Bled Island sits toward the western end of Lake Bled on a ridge of hard dolomite that the Bohinj Glacier could not carve away. When the ice retreated and the basin filled with water, the ridge was left standing above the surface. Slovenia has artificial islands on its reservoirs, but no second natural one.

The southern stone staircase was built in 1655 and climbs ninety-nine wide steps of breccia, a local conglomerate rock, from the boat landing to the church platform. Local tradition holds that a groom who carries his bride the whole way will be rewarded with a lasting marriage. Weddings are still held in the church, so on summer weekends the climb is made in wedding dress. Centuries of use have worn the steps smooth, and they can be slippery after rain.

Inside the church hangs a bell that visitors queue to ring, each pull carrying a wish. Legend tells of a young widow at Bled Castle who gathered her silver and gold and had a bell cast in memory of her late husband. According to the story, a storm sank the boat carrying it, the grieving widow withdrew to a convent in Rome, and after her death the Pope sent a replacement bell to the island.

Excavations in the 1960s beneath the present church uncovered the foundations of wooden dwellings and an Old Slavic graveyard of the Köttlach cultural group, with about one hundred and twenty graves. Written sources mention a chapel here as early as 1185, long before the church took its present form. The island has been a place of ritual for well over a thousand years.

The bell tower is freestanding rather than attached to the church, and that separation is what gives the island its recognisable double silhouette from the shore. Its lower section is still Gothic, while the central part was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1511 left it severely damaged and only crudely patched with timber. It was thoroughly renovated in 1680. With the heritage admission ticket you can make the fifty-two-metre climb and come back down by a two-way staircase.

The Church of the Assumption of Mary, also known by its devotional name, the Church of the Mother of God on the Lake, has a golden main altar from 1747. The altar holds a statue of Mary flanked by Emperor Henry II and his wife Kunigunda, both shown having surrendered their crowns. Three further stone altars came from a Ljubljana workshop. The building changed over the centuries: Romanesque features gave way to Gothic in the middle of the fifteenth century, major renovations followed the earthquakes of 1511 and 1622, and the church took its present Baroque form at the end of the seventeenth century.

The pletna is a flat-bottomed wooden boat with a canvas awning, rowed standing up from the stern with two long oars. The right to operate one has passed down through particular Bled families rather than being sold openly, and it traces back to the eighteenth century, when villagers were granted the right to ferry pilgrims across the lake. The boats are still rowed entirely by hand, which is part of why the crossing is so quiet.

The Potičnica, set between the Sexton's House and the Provost's House, is a working potica house rather than a souvenir counter. Potica is a rolled Slovenian cake built around a spiral of filling, and several varieties are baked and sold on the island. The island's operator also runs ethnological workshops on preparing and baking it.

Under a Bled municipal ordinance introduced in June 2024, landing on the island by stand-up paddleboard, kayak, canoe or smaller private boat is prohibited, and electric surfboards are banned on the lake altogether. In practice this means arrival is now by pletna, by the electric motorboat line, or by a licensed small boat hired on the shore. Anyone planning to paddle across should check the current rules before setting out.

Bled Island's cultural heritage was declared a cultural monument of national importance in 1999, and several buildings around the church are easy to walk past. The Provost's House, once used by priests caring for pilgrims, now holds a gallery and the museum exhibition included in the heritage admission ticket. A building known as the Hermitary was built for solitary prayer. On the northern shore, a spring rises beside the small stone Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes.