The Robber Baron and Predjama Castle

Once upon a time, in Slovenia, or more precisely Inner Carniola, there was a castle. Not merely a castle, but a Renaissance castle built into the side of a cliff, in front of a cave. And inside the castle lived a knight, Erazem Lueger, who was an infamous robber baron

Erazem had gotten into trouble with the Holy Roman Empire (yeah, you probably don’t want to be on the bad side of these guys) because he had killed the commander of the imperial army for talking smack about his dead friend (talk about peaceful conflict resolution). It turned out that the commander had been pretty cozy with Frederick III, the Holy Roman Emperor. Whoops.

Erazem fled to Predjama Castle with his men, where he was besieged for one year and one day. The imperial army was pretty baffled that he seemingly had unlimited supplies of food, even though they had blocked off the castle exits. Erazem was, in fact, doing so well in the castle, that he taunted the besieging army by pelting them with fresh cherries. Turns out there was a secret passage leading from the castle to the neighbouring village of Vipava. Yup. He was pretty sneaky.

However, Erazem’s luck was soon to run out. There was only one part of the castle that was not impregnable, and it was the privy. The problem was that the army didn’t know when Erazem was in the loo, so they bribed a servant to sell out on his master. When Erazem made the treacherous journey to the privy, the servant set a candle at the castle window. The imperial army fired a single cannonball at the privy, and alas, Erazem Lueger was killed in possibly one of the worst positions ever, on the toilet.

And on that totally not morbid note, I wish you happy travels!

-Chelsea

Images sourced from cdn.nanxiongnandi.com