Trakošćan Castle

Trakošćan rises on a wooded hilltop in Croatia's far north, its white towers and battlements reflected in the lake at its foot. Often described as the best-preserved castle in Croatia and one of its most beautiful, it began as a small Romanesque stronghold and owes its fairy-tale silhouette to a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival makeover, carried out by an aristocratic family in the spirit of Romanticism.

The castle was built in the thirteenth century as a modest watch fort on the road from Ptuj into the Bednja valley; the name Trakošćan first appears in writing in 1334. One local story derives it from an ancient fortification, arx Thacorum, said to have stood on the same spot, while another links it to knights of Drachenstein. By the end of the fourteenth century it belonged to the Counts of Celje, and after their line died out it passed through several hands, including Jan Vitovec, John Corvinus and the Gyulay family. In the late sixteenth century it was granted to Juraj Drašković, and it stayed with the Drašković family until 1944. They strengthened it against firearms and Ottoman raids with artillery towers and outer defences, then left it to decay in the eighteenth century when comfortable manor houses were in fashion across Hrvatsko Zagorje.

Its revival came around the middle of the nineteenth century, one of the earliest restoration projects in Croatia. Juraj Drašković and his wife Sofija rebuilt the old fortress as a Neo-Gothic residence and reshaped the surroundings as a Romantic landscape park in the English manner, damming the valley to create the lake, which today covers about 17 hectares. To pay for the work, the family sold Klenovnik Castle. Since 1953 the interior has been a museum. Its rooms re-create the period of the restoration and hold a knights' hall with sixteenth-century armour, a collection of weapons including Ottoman arms, portraits of the Drašković family and their relatives from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, paintings by Julijana Erdődy-Drašković, a preserved castle kitchen and a library. A small chapel of 1752 stands in the park.

Getting there

Trakošćan lies in Varaždin County, about 12 km north-east of Krapina and about 30 km south-west of the city of Varaždin. The Slovenian town of Ptuj is about 19 km away across the border. The nearest airport is Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport (MBX) in Slovenia, about 32 km away; the nearest in Croatia is Zagreb Franjo Tuđman Airport (ZAG), about 58 km to the south.