Betnava Mansion ( sl, Dvorec Betnava, german: Schloss Windenau) is a

manorhouse A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals wi ...

located near the city of

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

in northern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. A structure on the site is first mentioned in 1319, under the name Wintenaw. By the 16th century, it had grown into a fortified and moated

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

manor. It passed through the hands of numerous owners, including the noble families of

Herberstein Herberstein may refer to: * Schloss Herberstein, a castle in Styria, Austria * Siegersdorf bei Herberstein, a municipality in the district of Hartberg in Styria, Austria * Sankt Johann bei Herberstein, a municipality in the district of Hartberg in ...

, Khiessl, Auersperg, Ursini-Rosenberg, Szekely, Brandis. During their tenure, the counts Herberstein transformed it into a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

way-station, complete with chapel and cemetery. In 1863, Betnava became the summer residence of the bishops of Maribor and Lavant, having already been leased by the see for several decades. In 1784, the mansion was rebuilt in late-baroque Florentine style, after the fashion of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

at the time. The west wing contains a chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross, while other notable features include a carved staircase leading to the main hall, itself decorated with late-baroque ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

'' ceiling frescoes painted by an unknown artist c. 1780. The main facade faces a 19th-century English country park. The mansion's current owner is the archbishopric of Maribor, which was in 2011 cited by the Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage for failure to properly maintain the site and safeguard structures uncovered in an archeological dig.

Sources

*https://web.archive.org/web/20090218153632/http://betnava.org/ (unreachable, 3 Aug 2016) *http://www.delo.si/clanek/141729 Delo, 25 Feb 2011 {{coord, 46, 31, 42.55, N, 15, 38, 22.93, E, type:landmark_region:SI, display=title Castles in Styria (Slovenia) Mansions in Slovenia Buildings and structures in Maribor Cultural monuments of Slovenia Monuments of designed nature of Slovenia Baroque architecture in Slovenia