Veliki Tabor Castle
Encyclopedia
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in northwest Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, dating from the 16th century.
Most of it was built by the Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
noble family Rattkay, in whose ownership it remained till 1793.
It stands in the region of Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje is a region north of Zagreb, Croatia. It comprises the whole area north of Medvednica mountain up to Slovenia in the north and west, and up to the regions of Međimurje and Podravina in the north and east...
near Desinić
Desinic
Desinić is a village and municipality in the Krapina-Zagorje County in Croatia. According to the 2001 census, there are 3,478 inhabitants in the area, absolute majority which are Croats.-See also:* Veliki Tabor Castle...
, 8 km (5 mi) west of Pregrada
Pregrada
Pregrada is a town and municipality in Krapina-Zagorje county in Croatia. In the 2011 census, there were 6,613 inhabitants in the following settlements:* Benkovo, population 327* Bregi Kostelski, population 270* Bušin, population 138...
, 219 m (718.5 ft) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
. It has around 3340 sqm. The castle is owned by the state, which manages it as a museum and a tourist site.
The oldest part of the castle is the Five-Cornered Tower, built in the twelfth century. The other towers date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The entrance complex was built around 1820. The Croatian painter Oton Iveković
Oton Ivekovic
Oton Iveković was one of the foremost Croatian painters. He graduated from the Vienna Academy of Painting. He later taught at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts. Iveković largely concerned himself with historical topics as well as some religious themes...
owned the castle from 1927 to 1935. The roof consists of twelve different materials. The castle interior has galleries with round pillars. There is a large well, 31 m (101.7 ft) deep, and a former wine cellar. The large hall is decorated with halberd
Halberd
A halberd is a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries. Possibly the word halberd comes from the German words Halm , and Barte - in modern-day German, the weapon is called Hellebarde. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on...
s. The castle chapel on the first floor contains the skull of the legendary Veronika of Desinić.
The collections in the exhibition spaces include old vehicles, ethnographic items, the first manufacture of medicines, swords and armor, paintings and pottery, as well as a presentation of the noble Ratkaj family which used to own the castle.
Since 2002, Veliki Tabor has been the venue of an international festival of short films.
The castle has been undergoing renovations since 6 November 2008, and has been closed to public since. The renovation works were finished in November 2011.
See also
- Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Croatia