Mali Tabor Castle

Property description

Settled near the Croatian-Slovenian border and the river Sutla, this castle with fascinating history has a floor area of around ​​1,250 m2 on a spacious land plot of 50,570 m2. The castle is located approx. one-hour drive away from the city center of Zagreb.

Mali Tabor Castle was built at the end of the 15th century as a Renaissance castle. It was later converted into a baroque castle.

From 1490 to 1504 it was owned by the Croatian-Hungarian ban Ivaniš Korvin. For almost three centuries it was ruled by the powerful Hungarian Rattkay family (1524-1793). During their reign, in the late 17th century, the Renaissance castle was converted into a two-winged castle with an inner courtyard and four cylindrical towers. The western and northern defensive walls have been preserved from this castle. In the 19th century it was upgraded into a one-story baroque castle, when the northern defensive wall of the castle was demolished, and the space between the outbuilding and the annex of the east wing of the castle received a new entrance portal which has been preserved to this day. In 1793, the last Count Rattkay died without a male descendant, and then the castle of Mali Tabor was inherited by the children of Ana Rattkay, Leopoldina and Josip Wintershofen.

At the end of the 18th century, the Castle was owned by an Irish noble family of Baron Kavanagh - Ballyane, when Simon Henry Kavanagh (1784-1830) married Leopoldina Moscon, granddaughter of Anna Rattkay. Thus half of this estate came into the possession of the Kavanagh family. The Kavanagh-Ballyane family has a kinship with Queen Mary of England Stewart in their genealogy.

The unique significance of the castle as a monument lies in the features of both Renaissance and early Baroque castles and the fact that it belongs to the rare examples of medieval secular architecture in continental Croatia and beyond.

The castle is located in a fantastic location with scenic views of the gentle hills of Hrvatsko Zagorje on one side, and the view of the snow-capped peaks of the Kamnik Alps on the other. 

The castle has electricity, water and gas connections, and is an excellent investment for a boutique hotel, an exclusive nursing home, a spa…