Culinary Time Machine

[GUIDED TOUR WITH CULINARY EXPERIENCE]

Travel through time – from Emona to the castle as a city symbol – and taste the food of your ancestors. Let the stories of castle figures capture your imagination while enjoying the unique culinary experience of a six-course representative menu of dishes from individual historical periods in a modern form created by the castle chefs. Enter the Culinary Time Machine and taste the history of the castle!

What can you expect?
Instead of a classic guided tour and lunch in one of the castle’s restaurants, you can get to know the castle through experience. This time, however, you will not only explore the past, you will also taste it. Enter the Culinary Time Machine and, with a castle guide and performances by costumed characters, travel through six crucial periods that marked the history of the Ljubljana Castle and the development of our city. Since you will also taste history on this occasion, your arrival at each time station will be followed by the sampling of representative dishes from the individual historical periods in a modern form created by the castle chefs accompanied by selected wine. A genuine six-course culinary stroll awaits you. Not only that! At each of the culinary time stations, you will be greeted by a historical figure who will serve the food in the appropriate way for each time period, giving you an insight into the everyday life, habits and customs of the time.

INFORMATION
Duration: 120 - 150 minutes
Starting point: the bridge in front of the main entrance
Languages: english
Number of participants: minimum of 10

Tour Plan:
After an introductory greeting by a Roman soldier and priestess at the place where the observation tower is supposed to have stood during the time of Roman Emona, where you will taste a homemade flat cake made with yeast, accompanied by cottage cheese and herbs, events move to in front of the castle entrance. There, the brave Knight George, who defeated the terrible dragon during the early Middle Ages, will tell you how he saved the people of Ljubljana from those awful troubles. At this time station, in the Archers’ Tower, you will taste sausage wrapped in bread, with mustard seeds and a side dish.

Who in the late Middle Ages is most responsible for the fact that a mighty fortress grew on the hill above the city? Find out in front of the Pentagonal Tower, where you will meet Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg and his wife Eleonor Helena of Portugal. In front of the restaurant Gostilna na Gradu awaits buckwheat gruel with tuberous vegetables, cauliflower cream, hazelnuts and smoked trout.

From the period of the Illyrian provinces, you will be greeted in front of the Castle Chapel by a Napoleonic soldier and a nun/nurse, and in the Erasmus Tower you will be served veal à la française.

The nineteenth century was a dark period for the Ljubljana Castle. In front of the penitentiary, a convict will tell you, among other things, what kind of menu they received in the castle penitentiary, while at the Castle Wine Bar and Shop you will be served sweet barley gruel with prunes and walnuts.

At the end, you will be greeted in the Castle Courtyard by the man who takes credit for the fact that the castle is owned by the city today – Mayor Ivan Hribar purchased it from the state authorities of the time in 1905. The ending will be sweet – with LePotička!

All of the recipes for the dishes on our six-course menu come from the cook book Foods of Times – Time for Food (link to the English page of the book in the store), which was published at Ljubljana Castle in collaboration with renowned Slovenian ethnologist Dr Janez Bogataj. The dishes are prepared by the castle chefs from the Strelec Restaurant, Gostilna na Gradu, the Castle Wine Bar and Shop, and the Castle Café (the menu is not adapted to specific dietary requirements.)

The accompanying wine offers an opportunity to taste selected Slovenian wines from our wine-growing regions.

Location: the bridge in front of the main entrance

ADDITIONAL DATE: 19. 8. 2023, 18:00 (in english)

Tickets: 90.00 €/person

The ticket includes a guided tour with scenes acted out by the tour leaders, a six-course culinary stroll with wine accompaniment, a castle ticket and a return journey on the funicular railway.

Ticket sales: sale points at the Ljubljana Castle, Hostel Celica reception, the lower funicular station, www.ljubljanskigrad.si and all www.mojekarte.si sales points (including Petrol service stations, Kompas offices through Slovenia etc.).

Last day for ticket purchase: 4. 7. 2023, 23:59

The minimum number of tickets sold for the performance of the Culinary Time Machine is ten. In case of a small number of tickets sold, Ljubljana Castle reserves the right to cancel the tour!

On the presentation of a ticket, all participants in the Culinary Time Machine will receive a 10% discount on the book Foods of Times – Time for Food, written by Janez Bogataj, with recipes contributed by Igor Jagodic (Strelec Restaurant and Strelec Castle Wine Bar and Shop), Luka Jezeršek and Ana Šušteršič (Gostilna na Gradu and Castle Café).