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. This continued what Countess Lujza Schlippenbach, married to Rudolf Sr. Erdödy, had started. In 1885, she established a hospital in Novi Marof, which she supported for 20 years with the money from the sale of Maruševec Castle, after the death of her first husband. Today, the castle and surrounding buildings house a hospital with a tradition spanning 140 years. Academic Mladen Obad Šćitaroci Prof. dr. sc. Bojana Bojanić Obad Šćitaroci