Predjama Castle, day and night

[Olivier]

We had a blast in Slovenia a few weeks ago. Beautiful and extremely varied landscapes, very, very nice people, and they even make good wine...

Here is Predjama Castle. As far as I understood, it means something like "in front of the caves". The castle is indeed just a facade hiding kilometers of caves. it had the reputation of being untakable, it is really difficult to access.
We visited during the day, and I went back at night for a series of long exposures.
The place is very dark at night, and I was amused to see a few tourists try to approach around midnight but finally run away! As the castle is mostly open it is accessible to birds and there are many frightening noises for unprepared minds...

The milky way shot is a panorama of 8 pictures, taken with my X-T1 and Samyang 12mm f/2. The milky way should of course be straight but the panorama added some curvature.

[elsa hoffmann]

I was wondering how much alcohol the milky way consumed...

Nice set - you must have taken a LOT of images - this place leans itself to it

[JohnBrew]

Olivier, great shots. The night images are most impressive.

[armando_m]

Looks like a great place to visit

Thanks for sharing your images

[Olivier]

Thanks.
Yes, I took quite a few pictures...
The place is very interesting. Several rooms are built on one side, and carved on the other. And on top of the construction, inside a big cave, there is a most impressive troglodit castle.
A local noble (Erasmus) found refuge in the castle after he commited a forfeit and was sieged for quite a long time by an army unaware of the existence of the galleries leading to villages far from the castle. So Erasmus never starved and his ennemies thought he was helped by the devil... At some point he even offered them food for religious celebrations, and threw cherries on them to defend the castle... They finally got him by shooting in the toilets while he was there. It was the weakest point of the castle!

[Fons Baerken]

i like the bottom one

[Peter Connan]

Nice series of an incredibly fascinating place.

If I may though, the green cast doesn't work for me personally.

[Olivier]

Fons, Peter, thank you.
Peter, I can't see it, I am colorblind. I thought it was more in the yellow range... Will have to ask help to my wife! Thank you for notifying me.
Olivier

[Akira]

I enjoy how the castle looks dramatically different.  That's literally day and night!  Thanks for sharing, Olivier!

[Jakov Minić]

These are beautiful Olivier!
Slovenia is a beautiful country and it offers a lot of photo opportunities. We should go back!

[Olivier]

Thank you Akira and Jakov.
It definitely is a charming country. My wife now wants me to look for a job in Ljubljana. And not to get rid of me, she wants to live there!

[Jakov Minić]

Olivier she is not the only one!
I have been dreaming for years. So close to the Alps, lakes and the Adriatic sea. Every weekend is a holiday