On my recent trip to Ljubljana, I broke the law. I was made to. In hindsight, I found it be a rather interesting and enjoyable experience.

„You are a smart man. They wanted to rip you off, and you didn’t let them“, the waiter at a restaurant on the banks of Ljubljanica congratulates me after I told him about my exploit just a few hours earlier.

He gives me a thumbs up and smiles.

It wasn’t quite as heroic as for some reason he seems to think. Not that I had told him it was.

I had just exited the funicular up to Ljubljana’s castle. Entering the castle I was somewhat overwhelmed by the new entrance hall.

I just entered. I didn’t pay a cent. No one asked.

I hadn’t intended to do that.

With all the construction work still going on in Ljubljanski grad, and with the layout of the magnificent looking but somewhat confsuing entrance hall, I just didn’t notice the sign that listed the entry fees.

A ticket costs 15 Euros.

The waiter from later thinks it a tourist trap.

„Don’t go up there. They just rip you off. The price is outrageous“, he had told two female tourists before our conversation.

„You don’t have to pay“, I told him. „I didn’t.“

I would have, had I known.

I only noticed that you had to get a ticket when I left. By that time, I didn’t care.

In fact, I found it somewhat funny and maybe a little exciting that I had cheated the system, inadvertedly though it may have been.

It isn’t my fault when somewhat counterintuitive architecture places a box office and a price list in a way that just about anyone can just walk by without noticing them.

It isn’t my fault that there is apparently no one to check if you have your ticket. At least not in the general entrance hall.

They probably would have in one of the small museums and exhibitions that are all over the place now. I was just too exhausted from taking photos for a photoreportage from Ljubljana’s Central Market to even consider visiting one.

So no one ever asked me if I had a ticket. Literally no one.

The funny thing was that I had mused over how it would be a great idea if there was a counter somewhere where you could buy a central ticket that would give you access to all the museums in this castle.

There you go.

How Much The Place Has Changed

It had been 25 years and a week that I had been up there the last time. The place has changed, you have to hand it to them.

From my first and only visit I don’t even recall a cafe up there.

Sure, it was in better shape than say the fortresses in Užiče, Stolac or Zvornik. Most old fortresses are like Bijela Tabija in Sarajevo. Not taken care of, often used as hangouts by teenagers, which correlates with a high number of graffiti and lots of beer cans, and sometimes syringes.

Ljubljanski grad had always been in somewhat better shape, more like what the fortress is like in Travnik now.

It does share a rather confusing property with most of the aforementioned: It’s referred to as grad.

In Slavic languages, grad means town or city.

For one reason or another, old fortresses are often called Stari grad, which means Old Town. This can be quite confusing for tourists. In smaller places, you simply don’t know what a street sign pointing to „Stari grad“ will lead you to.

As Ljubljana has its own Old Town, on the other side of Ljublanica, the fortress is called Ljubljanski grad.

A Long History, And A Forever Renovation

Like Petrovaradin in Novi Sad or Kalegemegdan, the castle’s roots go back a long time. It’s seen many uses over the past almost 1.000 years of its more detailled recorded history.

Among the usual uses for such installations – military, penitentiary and medical – it has also been used as a home for the city’s poor for most of the 20th century.

Now it’s one the city’s main tourist attractions. And rather deservedly so. And that’s not just because of the magnificent view of Ljubljana you get from its walls.

As is common for such places, renovations and constructions take forever. There are historical structures to be preserved.

The current reconstruction started in 2006.

It isn’t finished now.

Construction workers were working on pathways as I visited. Some of them appear to be Bosnian, from what little I could catch of their conversations.

True, that’s a bit of a drawback. Ongoing construction works never make a place more inviting.

Especially not on a cloudy and chilly early afternoon in November.

And especially not since the construction works lead to a number of stairs being closed, and making parts of the castle inaccessible. Also, the main entrance from the parking lot is closed – the one entrance with a box office everyone should recognize as such.

But that I only noticed after I had left and passed by.

The Pros And Cons of the Current System

The main disadvantage right now is that the already confusing guidance system for visitors is rendered next to useless.

With most paths and stairs you simply have no idea whether they lead you to where you want to go or just a dead end.

This should be resolved once the construction work is finished.

It’s going to be a lot more inviting once the tourist season starts in May.

Which leaves the question whether or not 15 Euros is a fair price or on the higher end of things.

Running the museums up here costs a lot of money. As does the reconstruction. Someone has to pay for this.

Given that a ticket covers the museums and exhibitions, it strikes me as relatively fair. This is Slovenia, by far the richest country on the Balkans. It’s no surprise that things here are more expensive than in other places in the region.

That some places in Ljubljana charge outrageous prices is quite true, but is irrelevant for the question whether or not 15 Euros for Ljubljanski grad is a fair price or not.

There is another aspect.

The castle belongs to the city of Ljubljana, and by extention to all its citizens. It is public property. And it is a recreational area.

Ljubljananians effectively pay twice if they visit the castle. After all, some of their taxes are being used for the place’s maintenance.

Seen in this light, 15 Euros for just entering the castle is highly unfair. This explains the waiter’s attitude.

Ideally, entering the castle should be free. You shouldn’t have to pay money for strolling around, enjoying the view, relaxing up here.

Charging for everything else, such as guided tours or visiting museums, is only fair. Given Slovenian standards, 15 Euros is hardly outrageous.

I Shall Return

This is even true if one considers that some of the exhibitions up here seem to cater to dreadful and ahistorical stereotypes about the Middle Ages. One „Escape Game“ tour for instance is called „Redeem the Witch“.

The witch craze wasn’t really a thing until the early modern ages.

Unlike most other modern Balkan countries, modern day Slovenia did experience a series of witch trials, mainly in the mid 17th century, according to this source.

True, it is quite possible that the tour specifies that – but given how museums and tours in Germany and Austria often portray this dark chapter in religious and judicial history I wouldn’t hold my breath they do a better job here.

Maybe I should check on that next time I’m in Ljubljana. Hopefully it will be during a more pleasant time of the year.

Next time I’ll also buy a ticket.

As enjoyable as the experience of having cheated the system may have been this time, I wouldn’t want to make a criminal career of it.

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