This is the very definition of a Green Slovenian secret place! It's in an area you have never heard of, but just 90 mins from the Lodge.. It's just off the motorway, but there are no signs and you would never find it without some serious help.
It's name has just 4 lettters, but you will never pronounce it properly in a million years.. It is a sensationally beautiful monastery with fairy tale hobbit towers all protected by a massive castle wall, but it is translated here and described locally in English as "Zice Charterhouse".. It is as if there is some ancient monastic curse that defies you from even knowing about.. But the Zice Monastery Fortress.. We should tell you that our Slovenian top ten actually has at least 30 secret places in it..
Green Slovenia is just so packed with amazing places it is impossible to have just 10 in your top ten!! So the only reason we found this wonder of the medieval world was by spotting a castle-like symbol on a paper map that we were studying for our next day's trip to the lovely Rogla mountain..
After a lot of clicking around, we finally got a photo of Zice showing a big castle wall with fantastic towers that looked incredible and so we decided to visit this place after knowing about it for just one day in the 10 years we have been exploring Green Slovenia.. If you think about it, Monks didn't really want to be bothered by anyone at all, so they found a stunningly beautiful, secluded spot away from it all at the end of a secret valley..
The motorway junction to turn off at is Slovenske Konjice , which we prefer to call Horseville in the most spoken language in the world, but anyway, it is the direction Ljub to Maribor next one AFTER Celje. You could try putting Zice into navigation, but then just remember to leave Zice village to get out to the monastery.. The car park is in a bizarre position, you have to walk along a narrow road with no pavement to get from it to the entrance..
