The drive from Zagreb to Varazdin to Veliki Tabor, 57km northwest of Zagreb, is a beautiful one, with an unfolding panorama of hills, pastures and forests. The area also offers good dining and lodging, making the trip to the castle well worthwhile. The Croatian aristocracy began building fortified castles in the region to starve of the Turkish threat at the end of the 16th century.
One of the most famous and best preserved castles in Croatia, Veliki Tabor stands on a bare hilltop, making it visible from a great distance. It as royal property in the 14th century at the time of King Matthias Corvinus I . It was granted to the family of Ratkaj counts, who in the 16th century altered and soften its rather austere room, transforming it into a sumptuous residential palace.
Strategically perched on top of a hill, the fortress-mansion has everything a medieval master could want – towers, turrets and holes in the walls for pouring tar and hot oil on the enemy.
Walls with four semicircular towers encircled the main body of the castle, which is built on a pentagonal ground plan. Two floors with porticoes face the central courtyard. The bastions (no longer extant) made Veliki Tabor a fortress to be feared.
The castle is now a museum.