Things to do in Karst & Coast
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Pri Mari
This very stylish restaurant south of the bus station makes an ambitious (and successful) attempt at combining Mediterranean and Slovenian food.
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Proteus Vivarium
Two hundred species of fauna (including cave beetles, bats, hedgehogs, and the 'human fish') found in the cave are studied at the Proteus Vivarium, which is part of a speleobiological research station located in the cave. It is open to visitors and has a video introduction to underground zoology. A 45-minute tour then leads you into a small, darkened cave to peep at some of the shy creatures you've just learned about.
Proteus anguinus is one of the most mysterious creatures in the world. A kind of salamander, but related to no other amphibian, it is the largest known permanent cave-dwelling vertebrate. The blind little fellow lives hidden in the pitch black for up to a ce…
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Predjama Castle
Situated in the gaping mouth of a cavern halfway up a 123m cliff just 9km northwest of Postojna, Predjama Castle has one of the most dramatic settings. Although a castle has stood on the site since 1202, the one you see today dates from the 16th century. Then - as now - the four-storey fortress looked unconquerable.
The castle's eight rooms contain little of interest - oil paintings, weapons, a 15th-century pietà - but the castle does have a drawbridge over a raging river, holes in the ceiling of the entrance tower for pouring boiling oil on intruders, a very dank dungeon, a 16th-century chest full of treasure (unearthed in the cellar in 1991), and an eyrie-like hiding pl…
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Postojna Cave
Visitors get to see about 5.7km of the cave on 1½-hour tours; some 4km of this is covered by an electric train, which runs as far as the Big Mountain (Velika Gora) cavern. Here you stand under one of the five signs identifying your language, and a guide escorts you through halls, galleries and caverns.
These are dry galleries, decorated with a vast array of white stalactites shaped like needles, enormous icicles and even fragile spaghetti. The stalagmites take familiar shapes - pears, cauliflower and sand castles - but there are also bizarre columns, pillars and translucent curtains that look like rashers of bacon.
From the Velika Gora cavern you continue across the Russi…
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Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum
Located in the Gabrielli Palace on the waterfront, the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum is named in honour of a Slovenian naval commander whose ship was blown up off the Croatian coast in WWI. The mid-19th-century palace, with its lovely moulded ceilings, parquet floors and marble staircase, is worth a visit in itself.
The museum's excellent exhibits focus on sea, sailing and salt-making - three things that have been crucial to Piran's development over the centuries. The salt pans at Sečovlje, southeast of Portorož, get most of the attention on the ground floor. There are some old photographs showing salt workers going about their duties in coolie-like straw hats, as well a…
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Predjama Castle Cave
Below Predjama Castle, is a 6km network of galleries spread over four levels. Much of it is open only to speleologists, but casual visitors can see about 900m of it. Longer tours to the end of the cave's Eastern Passage or Erazem's Gallery are available by prior arrangement only. Erazem Lueger was a 15th-century robber who, like Robin Hood, stole from the rich and handed it over to the poor. During the wars between the Hungarians and the Austrians, Lueger holed up Predjama Castle.
In the autumn of 1484 the Austrian army under Gašpar Ravbar, the governor of Trieste, attacked the castle, but it proved impregnable for months. All the while Erazem came and went as he pleased …
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Venetian House
One of Piran's most eye-catching structures is the red 15th-century Gothic Venetian House, with its tracery windows and balcony in the northeast of the square. There is a story attached to the stone relief between the two windows of a lion with a banner in its mouth and the Latin inscription Lassa pur dir above it.
A wealthy merchant from Venice fell in love with a beautiful local girl, but she soon became the butt of local gossips. To shut them up (and keep his lover happy), the merchant built her this little palace complete with a reminder for his loose-lipped neighbours: "Let them talk".
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Praetorian Palace
Directly opposite the Loggia in Titov trg, is the gleaming white and recently renovated Praetorian Palace, a mixture of Venetian Gothic and Renaissance styles dating from the 15th century and the very symbol of Koper. It now contains the town hall, with a reconstructed old pharmacy and the main branch of the tourist office on the ground floor and exhibits on the history of Koper and a ceremonial hall for weddings on the 1st floor.
The facade of the palace, once the residence of Koper's mayor who was appointed by the doge in Venice, is chock-a-block with medallions, reliefs and coats of arms.
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Cathedral of St George
The Renaissance and baroque Cathedral of St George stands on a ridge north of Tartinijev trg above the sea. To the east runs a 200m stretch of the 15th-century town walls complete with loopholes. They once ran from the sea all the way to the harbour, and seven crenellated towers are still intact.
The church was founded in 1344 and was rebuilt in baroque style in 1637. It is currently undergoing a massive rebuilding, and visitors are allowed only into the choir to view the magnificent marble altar and star-vaulted ceiling.
