It was only when we discovered this beautiful church protected by one last remaining castle tower that the penny dropped for us.. Green Slovenia has a unique collection of Fortress Churches.. in all different shapes and sizes, but Fortress Churches every one of them! This is the story of St Mary's church in Smarje, part of the Grosuplje Fab Four!

So a fortress church is a particular feature of Slovenian Medieveal history where Ottoman armies rampaged through middle Europe, Slovenia being at the front gate, so castles and giant walls were built around churches as safe havens and defensive refuges for "good" to battle "evil".

view from inside the complex and you can see how the 3 storey wall was cut away..

You just need to look up in Slovenia to see a church on top of a mountain, but the village of Smarje is on an ancient Roman transport route just 20 mins outside Ljubljana and the impressively sized church is on flat ground. 

This meant a particularly chunky castle wall was needed to be built around the church to protect it, most of this castle is gone nowadays, but we are left with just one delicious tower at the front of the church so we can easily see how the original 4 formidable towers and massive walls would have completely surrounded and protected the church from attack. 

the Miracle of St Mary's Church

You can see how close the allied bomb came to the statue of st Mary and the damage to the frescoes where the bomb hit..

Our friendly guide, local student David first pointed out the fantastic frescoes painted on the outside of the church and then we explored the large interior with lots of colour in the grand windows and paintings. We reached the altar with Santa Maria at the centre and some large frescoes on the walls at the side.

We looked closer at these frescoes to see that parts were missing and were told that an allied bomb had struck the church narrowly missing St Mary but blowing away parts of the wall! Luck or a miracle.. you decide!

Apparently there was another near miss with a bomb striking the bell tower high above and damaging the bell. 

Outside again we saw how large the 3 storey defensive wall was and how four towers would have fitted snugly in a square connected by the walls to form a formidable barrier to invaders.

the Tragedy of the Tower museum

the micro museum is seriously stocked up with historical goodies..

We were quite shocked when we went inside the tower to see it has been arranged wonderfully as a micro museum stuffed with exhibits in every room and space, all tidily arranged over some time by David, so many congratulations to him.

He explained that the collection was first started by a monk who was tragically murdered by 2 vagabonds during the Balkon wars last century.. the collections of farming tools, books, religious paintings and other religious memorabilia is very impressive and as you walk around this big tower, you can get an idea how it was used as a residence and as a fortress.

If you are interested in religious art, then there is a big collection here to peruse. We really enjoyed exploring around both the church and the tower and if you would like to combine a visit here with one of the other Grosuplje Fab Four attractions, then just call the Grosuplje TIC, (Tourist Info Office) on 00386 (0) 820 071 57.