A new hospitality venue has opened at Ljubljana Castle – the Strelec (‘Archer’) restaurant. Meanwhile there is also an exhibition entitled Lipizzaner by Oskar Kogoj and Sergio Pausig.

In addition to the Gostilna na Gradu and Castle Coffee House, from now on castle visitors are able to enjoy the new culinary fare available at the Strelec Restaurant. As is immediately obvious from its name, this new culinary experience is to be found in the Archers’ Tower (Stolp strelcev), whose foundations were laid in the 15th century.

The renovation of the Archers’ Tower got underway in March 2011. The total cost of the investment is €1.3 million with the renovations being financed by the City of Ljubljana, with the Ljubljana Castle public institute managing the entire renovation project. The graffito technique murals were renovated at the end of 2008, with motifs for it taken from the Slovenian folk tradition.

Kaval Group held a gala opening of the Strelec restaurant on 12 December 2012. The cuisine designers – Dr Janez Bogataj, Jožica Drobnič and Strelec master chef Igor Jagodic – conceived the new restaurant as a culinary crossroads of the Alps, Adriatic and Pannonian Plain. The purpose, desire and vision is to revive the cuisine of our forebears and revive anew the space, as well as to interweave the cuisine of the past with the gourmet achievements of the present day, offering local and foreign guests a dash of castle dishes, the aroma of ancient times and awaken nostalgia for medieval cuisine – both in preparation and appearance and in the way it is offered and served. This beautiful historical building, inspiring by its story, history and tales from Kobet graffito, has been supplemented by the Kaval group with all due respect and great responsibility in its fixtures and fittings – unique tables and chairs by designer Toni Kancilja, a student of the renowned Oskar Kogoj, and in the production of crafted wood and wooden products from the Bolčič joinery. So that the castle birds would fly from the paintings and further beautify the cabinet spaces, Oskar Kogoj took care of the supplementary nobility of the space with his birds of paradise and Venetian horses.

Sculptural exhibition entitled Lipizzaner

Ljubljana Castle has also taken the opportunity to put on display an exhibition of sculptures entitled Lipizzaner designed by Oskar Kogoj. The paintings are the work of Sergio Pausig, while they were produced by Boris Ostrež.

The Lipizzaner is the Slovenes’ horse. It is magical in its beauty, intelligence, freedom and gives the impression it is a divine being. The exhibition is on show in the Archers’ Tower until 13 January 2013.

Opening times are from Monday to Thursday from 11am to 10pm, on Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 11pm and on Sundays from 11am to 5pm; the same times as the new restaurant. Entry to the exhibition is free.