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. Academic Mladen Obad Šćitaroci Prof. dr. sc. Bojana Bojanić Obad Šćitaroci