The most beautiful Croatian castles

The Croatian cultural heritage is enriched by hundreds of castles, forts, villas and manors. In the past, they were built as guardians from the enemy at intersections of roads. Most of them have been greatly ravaged by time, but many have been preserved almost entirely. Some of them are real jewels of cultural, historical and architectural heritage.

The Trakošćan Castle is certainly among them. Built in the 13th century as a small fortress, it got its final look in the 19th century when it was reconstructed and refurbished in the neo-Gothic style by its owner at that time, Count Juraj Drašković, into a residential castle with romantic gardens and artificial lakes. Today it is one of the most visited castles in Croatia with more than 65 000 visitors a year.

It is a unique place of exquisite beauty and a true paradise for everyone who wants to spend time in nature and discover the secrets hidden within the old castle walls.

The monumental castle is beautifully equipped and has high architectural value, with walls decorated with frescoes depicting hunting, fun and other motifs that had entertained the intellectual circles of Vienna, Budapest and Paris, revealing the secret lives of the high nobility of the bygone era.

As a museum, the castle is divided into four levels and a few interior units, such as the knights and hunting hall, music room, library, Juliana Erdödy`s studio, as well as the kitchen, armory room and prison. Besides the valuable specimens of preserved furniture, paintings and a number of practical items, each of which tells its own story and reveals the secrets of the castle, there is a particularly interesting and valuable collection of weapons which tracks the military history of the Drašković family, and contains about 300 examples of cold and fire weapons and equipment from the 15th to the 19th century.

Hiking trails which convert this area into a unique walkway, and certainly one of the most beautiful environments within the surrounding area are maintained around the lake. The chapel of the Holy Cross, now famous for performing Trakošćan marriage ceremonies, is situated within the park.

Kutjevo

The former residence of the Jesuits in Kutjevo, built on the foundations of a medieval Cistercian abbey Honestae Vallis, from which a famous wine cellar is preserved, was built by the Jesuits in the period from 1721 to 1735 as a baroque complex with a church and the residential part - a castle. The structure preserved the remains of some walls of the medieval abbey.
The legend of the secret casual encounters of the Empress Maria Theresa and Baron Trenk is also bound to Kutjevo. The legend says that under the auspices of the night, the Baron and Empress would meet in the wine cellar, and having ordered the servants to leave them alone, were swept away by the aphrodisiac traits of the Kutjevo wine and would not come out from the cellar for as many as seven days.

Veliki Tabor

This is a heritage monument, which was rebuilt after extensive conservation and restoration works, and opened to visitors after a completed second stage of renewal. It is located in the municipality Desinić in the Croatian Zagorje. The oldest parts of this fortress date back to the 12th century, and its final look was created in the 16th century during the time of the Rattkay family, which ruled the city for three centuries. There is a famous legend linked to Veliki Tabor about Veronika Desinićka and Fridrih Celjski, whose love story ended tragically. Veronica and Frederick were married secretly after they eloped, but the army of Frederick's father Herman of Celje caught them and detained Fridrih in the Tower in Celje, and drowned Veronica before sealing her into the walls of the castle. Another version of the legend is that Veronika saved Veliki Tabor from the Turkish siege with her charms: she turned chopped straw into horrible hornets which drove the Turkish invaders away.

The fort of Petar Hektorović in the Old Town on the island of Hvar

This property combines the defensive and rural type of architecture. It was built and personally designed by a Croatian Renaissance poet Petar Hektorović in the 16th century. Hektorović himself put a few dozen Croatian, Latin and Italian signs on the fort, from which the most important and central one is Omnium Conditionality, since the whole complex is dedicated to the Creator of everything. According to other signs, one can conclude that the castle was built by Hektorović for himself and his friends, but that he was also providing hospitality to travelers and the poor.
The biggest attraction of the whole complex is a pond with brackish water with residing mullets, behind which there is a carefully kept garden. It is considered that the pond was built on the ruins of some ancient piscine or port device.

The Nehaj fortress in Senj

Built as a fortress on the hill Nehaj in 1556, during the reign of the Austrian duke Fridrih I, in order to protect the town of Senj from frequent attacks of the Turks and Venetians, it became a symbol of this city. Military tactics were to destroy all churches, monasteries and buildings outside the city so that the enemy would not build their camps in them. The fort is the shape of a cube, oriented towards the cardinal points of the world and is 18 meters high and 23 meters wide. The outer walls are 2 - 3.3 meters thick, and the battlements consist of 5 small corner turrets. There are about a hundred loopholes for muskets and 11 for cannons. The building consists of a ground floor - which had a fireplace and room for the crew and weapons - with a yard and a cistern. Today, of course, the fort is intended for tourism purposes. From the very top of it there is a nice view of the Croatian coast, the islands of Rab, Goli, Prvić, Cres and Krk, as well as the mountains Učka and Velebit.

