Brdo Castle

The first Renaissance manor house in Carniola has stood on the huge estate at Brdo pri Kranju since the early 15th century, when permission to build the castle was signed by the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I. Brdo Castle was particularly important during the Reformation, when it was a refuge for Slovenian Protestants, and with the arrival of the Zois family, it later became famous across Europe, as Baron Karel Zois, a well-known botanist, established the first Slovenian Alpine botanical garden there. During the inter-war period, the Karađorđević royal family often stayed in the castle, and after the Second World War, Josip Broz Tito, president of the new Yugoslav government, was very fond of it and used it as a summer and protocol residence. The Asian artefacts in the castle are mainly porcelain and other (metal) utensils, and there are even Buddhist artefacts.