Slovenska Bistrica Castle ( sl, Grad Slovenska Bistrica, german: Schloss Windische Feistritz), also known as Bistrica Castle (Slovene: , German: ), is a

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 ...

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

outside the town of

Slovenska Bistrica Slovenska Bistrica (; german: Windisch-Feistritz) is a town south of Maribor in eastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Slovenska Bistrica, one of the largest municipalities in Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional regio ...

in northeastern

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 ...

. Its name derives from the Slovene word ''bistra'' 'clear'.

History

The predecessor of the current Slovenska Bistrica castle is first mentioned in 1265, when emperor Rudolf gave it and the adjoining town in fief to count (from 1286 duke of

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

) Meinhard of Gorizia. In 1313, it passed to the Habsburgs, who leased the castle and town to the noble house of Walsee. After 1368, the lordship was obtained by the counts of Celje; after their extinction in 1456 it reverted to the ducal lands. In 1587, the town and castle were bought by Hans Vetter; in 1717 the castle only was sold to the counts Attems, who retained until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when it was nationalized. During the Attems tenure, the castle was the home of the painter and historian

Maria Attems Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

Architecture

The mansion is located on the northwest side of the

mediaeval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

old town of Slovenska Bistrica. Rebuilt into a renaissance mansion in the 17th century, the foundations of the current building adjoin one of the defensive towers of its fortified predecessor. The layout is

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a Convex polygon, convex quadri ...

al, with a

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

at each corner and an arcaded inner courtyard. The entire building is surrounded with a moat, now dry. The surrounding estate was planted with rare trees, now neglected, and a hornbeam tree row. The Attems decorated the interior in the early 18th century; the castle features a painted staircase, a

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and a richly appointed great hall.

External links

*
{{coord, 46, 23, 37.95, N, 15, 34, 15.43, E, type:landmark_region:SI, display=title Castles in Styria (Slovenia) Palaces in Slovenia Historic house museums in Slovenia

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Cultural monuments of Slovenia Renaissance architecture in Slovenia Baroque architecture in Slovenia 17th-century architecture in Slovenia