Veliki Tabor ( hr, Great Camp) is a

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 ...

and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

in northwest

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, dating from the middle of 15th century. The castle's present appearance dates back to the 16th century. Most of the castle was built by the Hungarian noble family of Ráttkay, in whose ownership it remained until 1793. It is located in the region of

Zagorje Hrvatsko Zagorje (; Croatian Zagorje; ''zagorje'' is Croatian for "backland" or "behind the hills") is a cultural region in northern Croatia, traditionally separated from the country's capital Zagreb by the Medvednica Mountain. It compris ...

near

Desinić Desinić is a village and municipality in the Krapina-Zagorje County in Croatia. At the 2011 census, there was a total population of 2,951. Notable people * Veronika of Desenice, the second wife of Frederick II, Count of Celje Frederick I ...

, west of

Pregrada Pregrada is a town and municipality in Krapina-Zagorje County in Croatia. In the 2011 census, there were 6,594 inhabitants in the following settlements: * Benkovo, population 326 * Bregi Kostelski, population 269 * Bušin, population 139 * C ...

, above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. It has around . The castle is owned by the state, which manages it as a museum and a tourist site. The results of the conservation research and the analysis of the

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

finds indicate that the oldest part of Veliki Tabor was built in middle of 15th century. The oldest part of the fort centre is its central part, the pentagonal castle, whose stylistic characteristics belong to the Late

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

period. The castle is surrounded by four semi-circular

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 ...

towers connected by curtain walls and the walls of the northern entrance part. The fort centre is surrounded by the outer defence wall (the distance from the easternmost to the westernmost points being about 225 metres) with a farm office, a Renaissance bastion, two semi-circular guardhouses (northern and southern), and the quadrangular entrance tower (present only on the archaeological level) through which the access road ran. Since 2002, Veliki Tabor has been the venue of an international festival of short films. The castle was closed to the public while undergoing renovations beginning 6 November 2008. Those renovations were completed in November 2011. In the Middle Ages, Veliki Tabor belonged to

Hermann II, Count of Celje Hermann II ( sl, Herman; early 1360s – 13 October 1435), Count of Celje, was a Styrian prince and magnate, most notable as the faithful supporter and father-in-law of the Hungarian king and Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. Hermann's ...

. His son Fridrik fell in love with Veronika, a girl from a poor family. Hermann refused to accept a minor noblewoman as his daughter-in-law. He accused her of witchcraft and had her drowned. Frederick's rebellion against Hermann ended with Frederick's imprisonment.Luthar, Oto (2008), The Land Between: A History of Slovenia, Peter Lang, pp. 167–169, Her body was walled up in Veliki Tabor. Veronika’s weeping can still be heard from the castle, according to some stories.

References

External links

Veliki Tabor Castle Tabor Film Festival Medievalwall
{{Authority control Castles in Croatia Museums in Croatia Buildings and structures in Krapina-Zagorje County Tourist attractions in Krapina-Zagorje County

See also

References

External links