dish each from a stall, which is the single best place to eat in the city.
- St Nicholas Cathedral · The bronze doors were made for the visit of Pope John Paul the Second in 1996 and they are worth standing in front of: the main door shows the whole Christian history of Slovenia in one sheet, and the side door is six bishops under a tree, with the heads worn gold by everyone who touches them.
- Town Hall · The fountain outside is a copy. Francesco Robba carved the original in 1751 with three river gods for the three rivers of Carniola, and in 2006 it was taken indoors to the National Gallery because the stone was dissolving in the rain — so the famous fountain of Ljubljana is a replica and the real one is in a museum.
- Gornji trg · Look at the row of houses on the east side: five of them are narrower than the rest and set slightly back, and they are medieval — the oldest surviving houses in Ljubljana, built on the plots of the original fourteenth-century town. Everything around them is younger because the earthquake took it.
- Ljubljana Castle · After it stopped being a fortress it was an army barracks, then the provincial prison, and then — once the city bought it in 1905 — it was simply let out as flats to people who could not afford anywhere else. Families were still living inside the castle walls into the 1960s, and the restoration only finished in 2015.
The barracks they never left
When the Yugoslav army pulled out of Slovenia in 1991 it left a seven-building compound in the middle of Ljubljana. The city planned to demolish it; two hundred people moved in overnight in September 1993 and never left, and Metelkova has been an autonomous arts quarter ever since, with the state museums built on the other half of the same block. The walk takes in both halves and the park behind them. Two hours, and the north end is best in daylight, the south end after ten.
- Metelkova · The occupation happened on the night of the tenth of September 1993, after the city sent in machinery to start knocking the barracks down. Two hundred artists and activists walked in and stayed. It has no mains agreement, no landlord and no opening hours, and every surface in it has been painted over at least thirty times.
- Museum of Contemporary Art · Built in the other half of the same barracks and opened in 2011, and its Arteast 2000+ collection was the first museum collection anywhere to treat Eastern European art of the socialist decades as one body of work rather than as a footnote to the West. The two halves of the block do not speak to each other much.
- Ethnographic Museum · The collection to find is the painted beehive panels. Slovene beekeepers painted the little front boards of their hives with scenes — saints, devils, a hunter being buried by the animals, a wife dragging her husband out of the inn — and it is a folk art form that exists nowhere else in the world.
- National Museum of Slovenia · In a case on the first floor is a piece of cave bear femur with four holes in it, found at Divje Babe in 1995 and dated to around sixty thousand years ago. If the holes were made by a Neanderthal, and most researchers now think they were, it is the oldest musical instrument ever found.
- Tivoli Park · Five square kilometres of park beginning two streets from the main square, and the broad gravel avenue running up the middle is Plečnik’s again — he laid it out in 1928 as an outdoor gallery, with the paving arranged so that large photographs could be mounted along it. They still are.
- Rožnik Hill · Forty minutes up through the woods from the back of Tivoli, and there is an inn at the top that has been serving walkers since the nineteenth century. Ivan Cankar, the writer every Slovene reads at school, lived in a room there for seven years and wrote most of his best work in it.
Getting to Ljubljana and getting around
- Jože Pučnik Airport · 25 kilometres out, bus 28 is 4.10 euros and takes 50 minutes
- Railway Station · Trains to Vienna, Zagreb and Trieste, and the bus station is beside it
- Slovenska cesta · The main street, closed to cars since 2013, and every bus runs on it
- Prešeren Square · The centre of everything, and nothing in the old town is more than ten minutes away
Cheap eats in Ljubljana
Eight counters where Ljubljana eats standing. The one dish to find is kranjska klobasa — Carniolan sausage, which has a legally protected recipe: at least sixty-eight percent pork, twenty percent bacon, salt, pepper and garlic, nothing else, and it has to be pinned with a wooden skewer at both ends. It is served with bread and mustard and costs about five euros. The other thing is burek from a window by the station at two in the morning.