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Pivka Cave and Black Cave
Pivka Cave and Black Cave - the most popular caves after Postojna - are about 5km to the north. The entrance is in the Pivka Jama camping ground. You reach the 4km-long system by descending more than 300 steps. A walkway has been cut into the wall of a canyon in Pivka Cave, with its two siphon lakes and a tunnel, and a bridge leads to Black Cave. This is a dry cavern and, as the name implies, its dripstones are not white. A tour of both caves takes about two hours.
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Planina Cave
Planina Cave 12km to the northeast near the unpredictable Lake Planina, is the largest water cave in Slovenia and a treasure-trove of fauna (which includes Proteus anguinus). The cave's entrance is at the foot of a 100m rock wall. It's 6.5km long, and you are able to visit about 900m of it in an hour. There are no lights so take a torch. Many parts of the cave are accessible only in low water or by rubber raft.
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Koper Regional Museum
The Belgramoni-Tacco Palace houses the Koper Regional Museum, with displays of old maps and photos of the port and coast, Italianate sculptures and paintings dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, and copies of medieval frescoes. Note the wonderful bronze knocker on the front door of Venus arising from a seashell. The museum's ethnological collection is in a 17th-century building in the eastern section of the Old Town.
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Former Town Pharmacy
Trg 1 Maja is surrounded by interesting baroque buildings, including the Former Town Pharmacy on the north side (now the Fontana restaurant). In the centre of the square is a large baroque cistern (vodnjak) that was built in the late 18th century to store fresh water; rainwater from the surrounding roofs flowed into it through the fish borne by the stone putti cherubs in two corners.
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Bell Tower
The cathedral's freestanding Bell Tower, built in 1608, was clearly modelled on the campanile of San Marco in Venice and can be climbed daily for excellent views of the town and harbour. Next to it, the octagonal 17th-century baptistery (krstilnica) contains altars, paintings and a Roman sarcophagus from the 2nd century later used as a baptismal font.
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Column of St Justina
One of the most colourful streets in Koper, Kidričeva ulica starts at Carpacciov trg, where the Column of St Justina commemorates Koper's contribution - a galley - to the Battle of Lepanto in which Turkey was defeated by the European powers in 1571. Nearby is a large Roman covered basin that now serves as a fountain.
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Fiesa Beach
Piran has several 'beaches' - rocky areas along Prešernovo nabrežje - where you might get your feet wet. They are a little better on the north side near Punta, but as long as you've come this far keep walking eastward on the paved path for just under 1km to Fiesa Beach, which is a very small but clean beach.
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Minorite Monastery
On your way up to Tartinijev trg are the Minorite Monastery with a wonderful cloister and the Church of St Francis Assisi built originally in the early 14th century but enlarged and renovated over the centuries. Inside are ceiling frescoes, a giant clam shell for donations and the Tartini family's burial plot.
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Cathedral of the Assumption
Opposite the Armoury in Titov trg is the Cathedral of the Assumption and its 36m-tall belfry, now called the City Tower. The cathedral, partly Romanesque and Gothic but mostly dating from the 18th century, has a white classical interior with a feeling of space and light that belies the sombre exterior.
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Parish Museum of St George
Church plate, paintings and an unusual statue of St George slaying the dragon, with a woman curiously holding the monster by a lead, can be seen in the Parish Museum of St George attached to the Cathedral of St George. The Parish Museum contains church plate, paintings and a lapidary in the crypt.
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Trg 1 Maja
Trg 1 Maja may sound like a socialist parade ground, but it was the centre of Piran until the Middle Ages, when it was called Stari trg (Old Square). The surrounding streets are a maze of pastel-coloured overhanging houses, vaulted passages and arcaded courtyards.
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Otok Cave
Otok Cave, some 1.5km northwest of Postojna Cave, is very small (632m in length) and the tour only takes about an hour, but its stalagmites and stalactites are very impressive. There's no electric lighting, so you'll need a torch, and the temperature is 8°C.
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Sub-net
Sub-net organises shore and boat-guided dives, gives PADI open-water courses and rents equipment. Don't expect Red Sea style corals in these parts, though; the most unusual underwater sight hereabouts is the wreck of a WWII seaplane in Portorož Bay.
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Yildiz Han
Yildiz Han 'Star House', a branch of a similarly named establishment in Ljubljana, has all our Turkish favourites, including sigara böreği (filo parcels filled with cheese), yaprak dolmasi (stuffed vine leaves) and kebabs.
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Totto Palace
On the north side of Kidričeva ulica there are several disused churches from the 16th century, including the 18th-century baroque Totto Palace, with a relief of the winged lion of St Mark taken from Koper's medieval fortress.
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Muda Gate
At the southern end of Prešernov trg is the Muda Gate. Erected in 1516, it's the last of a dozen such entrances to remain standing. On the south side of the archway you'll see the city seal: the face of a youth in a sunburst.
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