If you want to see Green Slovenia skyscapers, then best look up to see the numerous mountains and the enormous trees in the forests, which are our own natural Green Skyscrapers!

Well, there is a new "tallest building in Slovenia" since 2024 called the Crystal Tower and at 106m high, it doesn't quite "scrape" the sky, more tickle it a bit, looking like an inverted whisky glass on the end of a concrete stick, but the views from up there are really good, looking out over the ancient spa town of Rogaška Slatina to the mountains, so we are very happy to tell you all about it!

The very best places to put a tower here have already been taken since Medieval times, when emperors & local nobles bagged the best spots to build their castles, towers and look outs to give the very best view of who was smuggling what and when the Ottoman empire was on the march into the heart of Europe!

The tallest building in Slovenia at 106m..

You will quickly notice if there is not a tower or a castle on top of a Slovenian hill, then there will almost certainly be a beautiful CHURCH!

There are so many fantastic different Medieval towers all over Green Slovenia that we just had to do a TOWERS section to tell you all about them and we added some of the more modern towers that have sprung up here too!

You can see the Kamnik Alps in the distance better with your eyes than this photo does justice..

When we heard about the new "Crystal Tower" we assumed it would be in the cute capital city of Ljubljana, so were slightly surprised to see this latest record breaking tower had sprung up in the far eastern spa town of Rogaška Slatina, which sits almost on the border with Croatia!

We decided to choose a bright sunny December day to go check out this tower and we were not disappointed with the views!

Modern cafe with plenty of tables inside at the top of the tower..

Visiting the Crystal Tower (Stolp Kristal in Slovenian)..

Incredibly, it only takes 2 hours from the Lodge to drive right over to the far eastern side of Slovenia, using the super modern motorway, until a little past Celje..

The local country roads will bring you to Rogaska Slatina and head for the town centre, following signs for the Stolp Kristal, ("stolp" is tower and the chrystal bit refers to the town's heritage glass making)..

Alternatively, just look up and follow your nose!!

View down on the town of Rogaška Slatina below..

There is a lovely modern car park directly under the tower and a pedestrian bridge across the main road leading into the little town centre and the "stolp" really does look pretty high when you are standing underneath it!

Buy your ticket in the modern reception and then you whizz up inside a really quick glass elevator with epic views, a bit like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory..

There are two decks to wobble around, observation and cafe, about 100m up in the sky!!

You can see the hotels and pools are all centred around where the spring water comes out..

The knee knocking observation deck at the top has glass walls higher than your head, so nothing to be scared of AND you can also walk the full 360 degrees inside if you prefer.

Then just below is a bigger floor space with a modern cafe bar, tables and comfy chairs to sit on, take the strain off your wobbly legs and really enjoy the panorama!

There is an epic glass circular window in the cafe floor you can stand on for death defying views of your car far below..

It takes nerves of steel to stand here if you ever saw the film Final Destination Bloodlines.. the Lodge mobile is directly 100m below..

The view..

The whole point of building a tower in the first place, must surely be.. to look at something special!

But this seems to sometimes forgotten nowadays with a kinda blood lust from little known towns with bagfulls of EU money burning a hole in their pockets and not much imagination about what to do with it!

We certainly got that sinking feeling with Lendava tower for example, which is an absolute beauty, but once you go up, you are left wondering what on earth you are supposed to be looking at!

Definetely a view worth seeing across the town to another telecom tower on the hills opposite..

Fortunately, this is NOT the case here in Rogaška Slatina, with stunning views in every direction over the pretty old town, the local mountains and if you are lucky, a clear view directly across to the north of Slovenia and the snow covered Kamnik Alps!

Rogaška Slatina is also already a centuries old established tourist destination in it's own right, being the home of one of the most fantastic natural water springs in the world, producing a local vintage called DONAT, which contains a higher concentration of natural magnesium than anywhere else in the world!

A really modern foot bridge connects the tower with the town..

A whole town has sprung up around these natural springs, which legend has it were created by Pegasus the mythical horse stamping his hoof into the ground and the water gushing up!

(Maybe they could add some kinda local Lipizzaner twist to this legend to bring it up to modern days)!

From the tower, you can look over the grand spa hotels, swimming pools and beautiful central square and later you could even go down there and try some of that special water!

Is it just a coincidence that the building housing freshly pumped DONAT spring water, looks like a big DONUT..

Donat Water..

If you hear the locals banging on about donuts and get excited that you will soon get to try some kinda local Simpsons delicacy with your coffee, then think again, they are actually talking about the name of the special spring water, which is DONAT!

It is really quite rare for a Slovenian town to have such a grand square in the centre, free from traffic and pretty much dedicated to tourism and locals, so make the most of it and go enjoy it..

At the end of this square there is a circular donut (not Donat) shaped building with glass terrapins on the outside, protecting the natural springs, where Pegasus banged his hoof and nowadays the water is piped inside to several bar pumps, where you can pay for a glass beer mug and go try the water!

Fill your glass from one of the pumps, the general choice is cold or luke warm,,

The high concetration of magnesium in this water is the really special thing here and medically proven to help various medical disorders, especially if you drink it consistently over a period of a week or so.

So the surrounding hotels specialise in looking after pilgrims who have been coming to Rogaška Slatina for centuries from far & wide to visit this spring every day and drink the water!

Another glass terrrapin shields a spring from where the water comes up from..

If you are gonna come to visit the tower, then you should definetely come and at least try the water too, basically you can try it cold or luke warm from different taps, but we have to warn you, it tastes a bit like drinking mud!!

Maybe you will like it, maybe not.. One glass will not make any difference to your health either, but at least you will have tried it and understood how special this place is to many people around the world!

Yet another special place to be found in a little country that has everything that is special about Europe in one little Green package, but almost nobody knows!!

Pay your fee and collect a glass to go taste the special water..

More about the Tower..

We were very impressed with how much fun the tower visit actually was.. One of the Lodge team is not great with heights, so it is very relieving to know the two decks are enclosed with thick glass!

This might not stop your knees wobbling, but it does at least mean you can have the faith to go up there and enjoy the really spectacular views!

We heard from the very friendly reception staff that there is also a VR Pegasus experience and that the local firemen have an annual race up the millions steps, so we are very hopeful this concrete tower with a glass tulip on top can become a real catalyst for tourism and dream up lots of different activities for us visitors to try out in the future.

This was our favourite side of the tower for views..

They already have an E Bike station at the base of the concrete tulip and we could forsee some rock climbing walls on the outside of the tower, maybe a bit of bungee jumping from the top and other stuff like that.

We could also see lots of possibilities to make the Crystal Tower the "high point" of a full day out here around Rogaška Slatina, sitting on the edge of another Slovenian wine region, with plenty of other local places to combine into an eastern Green adventure in nearby Podcetrtek and Podsreda.. (Thursday and Wednesday villages!)

The absolutely beautifully shaped Donacka Gora mountain viewed from the cafe side of the observation decks looks like a fab couple of hours to go hike up & see the view from there and that is next on our list when we visit again!