A family project rooted in Mozirje

We kept the name because locals already know it well. For many years, Restaurant Lesnika operated at this location, and it lives on in local memory as part of the town.

Lesnika is also the Slovenian word for the crab apple: wild, hardy, a little untamed. Less sweet than its cultivated cousin, but more real. A tree that grows where it chooses and holds its ground for decades. We, too, wanted a place that stays true to itself.

Our address is no coincidence. The hostel stands on a square that documents first mention as a market settlement in 1318, while even older records describe its market privileges as an “ancient right”. In 1581, Archduke Charles granted the town its first coat of arms. For seven centuries, the people of Mozirje did business, held court, voted and celebrated on this square. We renovated the old building, part of the historic row of houses on the square, with care. We wanted it to be modern without forgetting what it had been.

In the second-floor apartments stand timber pillars from the previous building. We kept them and carefully restored them because they carry a story of this place that cannot be created anew.

The contrast between the warmth of oak and the concrete-look wall sections tells that story: a space of the past, modern living, one whole, framed by a square that is living through its seventh century.