Bled Lake and Castle, Slovenia

Set against the backdrop of the Julian Alps, Lake Bled is crowned by two of Slovenia’s most beloved landmarks — a medieval castle perched high on a cliff, and a tiny island church rising from the water at its heart.

Bled Castle stands some 130 metres above the lake on a steep rock, and is reckoned the oldest castle in Slovenia. In 1004 the German King Henry II granted the estate of Bled to Bishop Albuin of Brixen; the castle itself first appears in a deed of 1011, under the Latin name Castellum Veldes. The Bishops of Brixen rarely visited, so for centuries it was held on their behalf by feudal lords and stewards — the Knights of Bled. Built and rebuilt across the ages, it is today a photogenic gathering of styles, home to a museum of the region’s history, a sixteenth-century chapel, a wine cellar, a herbal gallery and a working reconstruction of Gutenberg’s printing press.

At the centre of the lake lies Bled Island, reached by traditional wooden pletna boat, and long a place of pilgrimage. A flight of 99 stone steps climbs to the Church of the Assumption of Mary, whose bell tower gives wide views over the water and the mountains beyond. By tradition a groom carries his bride up those 99 steps, and inside the church visitors ring the famous wishing bell and make a wish.

The wishing bell carries a poignant legend. It is told that a young widow, grieving her lost husband, had a bell cast in his memory to hang in the island church. As the boatmen ferried it across the lake, a sudden storm rose up and sank the boat, drowning the men and the bell together. Heartbroken, the widow gave all she had to build a new church on the island, then left Bled and entered a convent in Rome. When the Pope heard her sorrowful story, he had a new bell consecrated and carried to the island — and there it rings still, carrying the heartfelt wishes of all who pull its rope. On clear and quiet nights, they say, you can yet hear the sad tolling of the sunken bell from the dark depths of the lake.

Between castle heights and island shrine, Bled holds an atmosphere that the Slovene poet France Prešeren captured perfectly: ‘the land of Carniola has no finer place than this, its surroundings the image of paradise.’