Ostalo
CASTRUM MEDVED
Ivan Mirnik
Sažetak
The Medved Castle (Medvedgrad) was one of the strongest and most important castles in the mediaeval Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. It stands upon one of the isolated slopes of the Zagreb Mountain (Medvednica) which lies to the North of the town itself. It was built after the catastrophic Mongolic invasion, between 1242. and 1250. A. D., by the Zagreb bishop Philip as a stronghold in case of similar invasions in the future and as a safe place for the treasure of the Zagreb Church. A few decades later, the castle was taken over by the king Bela IV and thus a long and picturesque sequence of its owners was started. Among them we could name nearly all the major figures of the Croatian history — for example the Babonić, Alben, Zrinski and Gregorijanec families, the Counts of Celje, Count Ivan Karlović, several kings, dukes and bishops of Zagreb. The castle is being mentioned in more than 400 mediaeval documents. Its fame was a gloomy one and it used to be the cause of many a bloody dispute.
The castle has an irregular longitudinal ground-plan, oriented North-East South-West. It was surrounded by a deep fosse only from two sides, as the slopes on the north and west side of the hill is very steep. One could penetrate into the castle only through four gates — a rich triple coat-of-arms stood over the third one. It had a strong and massive keep, one smaller tower, strong and well-built outer and inner ramparts, a richly adorned chapel (early-Gothic stone carvings and wall-paintings from around 1300. A. D.), several buildings in the central part which probably had a rectangular courtyard.
The relatively short life of the Medved Castle was caused by the fact that it was constructed within an area that has often been shaken by earthquakes. Itn eeded repair as early as 1487. and was much renewed and reinforced in 1574. (a third storey in bricks was added to the keep, etc.) by the royal architect Arconati. The strong 1590. earthquake, which even severly damaged the bellfry of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, partly destroyed the castle and made it unfit for fur ther life and defence. In 1602. it is already described as a stripped, plundered and abandoned fortress. The chapel still stood, although a ruin, at the beginning of the XIX cent., and the keep had a roof at the same time. In the last eighty years, the crumbling of the ruins has been very rapid. The keep has completely disappeared — its last corner fell in 1957. The rest either lies in deep layers of debris, or shyly protrudes among the bushes. Only excavations will be able to give us all the missing data about the castle, which is a prehistoric site as well.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
158081
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.12.1972.
Posjeta: 1.022 *