Raka Castle

Raka Castle (pronounced [ˈɾaːka]) is one of the oldest medieval castles in Slovenia. Raka is located in the City Municipality of Krško.

Raka Castle (German: Arch) was documented as early as 1161 and explicitly mentioned as Castrum Arch in 1279. Built no later than the second half of the 12th century by the Counts of Bogen, it was inherited by the Counts of Andechs and then passed into the possession of the Dukes of Spanheim. The castle was sold by a relative of the Archer knights to Baron Georg von Scheyer.

The Archer knights oversaw Raka Castle from 1248 until the end of their line at the close of the 15th century. In 1501, a relative of theirs, Leonhard Herič from Kompolje in Blagovica, sold the castle to Baron Georg von Scheyer from Soteska. The castle was later burned in 1515 during a peasant revolt. In 1525, the castle and its estate were given in fief to Baron Johann Balthasar von Werneck by Archduke Karl. In the early 17th century, it was jointly owned by Baron Johann Ruess von Ruessenstein.

Later on, Baron Franz Karl Haller von Hallerstein preserved the old castle from dilapidation.

Through the 17th century, Raka Castle was owned by the Werneck barons and eventually sold to the Kajzelj family, who arranged greenhouse plots and a pond with crab breeding facilities below the castle. The old castle was preserved from its dilapidated state by Baron Franz Karl Haller von Hallerstein, who owned it from 1784 to 1825. He gave it a completely different and refined look, including new landscaped formal gardens and several purpose-built outbuildings. He further enlarged the Raka estate through purchases from the partial sale of the Studenice estate in 1800 and Dolenje Radulje in 1811.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the castle was owned by the nobleman Felix Lenck. After his marriage to a high-profile American woman, Lenck built a sawmill in the vicinity, planted vineyards, and had a piped water supply installed in the castle from nearby Polter Spring.

The castle was used as a military outpost during World War II. Between 1952 and 1961, Raka served as a municipal seat. In 1948, after expulsion from their convent, the Daughters of Charity moved into the castle, where they remained until 1998.

Text adapted from “Raka Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Raka Castle ranks #3,764 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #17 of the 36 mapped in Slovenia. Founded c. 1175, it is older than 81% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 544 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Zagreb, 48 km away. See how Slovenia compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