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I visited SLOVENIA’S most mysterious castle

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Hillel Eisenberg avatar
Hillel Eisenberg

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There's an old saying that the greatest treasures are usually hidden. Well, after leaving Raven, Croatia, I crossed the border into Slovenia, and drove about an hour north, winding through forests and rolling hills in one tiny Slovenian village after another. No bustling cities, no famous landmarks, just quiet Slovenian countryside. And eventually I arrived in a place called Pjama, a village of only a few hundred people about 40 miles northeast of Triest and tucked away in the heart of southwestern Slovenia. And honestly, if you weren't looking for it, you'd probably drive right past it. But hidden in this tiny village is something so extraordinary that people travel from all over the world just to see it. Take a look at this. Hello from Pjama Castle. Take a look at this place. Look at where they built this castle. Now, who in the world looks at the side of a giant cliff and sees a cave hundreds of feet above the ground and says, "Yep, let's just build a castle right there." It makes absolutely no sense. Most castles are built on hills. This one is literally built into the side of a mountain. But the reason why might be one of the most fascinating stories in all of Europe. It wasn't built for kings to show off. It was built for people to hide. Over 500 years ago, a knight named Erazim of Pjama found himself in serious trouble. He had made some pretty powerful enemies and the emperor wanted him captured. So he ran off and he hid inside this castle. So the king's army came here and they surrounded the castle and they blocked every visible entrance. And then they waited. And their plan was pretty much simple. Nobody can survive forever. Eventually they'll run out of food. Eventually they'll run out of water. Eventually they'll surrender eventually, right? A week passes, nothing. A month passes, nothing. Another month, still nothing. The soldiers couldn't understand it. How is this guy still eating? How is he still surviving? What they didn't know was that the entire siege was based on a false assumption. Hidden behind the castle was a massive secret cave system, secret tunnels that ran through the mountain. And while the army thought he was trapped, he was secretly bringing in food and supplies through roots that nobody knew existed. We've cut off he his supply, they said, but they were wrong because his real source wasn't coming from outside. It was coming from within. And maybe that's a great lesson we can all learn because the world teaches us that our security comes from outside. money, success, status, comfort, investments. The world says, "Lose those things and you're finished." But a Jew knows something different. A Jew knows that those things are wonderful when Hashem gives them to you. But they're not the source. They're only the pipeline. Tell us, you know, how you should be able to live not with tons and tons of endless stuff with just bread and salt. Not because Judaism glorifies poverty, but because every Jew is supposed to know something deep inside that I'll be okay because if I have Hashem, if I have Ty, if I have a black mart, if I have Tahill, if I have a piece of potato and a cup of coffee, I can survive things that would break most other people. The soldier standing right here below this castle thought, "Okay, we've caught him off." But what they didn't realize was that his real supply wine was hidden inside the mountain. It's the same thing for us. For thousands of years, the world has looked at the Jewish people and wondered, "How are they still standing? Empire after empire, trying to surround us, to isolate us, to break us." But they all made the same mistake. They thought our strength came from outside. But they never understood that our real supply line comes from somewhere much deeper. It comes from our connection to Hashem. And that's a connection that no siege can ever cut off.