Kalec Castle is a partially ruined castle near Zagorje

Zagorje, Pivka

Zagorje is a village in the Pivka Municipality in the Inner Carniola region of Slovenia.The Parish Church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Helena and belongs to the Koper Diocese. The chapel at the cemetery, outside the settlement to the north, is dedicated to Saint Paul.-External links:*...

 in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

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The castle, of which only a single tower and some sections of wall survive intact, stands on slope known as Breg, near the source of the river Pivka

Pivka

Pivka is a small town and a municipality in Slovenia in the Pivka Basin in the Kras region. It was first mentioned in 1300 as Sancti Petri super Piucha . Until 1952 it was called Šentpeter na Krasu...

, at an elevation of 618 m.

Illustrated in Valvasor

Janez Vajkard Valvasor

Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor or simply Valvasor was a Slovenian nobleman, scientist and polymath, and a fellow of the Royal Society in London.-Biography:...

's 1689 Glory of the Duchy of Carniola

The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola

The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola is Johann Weikhard von Valvasor's most important work on history and natural history of his homeland Carniola, a central part of the present-day Slovenia and Istria in Croatia....

, it was built in the mid-17th century by the noble house of Steinberg

Steinberg

Steinberg GmbH is a German musical software and equipment company based in Hamburg. It mainly produces music recording, arranging and editing software as used in digital audio workstations and VSTi software synthesizers.- History :...

. Its later owners included the Auersperg

Auersperg

Auersperg may refer to:* Principality of Auersperg, estates held by the princely Austrian family of Auersperg* Palais Auersperg, a large baroque palace in Vienna, build for the princely Auersperg family- Family members :...

 family and the Slovene composer Miroslav Vilhar, who also died in it. The castle was abandoned by its last residents after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and began falling apart.

In 1941 it hosted a meeting of the antifascist militant group TIGR

TIGR

TIGR, abbreviation for Trst , Istra , Gorica and Reka , with the full name Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March T.I.G.R. was a militant anti-Fascist and insurgent organization active in the 1920s and the 1930s in the eastern Italian border region known as the Julian March.The...

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Today the Krpan Hiking Path passes beside the ruins, which are surrounded by a copse of ancient linden

Tilia

Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...

 trees. The path to the castle is bordered by a chestnut

Chestnut

Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...

tree row.