The old town of Đurđevac

The fort built on a hill in the middle of the swamp north of the former village of Đurđevac, was probably built around 1488 by the Pécs Bishop Sigismund Ernušt. The fort was built because of the imminent threat of Turkish invasion and continued conflict of the nobles. Today it is a monument of the first category with a museum - gallery space that contains the legacy of the Croatian naive painter Ivan Lacković Croata on the first floor and attic space and restaurants at ground level. The legend of the fort Picoki which is staged every summer lives to this day. It is a memorial of a cunning defense plan against the Turks who besieged the fortress in 1552.
The brave defenders did not want to surrender and having been left without food and with only one chicken, tricked the enemy by firing it at them. When the Turks saw the act, they thought that the castle still had plenty of food and retreated having not conquered the fortress, cursing the cockerels, which the legend is based on.
The Old Town in Đurđevac has been added to the network of 20 European destinations of excellence that nurture intangible cultural heritage.

The Old Town of Varaždin

The monument of the city of Varaždin was created as a fortress in the 14th century, through the ownership of the Counts of Celje, who renovated it in the Gothic style. With the reconstruction in the 16th century, when the owners Ungnadi brought Domenico de Lalija, the most famous European Renaissance architect, it took the form of a Renaissance fortification. Walls were built with circular towers, earthen ramparts and a moat filled with water so the fort appeared with many characteristics of a „Wasserburg” (watercity). Near the end of the 18th century the Erdody family preformed minor adaptive procedures in the Baroque style. Today, the castle houses the City Museum with a permanent exhibition. This symbol of the city of Varaždin found itself on the Croatian 5 kuna banknote which is a rare sight nowdays.

The Old Town of Čakovec

Also known as the Old Zrinski Town - named after the Zrinski family which played an important role in the development of this part of the Habsburg Monarchy, is today a symbol of identity and tradition of the area of Međimurje. It was first mentioned in the 13th century as a fortress that was founded by Count Demetrius Čak. The castle constantly changed owners who gradually changed its appearence.
It consists of external defensive walls, bastions, which are unique in Croatia, since they are made from brick instead of earth, and are in the form of a quadrangular palace. It got its current form during the Althan family ownership around 1743, which turned the old Zrinski Renaissance palace into monumental Baroque castle. Once, its park stretched a few miles to Šenkovec, where the Zrinski family mausoleum is located. Today, encircling the castle is the Zrinski Park. The Museum of Međimurje is also located in the Old Town of Čakovec.

The castle Pejačević in Našice

There are two castles next to each other at the former Pejačević family farm in Našice: a large one, built in the early 19th century and a smaller one, built in the early 20th century, which has been occupied since 1907. The castle was a novelty in construction in what was then the Austro - Hungarian Empire, since it was built with reinforced concrete for protection against moisture and groundwater. The large castle changed its appearance several times since the beginning of 1811, and changed entirely in 1865 when it was upgraded and enlarged. With this, the modest Baroque castle was turned into a late-Baroque castle with rich architectural ornaments. The large castle is surrounded by a park, which in the past, unlike today, had great historic and artistic value because it contained the giant sequoia tree as well as the ginkgo, pine, yew and other trees. Today the castle is a museum.

Bilje - the hunting castle of Eugen Savojski

Located 10 kilometers from Osijek, it was built in the first half of the 18th century, when this Renaissance-Baroque style was already obsolete in Central and Western Europe. However, the castle Bilje justifies its style, since it was situated at the border with the Ottoman Empire. Erected on marshy land as a hunting castle, it provided accommodation for its first owner, Prince Eugene of Savoy, as many as seven times. There are only a few rare records about the castle. Some indicate that it was built on the foundations of the Turkish city and that in its vast cellars there were large barrels of wine from the Ottoman era, while according to another story it used to be a prison.
Remodelled along with the castle in the 19th century was a landscape park, which today covers an area of 800 acres. Meadows, forests and groves in the vicinity of the castle serve as a hunting park. Today, situated in the midst of the hunting castle are Croatian Forests administration offices and Administration of the Public Institution Nature Park Kopački Rit, and in the cellar area the exhibition gallery of Eugene of Savoy. This building offers priceless relaxation in nature to every visitor.


Source: CNTB