- Klobasarna · About 5 euros, no seats, and it shuts at six
- Open Kitchen · Fridays 10 to 9, March to October, and cash is easier
- Central Market · Open till four, shut Sunday, and the fish hall is down the steps
- Druga Violina · About 10 euros a main, on Stari trg, and no booking
- Gostilna Sokol · Old Slovene dishes in a vaulted house, and 15 euros a main
- Nobel Burek · Open 24 hours by the station, and 3.50 euros a piece
- Pop’s Place · Burgers on the riverbank, about 12 euros, and a queue at eight
- Čokl · A tiny roaster under the castle hill, and the coffee is the best here
Museums in Ljubljana
- National Museum of Slovenia · 8 euros, and the ticket covers the natural history museum
- City Museum · 6 euros, closed Mondays, and the basement is the reason
- Ethnographic Museum · 6 euros, and the painted beehive panels exist nowhere else
- National Gallery · 10 euros, Slovene painting, and the real Robba Fountain is inside
- Museum of Modern Art · 7 euros, and the twentieth-century Slovene rooms are the strength
- Museum of Contemporary Art · 7 euros, at Metelkova, and the Eastern European collection
- Plečnik House · 8 euros, guided only, and book the slot ahead
- Railway Museum · 5 euros, steam engines in an old roundhouse, and quiet
Parks and gardens in Ljubljana
Ljubljana closed its centre to cars in stages between 2007 and 2013, planted a park on what had been the main car park, and was named European Green Capital in 2016. Three quarters of the city is green space and most of it starts within fifteen minutes of the main square.
- Tivoli Park · Free, five square kilometres, and it starts at Slovenska
- Rožnik Hill · Free, 40 minutes up through woods, and an inn at the top
- Botanical Garden · Free, by the river south of the centre, and the glasshouse is 5 euros
- Žale Cemetery · Free, and Plečnik built it as a small town with its own streets
- Cankarjevo nabrežje · Free, willows over the water, and the terraces from April
- Lake Bled · 40 minutes by bus, and the rowed boat is 18 euros return
- Vintgar Gorge · 12 euros, 1,600 metres of wooden walkway from 1893, and book ahead
- Lake Bohinj · Ninety minutes out, four times the size of Bled, and you can swim in it
Things to do in Ljubljana with kids
- Postojna Cave · 31 euros, an hour out, and it is 10 degrees inside, always
- Predjama Castle · 16 euros, ten minutes from Postojna, and a combined ticket exists
- Ljubljana Zoo · 13 euros, on the wooded side of Rožnik, and two hours covers it
- Castle funicular · Glass cabin, 70 seconds, and the puppet museum is at the top
- Puppet Theatre · From 8 euros, and shows in the afternoon most days
- Natural History Museum · 6 euros, a whole mammoth skeleton, and it is not big
- Railway Museum · 5 euros, steam engines you can climb into on some days
- Tivoli Park · Free, playgrounds, a pond, and the swimming pool at the far end
Live music in Ljubljana
- Metelkova · Free in, from ten, and nothing starts before midnight
- Kino Šiška · A 1960s cinema turned concert hall, and the main touring bands
- Cankarjev dom · The 1980 cultural centre, from classical to jazz, and tickets are cheap
- Križanke · From 20 euros, July and August, and bring a jacket
- Opera and Ballet · From 15 euros, an 1892 house, and it seats only 500
- Slovenian Philharmonic · From 15 euros, and the society behind it was founded in 1701
- Cvetličarna · A former flower shop, now the mid-size club, and a late start
- Nebotičnik · The rooftop bar on the 1933 tower, open till one at weekends
Holy places in Ljubljana
- St Nicholas Cathedral · Free, and the ceiling fresco is 1703
- Franciscan Church · Free, the pink front on the main square, and the altar is Robba
- Ursuline Church · Free, 1726, and the best baroque front in the country
- Žale Cemetery · Free, 20 minutes north of the centre, and quiet
- Križanke · Free to the courtyard, and it was a Teutonic Knights monastery
- Ljubljana Castle chapel · Free with the castle, 1489, and the painted coats of arms are 1747
- Lake Bled island church · 12 euros to enter, 99 steps up, and you ring the bell yourself
- Škofja Loka · 25 minutes by train, and the Passion play has run since 1721
Frequently asked questions about Ljubljana
What is there to see in Ljubljana?
The top sights in Ljubljana are Ljubljana Castle, Triple Bridge and Dragon Bridge. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Ljubljana?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Ljubljana without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Ljubljana?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Ljubljana, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: One architect redrew the whole city.
How do you get to Ljubljana and get around?
The main ways are Jože Pučnik Airport, Railway Station and Slovenska cesta. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Ljubljana, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Ljubljana that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Ljubljana for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.