Strmol Castle is a castle located at the foot of Dvorjanski hrib ("Mansion Hill") near the villages of Češnjevek

Cešnjevek, Cerklje na Gorenjskem

Češnjevek is a village in the Cerklje na Gorenjskem municipality in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia.The local church is dedicated to the Holy Spirit.- External links :*...

, Grad

Grad, Cerklje na Gorenjskem

Grad is a village in the Cerklje na Gorenjskem municipality in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia.The local church is dedicated to Saint Helena and the current building is from the late 17th century with later alterations, but is likely built over earlier foundations with a reused stone in the...

 and Dvorje

Dvorje, Cerklje na Gorenjskem

Dvorje is a village in the Cerklje na Gorenjskem municipality in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia.The local church is dedicated to Saint Nicholas and is first mentioned in sources from 1485, though the current building is from the mid 18th century....

, in the municipality of Cerklje na Gorenjskem

Cerklje na Gorenjskem

Cerklje na Gorenjskem is a town and a municipality in Slovenia.Ljubljana Airport is located in Zgornji Brnik, Cerklje na Gorenjskem. Adria Airways has its head office on the airport property.-External links:*...

, 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...

. Named after its builders, the Strmol family, it is notable as one of the few castles in Slovenia to retain a Slovene name throughout its history. It is currently a guesthouse and conference site for the government of the Republic of Slovenia.

History

Of the twelve medieval manors in the area of the modern municipality of Cerklje, Strmol Castle is the only one that has survived intact to the present. The castle is first mentioned in the 13th century, though there are no reliable records of its founding. The structure is centered on a towering keep with a late medieval core, taking its present form after renaissance and baroque renovations. The central keep is surrounded by a low, rectangular renaissance defensive wall, fortified with square corner turrets, which once featured a drawbridge over a moat. The interiors are richly furnished with historic furniture and art.

Castle Parklands

The castle is surrounded by a park, established in the late 17th century. It originally encompassed an orchard on the slope below the castle, and four fishponds on the plain below that, with a walking path with benches leading from the castle. The layout has not significantly changed, though only one of the ponds remains. The current arrangement includes an access path, which ascends the slope toward a square walled courtyard behind the castle. The wall is decorated with baroque female figures and putto

Putto

A putto is a figure of an infant often depicted as a young male. Putti are defined as chubby, winged or wingless, male child figure in nude. Putti are distinct from cherubim, but some English-speakers confuse them with each other, except that in the plural, "the Cherubim" refers to the biblical...

s by Angelo PuttaPozzi, originally from the garden of the defunct Zalog (Wartenberg) manor by Moravče

Moravce

Moravče is a settlement and a municipality in central Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Upper Carniola region. The entire municipality is now included in the Central Slovenia statistical region...

, but relocated here in the 1960s along with his Atlas

Atlas

An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats...

statues at the northerm entrance steps. On the opposite side of the courtyard, the path descends toward a nearby road. Between the access paths there is an informal park, with an artificial lake and non-native trees.

Sources

• Inventory of Significant Natural Heritage of Slovenia, Agency for Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage of SR Slovenia, Ljubljana 1988 ("Inventar najpomembnejše naravne dediščine Slovenije, Zavod SR Slovenije za varstvo naravne in kulturne dediščine, Ljubljana 1988")