Croatia · 12th century
The Old Town, Varaždin, is located in the north-west of Croatia near the centre of the town of Varaždin.
It was first mentioned in 1181 under the name Garestin in a document of the Hungarian-Croatian King Béla III.
Originally the castle was built as a lowland fortress at the crossing of old traffic routes.
In the 16th century Varaždin was one of the main defensive fortresses within the historic Military Frontier against the advancing Ottomans. During this period the castle was developed into a modern fortress with a surrounding moat, earthen ramparts and bastions.
In later years the castle was rebuilt several times. Owners included the Counts of Celje, the Vitovec family, Ivaniš Korvin and the Ungnads. At the end of the 16th century the castle came into the possession of the Erdődy family and remained so until 1925. In that year the castle together with the surrounding complex of buildings was expropriated by the town of Varaždin. Since then the town museum has been housed there.
Machine-translated from “Schloss Varaždin” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Old Town, Varaždin ranks #3,338 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #26 of the 79 mapped in Croatia. Founded 1181, it is older than 78% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 763 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. 6 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Maribor, 60 km away. See how Croatia compares in the castle statistics.
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