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Dvorac Bežanec / Castle Bežanec
Veliki Tabor
numerous castles, curias and summer resorts, but that’s
where the story ends because only ten percent of about
hundred of those old, cultural buildings are maintained
and transparent – the other ones are left into ruin, without
the defined ownership structure. Fifty percent of the
castles have no purpose at all, and the owners don’t
have the money to change their purpose.
The Government Owns the Majority of Ruined Castles
- This difficult situation that has occurred in regards to
Croatian castles and curias can only be solved by increasing
the sensibility of scientists, owners and users of
the castles, as well as of those services that protect cultural
heritage and local administration offices, because
part of the problem, besides maintenance, is also the
contemporary utilization of these castles and their adjustment
to modern demands. In the long term, positive
effects on local communities are expected, as there are
many options of investments, promoting the castles and
designing the offering for cultural tourism. That’s why
it’s necessary to define acceptable ways of converting
those historic buildings, which would encourage private
businesses, and then those historic buildings would become
initiators of the wider areas’ developments – says
Nikša Božić, architecture engineer and secretary of the
Croatian section of the project. He also says that the
problem is the fact that the castles’ owners are often
left by themselves and all they can expect from authorized
government and local institutions are restrictions
that are designed by the protection services, but not
any encouragements or support for their projects. According
to our information, the best example for that is
the family of Dubravka and Dubravko Hoić, who bought
their little castle Bela II. in hope of completely renovating
it, but according to what they say, the renovation process
is constantly being interrupted. The castle is still in the
renovation phase that just keeps dragging on because
it takes a year or two to answer a simple question.
Considering the fact that not everyone can get their
hands on government money, an Internet site “dvorci.
hr” was launched and that’s where numerous interested
people can get acquainted with the frame that would
define ways and strategies of these historic buildings’
economic utilization, engineer Božić says, and adds that
the biggest current problems include unresolved ownership
issues and finances. Although Villas has raised the
consciousness among the citizens and castle owners,
well-designed projects are still lacking. The government
owns the majority of these castles, which often results
in some sort of sluggishness that big systems display.
According to engineer Božić’s words, some castles,
such as Novi Dvori Zaprešićki, have encountered some
pretty lucky circumstances, and eventually a good programme
and a resolved ownership structure led to the
money from one of the EU funds. One step after the other,
and the renovation has begun. The plan is to open a
university centre in that facility and, so far, everything is
going to plan.
A Court Litigation “Worth” 10 Years and 8 Million Kunas
Although some castles are true pearls of our heritage
and their now-renovated versions are proud staples on
Croatia’s tourist picture, such as Trakošćan, Veliki Tabor,
Bežanec, Miljani, Kulmerovi Dvori, Castle Pejačević,
Đurđevac, Lukavec and Stari Grad, which do a perfectly
good job of dealing with modern times thanks to
numerous cultural and economic features, most of the
buildings aren’t lucky enough to have anyone visit them
or give them any attention.
A typical example of unrecognised treasure is certainly
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