Klenovnik

Klenovnik lies on the southern slopes of Ravna Gora, nine kilometres northwest of Ivanec, in a part of Hrvatsko Zagorje closely associated with the Drašković family. Its defining landmark is a four-winged, two-storey Renaissance castle built in 1616 as the family’s principal residence; the complex has served healthcare purposes since 1927. The hospital function means that this is not a conventional palace open for casual touring, yet the vast exterior and historic grounds still dominate the settlement. Above Klenovnik, at Vukovoj, stands the late Gothic Chapel of St Wolfgang, built in 1508 and enclosed by a fortified stone wall with firing slits. Its interior contains a Baroque high altar dating from 1650 and a pulpit made around 1745, while the elevated site overlooks the Zagorje hills. The village centre adds the Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1738 and consecrated in 1821. Klenovnik works particularly well as a focused half-day excursion linking a Renaissance residence, a Baroque parish church and a solitary Gothic chapel on Ravna Gora’s lower slopes.

Klenovnik first appears in written records in 1244, when King Béla IV granted the estate to Mihajlo, count of Varaždin. The Drašković family controlled it from the mid-16th to the mid-19th century, and Ban Ivan II Drašković commissioned the immense four-winged castle with its inner courtyard in 1616. The settlement grew between that residence and the southern slopes of Ravna Gora, where carbonate rock has produced caves and pits. Klenovnik also preserves distinctive food traditions: the making of the festive lucišćak loaf and the Christmas bread known as koledo is listed as protected intangible heritage.