Gardens of Vranyczany’s Manor Houses in Hrvatsko Zagorje in the Age of Historicism

Mladen Obad Šćitaroci,Bojana Bojanić Obad Šćitaroci

doi:10.31522/p.29.2(62).5

Abstract

The Vranyczany-Dobrinović family (short: Vranyczany) is an aristocratic family that rose to power in Croatia in the second half of the 19th century. Members of the family possessed five manor houses surrounded by gardens with historicist features from the late 19th and early 20th century. All five are located in the hilly region of Hrvatsko Zagorje, which boasts the highest density of castles and manor houses in Croatia, built in continuity from the 17th until the beginning of the 20th century. The aim is to determine the features of the gardens of the explored castles, on the basis of photographs from the beginning of the 20th century as well as cartographic sources. A wealth of photographic documents from the beginning of the 20th century shows carefully landscaped and kept gardens and parks, with a full life flourishing in them. Vranyczany’s manor houses’ gardens are based on the Biedermeier and romantic tradition of garden culture. Towards the end of the 19th century, many gardeners trained in Vienna, Prague and other Central European cities, lived in Zagreb and the surrounding area. They passed down ideas related to the historicist garden culture and competed in artistic and horticultural gardening.

Highlights

The manor houses portrayed in this article are located in Hrvatsko zagorje, a region in north-western Croatia, north of Zagreb, the capital
On the basis of this, in the third step, the gardens of Vranyczany manors were seen in the context of the landscape architecture of the late 19th and early 20th century when numerous gardens of villas, summer houses and manors were created, as well as public parks in Zagreb and other Central European cities
−− Numerous and diverse garden equipment and contents that we find in the photographs of the manor in Oroslavje Gornje have not been recorded in other gardens according to the sources available so far

Summary

Introduction

The manor houses portrayed in this article are located in Hrvatsko zagorje, a region in north-western Croatia, north of Zagreb, the capital. Hrvatsko zagorje is a region with the highest density of manors in Croatia. It is a sort of an example of late Renaissance, early Baroque, Baroque, with classicist, romantic and historicist features. The Vranyczany-Dobrinović family (hereinafter: Vranyczany) was a noble family that rose to power in Croatia in the second half of the 19th century. They were great patriots and patrons of Croatian culture and art.. Members of the family possessed five manor houses north of Zagreb (Fig. 2). A large majority of manor houses has not been satisfactorily renovated to the present day.

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