Trakošćan Castle
Hilltop castle above a lake in Hrvatsko Zagorje, remodelled in Romantic Neo-Gothic style in the 1850s.
Trakošćan first appears in written records in the late thirteenth century as a small observation fort guarding the route through the hills of Hrvatsko Zagorje. From 1584 it belonged to the Drašković family, who held it for more than three and a half centuries. After a long period of neglect Juraj V Drašković rebuilt the castle in the 1850s in the Romantic Neo-Gothic manner then fashionable in central Europe, adding crenellated towers and reshaping the interiors, while the surrounding slopes were laid out as an English landscape park with an artificial lake.
The estate was nationalised in 1945 and opened to the public as a museum in 1953. The permanent display occupies some thirty rooms over several floors and presents the furnishings, portraits, weapons and everyday objects of the Drašković family, including a large collection of arms and armour and a gallery of family portraits. Outside, the forest park covers roughly two hundred hectares around the lake, with marked paths, an educational trail and the Chapel of the Holy Cross.
Highlights
- Neo-Gothic remodelling of the 1850s by Juraj V Drašković
- Some thirty furnished rooms of the Drašković family collections
- Collection of arms and armour spanning the 15th to 19th centuries
- Landscape park of about 200 hectares with a lake and marked paths
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
