It is the city's central burial ground, laid out on the eastern edge of town, and in the late 1930s the architect Joze Plecnik added a series of chapels, arcades and entrance structures that turn it into a quiet landscape of white walls, columns and calm courtyards. He called it the Garden of All Saints, and the name fits. Plecnik was Slovenia's great architect of the twentieth century, a man who also shaped the bridges, markets and riverbanks of Ljubljana, and his works in the city were added to the UNESCO list in 2021.
What you notice first is restraint. The buildings are simple, in pale stone and plaster, with colonnades and rhythmic repetition rather than decoration. Plecnik mixed classical forms with Slovene vernacular, and the result feels both ancient and modern. Visitors walk slowly here because the place tells you to. Remember that this is a working cemetery, so keep your voice down, park the bike outside, and take your helmet and boots off the path.
Ljubljana is a gentle city for riders. The old town around the Ljubljanica river is mostly pedestrian, but the surrounding streets are quiet by European standards, and the city is compact enough that you can see most of what matters in an afternoon. The Triple Bridge, the market colonnade, the National and University Library and the embankments of the river are all Plecnik's work. The castle on its hill looks down over the red roofs. Trzin, a smaller town to the north, is close, but Ljubljana, with more than two hundred and seventy thousand people, has fuel, workshops and hotels in abundance.
This sits on a ride that heads north towards Klagenfurt across the Karawanks, so you are close to the mountain roads of the Julian Alps and the Austrian border. Slovenia uses an electronic vignette on motorways, which you must buy before you use them, and speed limits are strictly enforced. Spring and autumn are the best times, with clear air and few crowds. In early November, on All Saints Day, the cemetery is lit by thousands of candles, a very moving scene.