Maruševec Castle

Maruševec is a castle located in the municipality of the same name within Varaždin County, Croatia. The castle dates back to 1547. In the 19th century it was described as having a square, lowland fortress with entrenchments, four circular towers and one square one, entered across a wooden bridge.

History
In 1618 Baltazar Vragović of the noble family Vragović, (entitled in 1351 by King Ljudevit I), restored and enlarged the castle. This is recorded in the inscription and family arms on the first floor of the western wall of the old castle. The Vragović family had obtained and occupied the castle and from 1514 had the right to pronounce the death sentence on serfs. In 1716 they were given a baronetcy but the last member of the family, Franjo Adam, had no male heir and nominated Krsto črnkovački, then Deputy Ban and captain of the Ban's bodyguard, to be his successor. However, upon his death a year later in fighting against the Turks on the Zrin, Maruševec Castle was owned by a succession of noble families from the Pasztory family, the Kanotay family to the Patačić family.

The Patačićes remained im possession until 1817 no heir was apparent. Throughout the mid 19th century, again the castle was under numerous hands, until it was bought in 1873 from Baron Simbschen by the Prussian Count Arthur Schlippenbach whose wife, Luisa, was from the Drache de Wartenberg family. He enlarged the castle as it stands today and refurbished it with decor of the period in 1877. In 1881, Count Schlippenbach died in Cairo.

In 1883 Maruševec and Čalinec Castle were purchased by Oskar de Pongratz. The Pongratz noble family reconstructed the garden upon the plans of the Swedish architect Carl Gustav Swensson, and made some minor alterations to the building in 1901 such as tapestries on the staircases illustrating hunting scenes, the work of Monnaccelli from Rome. Pongratz also placed a new entrance door in the south wall above which are the Pongratz arms, and built new steps, which stand today. The castle was owned by the Pongratz noble family until 1945. That year the Independent State of Croatia was defeated, resulting in the establishment of communist-run Yugoslavia which confiscated most of the former Austro-Hungarian Croatian nobility's property. As part of this, Maruševec was nationalized and the Pongratz's emigrated to Graz, Austria.

In the 2000s, the government of Croatia began the process of returning the property to the heir of the Pongratz family, count Oskar Pontgratz. It is now in their ownership.