Bled Castle

<p>The rock above Lake Bled has been fortified for a thousand years: a charter of 1011 granting the site to the Bishops of Brixen is the first written mention, which makes this the oldest castle in Slovenia. What stands today is mostly later — a Romanesque core wrapped in Renaissance walls and towers, arranged on two levels around courtyards.</p><p>The draw is partly the museum rooms on Bled's history, the working printing press and the wine cellar where you can bottle and seal your own, but mostly it is the terrace. From a hundred metres or so above the water the whole lake lies below, island and church dead centre, with the Karavanke and the Julian Alps behind. It is the view that appears on every poster of the country, and it is genuinely worth the climb.</p>