Castles and mansions

The castle was one of the largest and most magnificent in Styria. Its remains are still among the most important castle ruins. It was first mentioned in 1165 in the charter of the founding of the Žička Carthusian Monastery, but it was certainly built much earlier.

Most of the walls date back to the Gothic era. This includes in particular the mighty five-pointed tower, which began leaning against the residential building in the 14th century, as well as the massive defensive wall mantle. Later, this design was extended with residential buildings, and the perimeter was fortified with a belt of Renaissance fortifications – among them a bastion with almost four-meter thick walls. The castle is a typical example of a burgeoning castle, which gradually evolved from a small Romanesque beginning into a vast castle complex.

Its first owners were the Konjice lords, when Liupold of Konjice is mentioned for the first time, in 1164. The Konjice lords, who were considered church benefactors, eminent feudal lords, deeply religious and belligerent people, ruled the castle until 1329, after which the castle passed through the hands of various noble families. It was held by the Tattenbach family for 100 years. Ivan Erazem Tattenbach, a member of the family, was beheaded and all his property confiscated for his participation in the conspiracy against the emperor. The castle thus passed into the hands of the Carthusians from the Žiče Carthusian Monastery, which is when the slow deterioration of this magnificent building began. In the 18th century, when the castle was taken over by the last owner, Duke Windischgrätz, the building was already in ruins.

In recent years, the remnants of the castle have been restored in such a way that it will be protected from decay and individual parts will enable activities that will revive the castle with appropriate content. The old castle was, and remains, a landmark of the city which has been developing under its foothills for centuries.

The mansion, which most likely stood here as early as the 18th century, was later named after the Hungarian baron and retired senior officer of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Ödön Vay de Vaya.

At the end of the 19th century, Baron Ödön Vay de Vaya bought a mansion, then called Prevrat (Schloss Preurath), which he later probably rebuilt. The Hungarian baron came from a politically important and wealthy Hungarian Protestant noble family and married the noblewoman Adelma (b. Wurmbrand – Stuppach). They met at a young age and married when Adelma was twenty years old. The couple was extremely popular among the Konjice people, especially because of their charity. In 1897, they also built the Red Cross or “Christiane lazaret” hospital in Konjice.

They chose Slovenske Konjice as their home entirely at random. Adelma slid her finger across the map, and stopped at the name Gonobitz, today’s Konjice. They bought the mansion at Prevrat, as evidenced by the entry in the land register on February 4, 1867. Today, this mansion is known as Baronvaj.

Today, it houses rental apartments.

The Pogled Manor stands on a slope above Loče. The name of the mansion indicates that there may have been a fortified outpost here as early as the Middle Ages, which protected the path from Konjice along the Dravinja.

The surrounding area of the mansion was first mentioned in documents in 1369, but it is not known whether it already existed at that time. Some of the surrounding estates then belonged to Ulrik Grasl from Poljčane, who sold them to the Žička Carthusian Monastery in that year. The present mansion is said to have been erected around 1524, when Ahac Schrott, who owned the property until 1590, is mentioned as the caretaker.

The mansion is designed in a square plan, and in the 16th century three round towers and an arcaded courtyard were added. In 1617, the mansion was rebuilt, as evidenced by the year above the connecting door. At that time, it was owned by Max pl. Plöschen. In the same year, the Plöschen family was named “von Pogledt”, from which the name of the castle itself originates.

Over the course of its existence, the mansion has gone through several owners, and today it houses tenant apartments. That is why the interior spaces have undergone a lot of modifications. Today, among other things, the original spaces are the barrel vault on the ground floor of the eastern part of the southern section, where the kitchen was once located, the cross vaults on the ground floor of the western end and the original chapel, which was arranged on the floor of the western section and is now used as a room.

Southwest of Poljčane, on the steep hill of Zbelovska gora, there are ruins of the former Zbelovo castle. The latter was indirectly referred to in 1206, when Ortolf I Zbelovski was first mentioned.

As a “Vesten Plankenstein”, the sources first directly mention the castle in 1428. Initially, it was the seat of the Lords of Zbelovo (1202 – circa 1400), and then went through several owners until the castle was taken over in 1580 by the Counts of Thurn, whose property it was until their downfall.

The Zbelovo castle played an important role, especially in the protection of the road leading from the Savinja Valley to the Podravje region. It also housed a toll office and a provincial court, which provided attorneyship to many church institutions. In the second half of the 17th century, the castle was already in ruins, as evidenced by Vischer’s topography.

According to tradition, the mansion, located in the village of Dobrnež near Slovenske Konjice, was named after a bare hill that can be seen in its background.

On the right side of the entrance, an inlaid slab is preserved in the hallway, which testifies that the mansion was newly built in 1542 by Adam of Lindek. Stegenšek wrote that there was probably no mansion in the area before that year.

According to some art historians (Šumi, Stopar), Golič is a typical example of a Styrian Renaissance mansion. The building has an almost square floor plan, which is surrounded by two round defense towers at two opposite corners. The layout of the rooms is symmetrical, and the mansion was probably surrounded by a wide, water-filled ditch in the past, which was later backfilled. The park design complex in the immediate vicinity of the mansion, which together with the building formed a complete ring, was also important.

The manor is located northwest of Slovenske Konjice between Dravinja and the Koprivnica stream.

The hamlet, named after an oak tree (dob), was first mentioned in 1375 in one of the documents. The manor was first referred to in sources in 1497, when a certain “Jurij zu Dobie” was mentioned. In the time of Augustin Stegenšek, the entrance to the court was adorned with a chronogram, which is no longer there today, which carried an inscription saying that the building was built by Franc Ksaverij Blagatinšek, who was renamed Blagotinšek by many later writers. Later, August pl. Clossman (1853–1860) was mentioned as an ownerand then further owners: Baroness Beatrix Lebzeltern (1860–1876), Baroness Maria Baltin (1876–1896) and Countess Aleksandrine Sermage (1896–1945).

In his writings, Stegenšek mentioned the testimony of Clossman’s daughter, who heard the story that Dobjihof was, in its time, even a female monastery of the Žiče order, as evidenced by the chapel and nets in front of the windows. This claim is also allegedly confirmed by the fact that the house does not have a basement, as underground tunnels led to the Carthusian monastery once upon a time. This is, of course, not true, as the building was not built until 1763, and the chapel was built and blessed in 1768.

There are several other stories related to the mansion, but most of them are about Countess Aleksandra Sermage. Before coming to Dobjihof, she was an educator at the imperial court in Vienna. The people of Konjice called her the “Countess of Dobjehof”, and she was known for her hospitality.

Today, the mansion houses rental apartments.