Mengeš, an 850-year-old village on the Kamnik plain

Things to do in Mengeš: St Michael’s church

The parish church of St Michael is Mengeš’s oldest and most precious monument, a Romanesque three-aisled basilica from the late 13th century. Shortly after 1400 its apses were replaced by the present chancel, with frescoes by John of Ljubljana. Between 1952 and 1954, Jože Plečnik designed the baptistery and the confessional under the choir, the confessional entirely in oak. The free-standing bell tower was part of a fortified enclosure that stood until the fire of 1834.

Gobavica, Rašica and the Pšata

Above the village rises Gobavica, at 433 m, with the lowest mountain hut in Slovenia. Close by, Rašica reaches 641 m and has a lookout tower from 1957, since rebuilt in steel, with views of the Kamnik-Savinja and Julian Alps. The Pšata stream crosses the municipality, and the Lipce lime avenue, over 200 years old, leads towards Domžale. For the rest of the area, see Kamnik and the guide to central Slovenia.

Jablje castle and other manors

At Loka pri Mengšu stands Jablje castle, recorded in 1268 and built, according to Valvasor, in 1530, with secular frescoes by Franc Jelovšek. It was fully restored in 2004 and in 2008 served as the ceremonial venue of Slovenia’s EU presidency. In the centre, a manor house restored in the 1980s keeps a portal of 1567 with the arms of the Haller and Hohenwart families.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Mengeš before prices climb.

Stone bridges and Dobeno

Mengeš had its own stonemasons, and it shows in its 16th- and 17th-century stone bridges, such as the two-arched one at Loka pri Mengšu, and in its wells, one carved with the date 1848, probably by Tomaž Sirolli. On the slopes of Rašica, the village of Dobeno, named after its oaks, has tourist farms, waymarked paths and the Kraljeva jama, the loveliest of the caves explored in the area.

Mengeš, an 850-year-old village

Mengeš has 8,812 people, nearly all in the village itself, in a municipality of just 22.5 km². Its first lord, Dietricus de Meingosburg, appears in a charter issued at Bled around 1154, and in 2004 the village celebrated 850 years. It lay near the Roman road from Emona to Celeia, suffered the Turkish raids of the 15th century and saw a battle in 1813, when the French general Belotti, watching from the bell tower, was wounded and captured. Since 1994 it has once again been a municipality in its own right.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Mengeš before prices climb.