3752) Castles Of Croatia: Four Postage Stamps of 0.65 Euro each issued by Hrvatska pošta (Croatian Post) presenting Klenovnik Castle, Maruševec Castle, Miljana Castle and Novi Marof Castle: Date/Year of Stamps issue: 10.02.2025:
KLENOVNIK CASTLE – once the castle of the Drašković Counts, now a hospital:
Klenovnik Castle, located near Varaždin and Trakošćan, is one of the oldest and largest castles in Croatia.
It was built at the beginning of the 17th century near a medieval noble/feudal town (burg) that King Bela IV gifted to the prefect of Varaždin in 1244. Klenovnik Castle is one of the first examples of castle restoration and repurposing in 20th-century Croatia.
The Drašković family owned Klenovnik Castle for nearly three centuries – from the 1570s to the mid-19th century. Gašpar I (1530–1585) was the first owner from the family, while Count Juraj VI (1803–1889), a deputy marshal, was the last Drašković to own Klenovnik Castle.
He sold the estate to restore the old medieval noble/feudal town of Trakošćan. Klenovnik was purchased by Baron Oton Bruck, a former Austrian Minister of Finance.
After him, the castle changed owners frequently, as it was too large for permanent or occasional residence, and the maintenance costs were enormous.
The last owner, Count Josip Bombelles, owner of the Opeka Castle and estate, sold the castle to the Central Workers' Insurance Office in Zagreb, which in 1927 opened a sanatorium for pulmonary tuberculosis in the renovated castle. The hospital still operates in the castle to this day.
The castle is a two-story late Renaissance-early Baroque building with a rectangular floor plan and an inner courtyard, a so-called four-winged castle, with external dimensions of 58 x 40.5 meters.
There are four main stages in the development of the castle: the initial construction of the castle (1616); the addition of the northeast wing (1667); the renovation of the southeast part of the castle after the earthquake (1880); and, three centuries after its construction, a thorough restoration and extension of the castle for hospital purposes (1927).
The years of construction work are documented by commemorative plaques embedded in the façades of the castle.
A special feature of the castle is the Baroque Chapel of St. Anthony, one of the most beautiful and valuable court chapels in Croatia, with a well-preserved interior and 18th-century furnishings. A large landscaped park was built around the castle, most of which has been preserved to this day
MARUŠEVEC CASTLE – from a Renaissance Wasserburg to a Historicist castle:
Maruševec is part of the southwest ring of castles around Varaždin, which includes the castle with an arboretum Opeka. Maruševec was first mentioned in 1547 as a stone manor, at that time owned by the Vragović family.
Before that, historical sources indicate a wooden fortress of the “wasserburg” type, protected by a water moat.
Baltazar Vragović renovated and extended the castle in 1618, as evidenced by the inscription and Coat of Arms on the old part of the castle.
The castle assumed its present appearance in 1877 when Count Schlippenbach renovated it in the style of Romanticism and Historicism, completely altering both its exterior and interior.
At that time, a three-story tower was added, featuring Neo-Gothic and Historicist architectural elements. The last minor works on the castle were completed in 1901, during the time of the Pongratz family. After that, no significant alterations were made to the castle.
The castle is situated in a picturesque landscape, which has not undergone significant changes to this day.
At the end of the 19th century, a landscape-Romantic park was created, which has been partially preserved to this day.
In just under 500 years, Maruševec changed several owners: the Vragović family from the 16th to the 18th century; the Črnkovački, Pasztory and Kanotaj families in the 18th century; the Patačić family at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries; and the Simbschen, Schlippenbach and Erdödy families in the 19th century, until 1883, when Maruševec came into the possession of the Pongratz-Lippit family.
The castle remained in their possession until 1945, when they were expropriated.
In 2003, the Republic of Croatia returned the castle, without the forests and agricultural land, to Dr. Oscar Pongratz-Lippit, a noble who had visited Maruševec as a child.
In the second half of the 20th century, the castle was used as a children's home and the seat of the municipality, while the Seventh-day Adventist Church utilized it for a secondary religious school and the Adventist Theological Seminary from 1969 to 2000.
