500 years of history re-enacted at Brdo mansion

The mansion, used primarily as a venue for visits of top officials from abroad, was open for public today, allowing visitors to walk through the halls that are usually off limits and see some of the most valuable books of the mansion's library.

The most impressive books in the library are the first translation of the Bible into Slovenian, completed by protestant Jurij Dalmatin in 1854, and and the Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, the 1689 encyclopaedia of Slovenian history, folklore and natural science by polymath Janez Vajkard Valvasor.

Visitors could also watch a re-enactment of a fight between knights and Turks, enjoy in a riding performance by the Lipizzan horses or take a carriage ride and attend a 17th century wedding and face a court of justice from the same period.

An insight was also provided into the world of the Zois family, which took over the estate in the mid 18th century to give Brdo international fame over the course of the next 150 years.

The mansion saw a series of owners after that, including the "Executive Council of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" and thereby Yugoslav leader Tito. He passed the rights of ownership onto Slovenia in 1961.

Many more events are meanwhile planned and the celebrations will culminate on 16 October with a major charity concert featuring a number of acclaimed Slovenia singers together with the RTV Slovenija Monophonic Orchestra.