Bled Island and its Church of the Mother of God

A rock that beat the glacier

The island is a ridge of dolomite that the Bohinj glacier failed to drag away when it carved out Lake Bled. It’s 170 metres long and 90 wide, stands 18 metres above the water and lies more than 500 metres from the nearest shore. Today it’s covered in trees, but at the start of the first millennium BC it was bare rock.

Because the water around it stores heat, it has its own microclimate, which is why delicate plants such as fig trees grow there. The figs end up in one of the potica cakes baked on the island.

Getting to the island, by pletna or boat

Pletna boats sail to the island every day of the year. They’re 7 m wooden boats with colourful awnings, taking 18 passengers, rowed by an oarsman standing up. They leave from in front of Hotel Park, Mlino and Velika Zaka. The Bled Boat Line runs electric boats from the centre, and rowing boats are for hire if you’d rather do the work yourself.

There’s no time limit on your visit and you come back on the first free pletna. Entry to the church, bell tower and museum is one ticket and the boat is another. Prices and monthly hours are in the tables. My tip is the first boat of the morning, especially in summer.

The church and the wishing bell

Tradition says a pagan temple to a Slavic goddess of life and fertility stood here before the church. Archaeology confirms an old Slavic cemetery, with 124 graves from the 9th to the 11th centuries, some of them visible through a glass window inside the church. The Patriarch of Aquileia consecrated the first masonry church in 1142, it was rebuilt in Gothic style in 1465 and, after an earthquake in 1509 and another in the 17th century, it took on the Baroque look it has today.

The main altar, from 1747, shows the seated Virgin with Henry II and his wife Cunigunde, who granted the Bled estate. Above the nave hangs the wishing bell, cast in Padua in 1534. The story goes that a young widow at the castle paid for a bell for the chapel, and that the boat carrying it sank in a storm. Ever since, whoever rings the bell and makes a wish is said to see it come true.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Bled for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

The 99 steps and the bell tower

The southern staircase, with its 99 stone steps, dates from the 17th century. A tradition still alive today has the groom carry the bride up every one of them if the wedding is held on the island. The free-standing bell tower is more than 50 metres high and is included in your ticket. Up there the view takes in the lake, the shore and the peaks around it, plus the mechanical clock ticking away.

On the north shore a small stairway leads down to the landing, next to a spring and the stone chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes, cut into the slope since 1888.

The Potičnica and the rest of the island

Between the sexton’s house and the hermitage is the Potičnica, named in 2012 because it always smells of freshly baked potica. Potica is Slovenia’s festive rolled cake, with sweet fillings such as walnut or tarragon and savoury ones such as pork crackling. The Provost’s House holds a gallery and museum with ethnological workshops, and a path runs round the island under the trees.

If you have the afternoon free, across the water is Bled Castle, whose rock gives you a view down onto the island that’s worth the climb. And if you’re short of time in the country, 3 days in Slovenia fits Bled in with Ljubljana.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Bled Island on GetYourGuide.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Bled for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.