History of The Lipica Stud Farm
The history of Lipica is closely connected with the history of the Habsburg monarchy. At the time when Archduke Charles was thinking about establishing a new stud farm, the Spanish horse was considered the ideal horse breed. Since the soil and climate in the Kras region is similar to that of Spain, Lipica was chosen as the perfect spot for the new farm.
The first horses were bought in 1581 from Spain (24 broodmares and 6 stallions). The Lipizzaner breed as we know today was fully developed in the time of Maria Theresa of Austria, whose husband was greatly interested in horse-breeding.
From the 14th century up to 1947, Lipica was part of the municipality of Trieste. In 1947, it was annexed to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and included into the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. At that time, the farm had only 11 horses; all others were confiscated by the Germans during World War II.
In the 1960s, Lipica was opened to tourists and new development began. In 1996, Lipica became a public institution that is owned by the Republic of Slovenia and has made significant progress since then. Queen Elizabeth II visited Lipica and its stud farm on 22 October 2008 and was presented with a Lipizzaner horse as a gift from the Slovenian people.
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