Chalet Sofija – a Ljubljana chef's five-room house in the Julian Alps

High on the slope above Gozd Martuljek, where the road switchbacks beneath the Martuljek peaks, Chalet Sofija occupies ground that once held a children's holiday home belonging to the City of Ljubljana. Restaurateur Svetozar Raspopović, known across Slovenia simply as Pope, and his partner Aleksandra Rass bought the site and rebuilt it as a five-suite mountain house, a sloping modernist structure that deliberately breaks with the timber-and-stone grammar of its Alpine neighbours. The MICHELIN Guide gives it Two Keys, noting that the owners of a highly regarded Ljubljana restaurant bring the same seriousness to the dining room as to the suites upstairs, where the chef-owner personally commands the open kitchen in front of guests. With only five rooms in the whole house, a stay here feels closer to being received as a guest in someone's own home than checking into a hotel, which is precisely the point: the chalet is named after Pope's mother, Sofija, and conceived as a refuge rather than an address.

01The house

Before Chalet Sofija there was a holiday home for children, run for years by the Municipality of Ljubljana for school breaks and summer camps in Srednji Vrh above Gozd Martuljek. Raspopović bought the building and the plot, and spent years turning it into something else entirely before it opened. The architecture is by Niki Bonetti of Linija Bonetti, working to a brief that explicitly rejected the pitched-roof, exposed-timber template of regional Alpine building in favour of a sloping modernist form; the project ran through 2021 to 2023, with a net floor area of around 1,500 square metres, of which roughly 800 square metres is usable living space, the rest given over to service areas, cellars and garage.

The timber structure was built by Mehlin, and the hand-split wood shingles that cover parts of the exterior are the work of craftsman Bojan Koželj — a traditional Alpine material used on a building that otherwise owes nothing to Alpine convention. Despite the scale of the rebuild, the house keeps the intimacy of its five-suite format, placing it alongside other small-scale Slovenian properties that have shown the country can sustain serious luxury without scale.

02Rooms and suites

Chalet Sofija contains a mere five suites, which range from the merely lavish Suite Izabela, with its panoramic views and 60 square metres of space, to the extraordinary Presidential Suite Izak, whose vast outdoor terrace nearly doubles its already generous area. Between them sit Presidential Suite Aleksander (90 square metres plus a 40 square-metre terrace), Suite Kristijan (50 square metres plus 15 square metres outside) and Suite Tara (60 square metres plus 30 square metres outside) — all named, the owners explain, after their grandchildren, since family is the house's organising idea.

Insider tip

Adults-only, 5 rooms, open-kitchen dining by chef-owner Pope, heated pool and sauna with Alpine views.

Every suite is fitted with a Jacuzzi and furnished with pieces and accessories from Roche Bobois, alongside individual artworks chosen to give each room its own character, and each is built around a view of the Špik massif that changes with the weather. On one side the outlook runs to the prominent peak itself; on the other, suites look across to the ski slopes of Kranjska Gora. From the terraces, guests can hear the Martuljek waterfalls on quiet evenings.

03Where to eat

The gourmet programme draws directly on decades of culinary expertise from Ljubljana's well-known As restaurant, and it shows in the kitchen's confidence: Pope personally prepares dishes in front of guests at an open kitchen, pairing careful ingredient selection with technique honed over a long restaurant career. Dinners lean on venison supplied by local hunters and cheese from nearby farms, with Pope carving the oven-roasted rib-eye tableside while Aleksandra talks guests through where each ingredient came from and where to hike the next day.

Breakfast is built around freshly laid eggs and served with the sunrise over the mountains rather than a set menu card, and the wine list is chosen to run alongside both. There is no separate restaurant brand or booking system here — the dining room is simply part of the stay, run by the same two people who own the house.

04The spa

The wellness area is built around the same view as the suites. There is a Finnish sauna for watching the sunset over Kranjska Gora and a smaller Turkish sauna for two, plus a heated outdoor pool that, according to the architect's own account of the build, can be swum in even in winter. A lounge area serves sparkling wine so guests can carry on looking at the Julian Alps after they get out of the water, and every suite has its own Jacuzzi besides.

05The neighbourhood

Gozd Martuljek sits in the shadow of the Martuljek mountain chain, a few kilometres from Kranjska Gora and close to the edge of Triglav National Park, and the hotel's position in the hamlet of Srednji Vrh means the Martuljek waterfalls, the via ferratas of Hvadnik and Jerman, and longer hikes up to Blenkova planina or Trupejevo poldne all start more or less from the door. In winter, the ski slopes of Kranjska Gora are the view from the suites rather than a drive away.

06Making the most of a stay

The house itself asks guests to plan a short stay rather than an extended one, pitching itself as a place to disconnect for up to three nights rather than a base for a longer holiday. It is adults-only, with a minimum check-in age of 18, no cots or extra beds, and no parties or events; check-in runs from 15:00 and check-out is by 11:00. Pets are welcome, charges may apply, and dogs get their own private lawn to run on.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.