Between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on Saturday 31 March 2012 the lights were switched off at Ljubljana Castle for an hour of stargazing from the Castle viewing terrace.

Thus is was that the City of Ljubljana and the Ljubljana Castle Public Institute joined the global campaign Earth Hour, Stargazing, run in partnership with the Creative Astronomical Society.

The Earth Hour international project is an important environmental event, when individuals, businesses, governments and communities switch off their lights for an hour around the world.

The behaviour and attitude that each individual, business and society show to Mother Earth is each year ever more important. So it is, therefore, that 2012 has been declared UN International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. By taking part in this international campaign and the symbolic gesture of switching the lights off, the City of Ljubljana and the Ljubljana Castle Public Institute would like to raise public awareness of the need to use energy carefully all year round.

The Earth Hour international project ran this year under the slogan “I will if you will”, inviting individuals and organisations to urge citizens to show better care for our planet.

Since 2007, when the campaign ran for the first time, the ‘Earth Hour’ project has grown into a global movement, in which 5,251 cities take part, with 1.8 billion people and 135 countries from all seven continents.