The estate of Bistra is located in the southwestern part of the Ljubljana Marshes, in the vicinity of the town of Vrhnika. It was named after the Bistra brook, a tributary of the Ljubljanica river with several karst sources. Situated by the brook is Bistra Castle, which houses the Technical Museum of Slovenia. In the past it was the home of Carthusian monks, built by the Carinthian Duke Bernhard of Spannheim in 1255. In the 17th century, it housed a monks' school and a library, which kept numerous valuable manuscripts.

The Technical Museum of Slovenia (Tehniški muzej Slovenije) was founded in 1951. The most admirable is its Department of Vintage Vehicles, whose collection includes Slovenia's first electric-powered vehicle, a tram car which ran along the streets of Ljubljana around the year 1901. The Woodworking Department features several reconstructions of the first water-powered saws used in Europe, and the Hunting Department a number of last century's stuffed trophy stags indigenous to the forests of Mt. Snežnik. On view a the Museum are also the collections of the Fishing and Forestry Departments. The letter incorporates a projection room, where visitors can learn about forests in Slovenia.

Situated at the confluence of the Bistra brook and the Ljubljanica river are an old Venetian sawmill and a veneer sawmill, and on the Bistra brook a reconstruction of an old forge with a large mechanical sledgehammer, one of the last of its size preserved in Slovenia. By the Castle there is a vast park with a fish pond and on the hill above the castle a nature trail.