Branik Castle, Slovenia, photo courtesy Tjasairis.
This beautiful building, Branik Castle (also known as Rihemberk Castle), is a 13th-century castle above the village of Branik, near the city of Nova Gorica in Slovenia.
The date of the founding of the castle is unclear, but the name of the family of Rihemberk is first recorded in 1230. In 1500, the castle passed to the Habsburgs and in 1528 both it and the surrounding lands were acquired by the Lanthieris who added a baroque palace in 1649. The Lanthieris retained the castle until World War II. On the night of 22–23 July 1944, partisans resistance fighters assaulted the castle, blew it up and set it on fire, so it couldn’t be used as an outpost to the German Army. All furnishings were destroyed, but since the 1980s, the castle has since been gradually restored, though all prewar structures have not yet been fully rebuilt.
