"In 1672 there dwelt in the market town of Kring, in the Archduchy of Krain, a man named George Grando, who died, and was buried by Father George, a monk of St. Paul, who, on returning to the widow's house, saw Grando sitting behind the door. The monk and the neighbours fled. Soon stories began to circulate of a dark figure being seen to go about the streets by night, stopping now and then to tap at the door of a house, but never to wait for an answer. In a little while people began to die mysteriously in Kring, and it was noticed that the deaths occurred in the houses at which the spectred figure had tapped its signal. The widow Grando also complained that she was tormented by the spirit of her husband, who night after night threw her into a deep sleep with the object of sucking her blood. The Supan, or chief magistrate, of Kring decided to take the usual steps to ascertain whether Grando was a vampire. He called together some of the neighbours, fortified them with a plentyful supply of spirituous liquor, and they sallied off with torches and a crucifix.

Grando's grave was opened, and the body was found to be perfectly sound and not decomposed, the mouth being opened with a pleasant smile, and there was rosy flush on the cheeks. The whole party were seized with terror and hurried back to Kring, with the exception of the Supan. The second visit was made in company with a priest, and the party also took a heavy stick of hawthorn sharpened to a point. The grave and body were found to be exactly as they had been left. The priest kneeled down solemnly and held the crucifix aloft: "O vampire, look at this," he said; "here is Jesus Christ who loosed us from the pains of hell and died for us upon the tree !"

He went on to address the corpse, when it was seen that great tears were rolling down the vampire's cheeks. A hawthorn stake was brought forward, and as often as they strove to drive it through the body the sharpened wood rebounded, and it was not until one of the number sprang into the grave and cut off the vampire's head that the evil spirit departed with a loud shriek and a contortion of the limbs."

See also: Giure Grando, il vampiro di Corridico (Italiano)

In 1681, almost a century after Lipica's foundation, historian Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor wrote: "Among other things, he (Charles II) founded a stud farm on the Karst in the village of Lipica in 1580, where the best horses are bred and brought to the imperial court. They are the most excellent and most robust horses you can find. They go and graze on hard rocks, where only very little grass grows." The tough, fast Karst horse that was famous in the Roman Empire, and the noble Spanish Genett had evolved into a top quality baroque horse.

The first explorer of caves in Slovenia, Johann Weichard Valvasor, in his Glory of the Duchy of Carniola of 1689 lists 70 caves. It was sheer curiosity that first prompted Valvasor into exploring caves, while later he focused on their hydrological features and the composition of stalactites. Another fact that testifies to the long tradition of spelaeology in Slovenia is that one of the country's most beautiful caves, Vilenica, was opened for sightseeing as early as the 17th century. Research continued in the 20th century and as a result, a register of caves was composed. His description of this contains a strong element of fantasy and contained a terrifying description of a cave of immeasurable depths and monstrous shapes. Valvasor is reputed to have brought several foreign acquaintances to Postojna to show them the cave. He considered Postojna Cave to be the largest and longest but at the same time the grimmest of all the caves he had seen.

The 17th century description of a skier from Bloke is the oldest written record of skiing in Central Europe. J.W. Valvasor described Slovenians skiing in 1689 in his book The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola. He writes:

Table of Cyrilic and Glagolitic Script

"The Peasants of Upper Carniola know of a rare invention of the sort I had never seen anywhere else: in wintertime, when the snow is plentiful, they descend into the valley with incredible speed. For that purpose they take two strips of wood, each a quarter of an inch thick, half a foot wide, and some five feet long. At the front the wooden strips are bent upward; in the middle there are leather straps to put the feet into. One such strip of wood is strapped under each foot. On top of this, the peasants take a stout cudgel into their hands push it under their armpit, bend backward, and use it as if it were some sort of a rudder to slide off, or even fly down the steepest slopes ... no less swift than those who use skates in Holland to glide on ice."