Grad Haasburg

Our next location was just 4 miles away and it took us just 25 minutes to arrive at the remains of the old castle called Grad Haasburg . It was still raining when we first arrived but Ellie jumped straight out to go and see the 5 goats that were in the field behind us and the 2 horses that were in another field next door. I waited in Wanda until the rain stopped.
We were parked on some gravel that made a makeshift car park for the remains of what was once a beautiful castle.
The Hošperk (Haasberg) castle was built by the Eggenberg princes at the beginning of the 17th century, at the foot of an old medieval castle that was destroyed by an earthquake. At that time, the manor was considered the mightiest baroque manor in Slovenia. It was famous for its rich interior and a beautiful park, which is unfortunately only partially preserved today.
The last owner of the manor was the Windischgrätz family, who bought it in 1846. During the Second World War, the nobles emigrated to Italy, and the castle was first inhabited by the Italian army, then by the German army, and in 1944, it was burned down. The valuable interior furnishings, the family archive and the family tomb of the last owners, the Windischgrätz, were completely destroyed.
Just across the road from the castle, adjacent to the car park is another building, where the goats are, that used to be the stables of the castle and the back of the building is now a free museum with artefacts that were saved from Grad Haasburg before it was destroyed. It is a tiny one room museum with hundreds of old photos of the original building and lots of wooden items, like sledges, and rocking horses that were probably stored in the stables originally which is why they weren’t destroyed. There was even an old canoe.
Haasburg itself is a tiny little village that resembles hobbition from lord of the rings, it’s very green with little streams running through and a swing hanging from a tree and there’s even some hobbit houses cut into the ground. It’s a beautiful place.
After checking park4night and seeing that other people had stayed here with no bother we decided we’d risk it and around 5:30pm we were joined by a French family who pulled up next to us in there pick up truck with a wooden tiny house on the back. It was very original.
Just as it got dark they knocked on the door for trick or treat with there little girl and Ellie gave them some of the kids sweets and we found out that the man had built the tiny house himself and they were on the road full time. This was there 4th year.
After dinner we sat and chilled out as the rain slowly stopped outside and all we were left with was the sounds of drips until bedtime.Read more