A CASTLE OF COUNTLESS STORIES
Strmol Castle (Stermol) lies on a sunny slope under the 675-meter-high Dvorjanski hrib (Mansion Hill), near the village of Dvorje in Cerklje na Gorenjskem, approximately 10 km from Brdo.
It is one of the oldest and best-preserved castles in Slovenia, maintaining the authenticity of its historical and stylistic heritage.
The manor (Stermol) is indirectly mentioned in 1287, concurrently with the Strmol knights. The first owner mentioned in the letters of the Mekinje and Velesovo monasteries is Veriand of Strmol.
The Strmol knights ruled the castle until 1478 (Knight Friderik de Ztermol is mentioned in 1324, Jakob and his son Askvin of Strmol in 1384, Friderik Strmol in 1386, Jakob pl. Stermoler in 1412, and Ivan Strmol in 1447).
From 1436, when the Celje Counts granted it as a fief, until the early 16th century, the family also owned the Strmol Tower in Rogatec in Styria.
In 1444, Jacob and Jurij Polcz received Strmol as a provincial princely fief.
Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg granted Strmol as a fief to Jurij Rain on September 20, 1479. The Rains, like most of the Carniolan bourgeoisie and nobility at the time, were fervent Protestants and supporters of Primož Trubar (Trubar baptized Franc Rain). They converted the manor into a strong castle that successfully withstood Turkish invasions, peasant revolts, and other dangers. It was surrounded by high walls, further fortified by four square towers. The Rains remained the owners of the estate until 1634, when Jakob Jurij pl. Rain sold the estate to Franc Krištof pl. Schwab.
In 1643, Baron Konrad Ruessenstein, a very liberal man for his time, bought the castle for 13,750 guilders. Ruessenstein remodeled the original castle, surrounded by walls and four towers. Previously serving as a semi-fortified military outpost, it was adapted for living with the addition of residential spaces and beautification of its surroundings, including an avenue and four ponds. After the deaths of Baron Ruessenstein and his wife, their son Henrik Konrad inherited the castle. During his explorations around the castle, he discovered small veins of gold, but they did not bring the desired wealth. In the 18th century, iron ore was discovered and briefly mined near Strmol and Velesovo. Later studies confirmed the hills above the castle were rich in minerals and ores, but not enough for profitable exploitation.
V začetku 18.stol. je do strmolske gospoščine na še docela nepojasnjen način prišel Lovrenc Prah, kmečki sin, kasneje pisar in nato knjigovodja, podprejemnik deželnih stanov s poplemenitenim naslovom pl. Wolwitz.
In the early 18th century, the Strmol estate was acquired in an entirely unexplained manner by Lovrenc Prah, a peasant’s son, later a scribe and then an accountant, a subcontractor of the provincial estates with the ennobled title of pl. Wolwitz.
In 1702, Wolwitz acquired Ruessenstein’s promissory note for 1,000 guilders and took possession of Strmol. After the death of Lovrenc Daniel pl. Wolwitz in 1752, his widow Suzana Felicita née Schmidhofen had to pay nearly 21,000 guilders to the heirs of Baron H.K. Ruessenstein for the Strmol estate, as she lost a lawsuit initiated in 1704 by Baron H. K. Ruessenstein against Lovrenc pl. Wolwitz, which lasted 48 years.
After her death in 1768, her heirs sold Strmol to Baron Michelangelo Zois. Zois, already the owner of Brdo at the time, bought the castle with the sole purpose of excavating gold in its vicinity.
Failing to find the desired gold, he sold the castle the following year, in 1769, for 19,000 guilders to Franc Ksaver Dietrich.
In 1843, Dietrich’s heirs sold the castle at public auction. It was purchased for 23,000 gold coins by their nephew Alojz Urbančič.
In 1899, Strmol was bought from Dr. Edvard Urbančič by Jožef Jenko, a high school teacher and landowner in Grad near Cerklje.
From 1910 to 1935, it was owned by the Fuchs family, and then until the end of World War II by the industrialist Rado Hribar from Ljubljana.
Rado Hribar was one of the wealthiest and most influential Slovenes between the two world wars. He was the first private owner of an airplane and a co-owner of the Šumi candy factory, the president of the Ljubljana auto club, aero club, and the Ljubljana Municipal Savings Bank. He was a patron to many artists and was involved in real estate. Ksenija was an extraordinary woman, well-educated, adventurous, a cosmopolitan, fluent in several foreign languages, and fond of animals. She was simple, kind to everyone, very sociable, and hospitable. She used to walk her pet crocodile around Ljubljana’s Tivoli Park on a leash and even had herself portrayed with it. The Hribar couple were both great connoisseurs of art and both pilots. They hosted numerous distinguished members of European and Slovenian society at the castle. Unfortunately, they only enjoyed it for a few years; in January 1944, they were liquidated by members of the security-intelligence service.
After World War II, Strmol became state property and later one of the protocol facilities of the Republic of Slovenia.