Until its return to the former owner, the castle was managed by the municipality and the Maruševec Castle Friends Association. The significantly damaged and impoverished castle awaits restoration, a new purpose and a new life.
MILJANA – Baroque castle of the Ratkaj family:
Miljana Castle in Hrvatsko Zagorje is one of the most famous and picturesque castles in Croatia.
The first owners of the Miljana estate were the noble Ratkaj family, who built the castle near their other estate and castle, Veliki Tabor.
The Ratkaj family owned Miljana for almost two centuries – from the early 17th century until 1793, when the last male member of the family passed away.
After that, the castle changed owners – the Royal Administration (until 1852), the noble Kuhtić family (until 1890) and the Jäger family (until 1978).
In 1978, the castle was purchased by a chemist, scientist and creator of the drug Apaurin, dr. sc. Franjo Kajfež.
The castle remained in his family’s possession until 2010 when it was purchased by the construction company Kamgrad, owned by Dragutin Kamenski. Miljana is one of the few castles in Croatia that remained in private ownership during the socialist era.
The castle was built over a period of two and a half centuries.
Construction began in the Renaissance period around 1600 and continued until the mid-19th century.
The largest part of the castle was built during the time of the Ratkaj Counts, who expanded and modified the castle several times. In recent times, the castle underwent a thorough restoration in the 1980s and again from 2010 to 2015, with the exterior appearance remaining unchanged.
The current floor plan of the castle is rectangular, with an inner courtyard enclosed by wings of unequal width and height, which has remained unchanged since the mid-19th century.
At the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, the façades of the castle and the outer wall of the courtyard were painted.
The frescoes make the castle distinctive and set it apart from other castles in Croatia.
In addition to the façades, the castle was also painted in the interior, more extensively than any other castle in Hrvatsko Zagorje.
The castle's salons feature the most valuable wall paintings from the Rococo period in Croatia. All of them were restored at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
Miljana Castle is an example of a castle that has maintained the continuity of life in private ownership for over four centuries. Only for a few castles in Croatia can that be said.
NOVI MAROF – Castle of the Erdödy Counts at the foot of the medieval Greben Castle:
The castle in Novi Marof was built by the Erdödy family in the second half of the 18th century. Until then, the Erdödy family had lived in the nearby Greben Castle, a medieval noble fortress located on the eastern edge of Ivanščica, which has been mentioned since the early 13th century.
It was the second-largest noble castle in Hrvatsko Zagorje, with only Cesargrad near Klanjec, also owned by the same family, being larger.
When the roof of Greben Castle burned down in the early 18th century, the Erdödy family abandoned it and moved to the lowlands. The old castle was no longer repaired and is already mentioned as a ruin in sources from the Zagreb Kaptol in 1710.
Below Greben Castle, in the valley of the Bednja River, the Erdödy family owned a manor (marof) with a wooden house, called Lepenija.
Due to frequent floods, it was not ideal, so the Erdödy family built a new manor with a castle named Novi Marof (new manor/marof).
It is mentioned that the castle was commissioned by Ljudevit Erdödy in 1776.
The castle is a single-story late Baroque-Classical building, with a rectangular floor plan and an inner courtyard, featuring a Classical portico on the main entrance façade. The best-preserved part of the original interior is Count Erdödy's study.
A partially preserved Romantic landscape park from the late 19th century surrounds the castle.
The Greben Castle estate with Novi Marof Castle was in the possession of the Erdödy Counts for nearly three centuries, from the 1630s to the 1920s.
Through the marriage of Elizabeta Batthyány to Juraj Erdödy, the estate passed into the possession of the Erdödy family in the mid-17th century. The last owner was Rudolf Jr. Erdödy.
In 1923, the Erdödy family sold the Greben Castle estate and left Novi Marof, and in 1927, they sold the castle, which was converted into a hospital.
The Stamp set:
Technical details:
Issue Date: 10.02.2025
Designer: Dean Roksandić, designer from Zagreb
Printer: AKD d.o.o., Zagreb
Process: Offset Printing
Colours: Multicolour (CMYK)
Sizes: 34.08 mm x 35.50 mm
Values: 0.65 EUR x 4
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