Snežnik Castle

Snežnik's name looks like the Slovene word for snow, but is in fact a Slovenized form of Schneberg, the noble house that first held this 13th-century castle in the Lož Valley. The Schnebergs fractured the estate among multiple heirs; from 1393 William II von Lamberg, a relative, bought a quarter-share, and his descendants reassembled the whole estate through the 15th century, giving the castle its more-or-less current Renaissance appearance.

By marriage the castle passed to the Scheyer family, then the Pranckhs, and in the first third of the 17th century the barons Rambschissl, who sold it to Prince Eggenberg, Imperial governor of Carniola. Eggenberg bought the lordship of Lož along with it, moving its administrative centre from the uncomfortable hilltop Lož Castle to the more accessible manor at Snežnik. In 1669 Janez Žiga Eggenberg sold the Lož–Snežnik lordship to Prince Janez Vajkard Auersperg, count of Gottschee.

Count Jurij Gotfrid Lichtenberg took over the estate in 1707 and permanently joined the Lož and Snežnik lordships in 1718; his house held for 140 years, though in 1832 the family was forced to accept a lottery loan whose main prize was the entire Snežnik estate or 250,000 florins. Roman grave markers looted from a ruined outpost at Šmarata are set into the facade, and the heavy remodelling of the later 19th century supplied most of the interior furnishings and the chestnut- and linden-lined park with its two artificial lakes.