Architectural heritage
Architectural heritage comprises buildings and the associated installations, decorations, equipment and associated land, other built structures, settlements and their parts, and spatial arrangements.
The historical core of Lipica was completed in the first decades of the 18th century. In addition to the Manor and Velbanca, it also encompassed a storehouse for grain called “Magacin” (today a wedding hall), and small houses around the associated courtyard. The originality of the settlement design also came about because it was necessary to organise the relatively large yards intended for horse riding and schooling.
A triumphal arch closed the yard on the southern side. The axis of the main entrance route ran through it, and ended at the entrance portal of Velbanca. A magnificent arched stable, intended for Lipizzan studs since it was built, is architecturally the most accomplished building of the old core. Velbanca assumes a place here that churches usually take in settlements. Even the renaissance manor, which used to be the Emperor’s residence when he was in Lipica, has a less dominant part in the layout of the settlement. Velbanca was built in 1703, in place of an older building which was also intended for horses. To the south there was a chapel, and where there is an inn today, a chaplaincy. The chapel is dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of horses.
After 1815, when the French left, new extensive construction began in Lipica. In 1819, a stable was built to the south, along the axis of Trieste. A few decades afterwards, the old stables were demolished, making room for today’s “na Borjači” stables. In this place, the construction of new stables and a riding hall began in 1852.
In the middle of the 19th century, the third, northern connection with Lipica was established simultaneously with the construction of the new railway and road connections between Vienna and Trieste through Sežana. This connection ends in the direction of Lokev. Namely, the construction of the “na Borjači” stables blocked the logical end of the Lokev route towards Velbanca. Therefore, the centre of the stud farm was transferred from the old centre in the direction towards Lokev. This is confirmed by further expansion, which followed at the end of 19th century, with the construction of the Jubilee Stable (1898–1899). The building was completed on the 50th anniversary of the rule of Emperor Francis Joseph.
In the 1970s, a new riding hall was built behind “Obrihtunga”, with a smaller riding hall with stables. The facilities for breeding Lipizzan horses and working with them, apart from the stables and riding halls, also included outdoor riding areas and all the space required for organising equestrian events. In 1977, a hippodrome that enabled access exactly along the axis of the direction of Sežana, was built a little further to the south-west. It was built in the years before the 400th anniversary of the Lipica Stud Farm. Hotel Klub was also built on this occasion.
On this grand anniversary, Lipica hosted a month-long international sculpting workshop, which produced the park sculptures (forma viva) from karst stone. The second international sculpting workshop was organised to mark the 425th anniversary of the Lipica Stud Farm.
The collection of artworks of Avgust Černigoj is a newer cultural acquisition of the Lipica Stud Farm. The painter, who spent his last years at Hotel Maestoso of Lipica, showed his gratitude to the Lipica Stud Farm by giving it a rich collection of his works. The Lipica Stud Farm promised to arrange a special gallery in which the group Novi Kolektivizem (New Collectivism) displayed the collection of Černigoj’s works in 1988.