Not many cities can boast with the vicinity of two very well preserved castles, the way Zagreb can (and if we would add all castles in the area together with ones of which nothing has remained, the number would be rather large). All of Zagreb’s inhabitants know about castle Medved, but I’m sure many of them have never heard about Sused. Although Medved is closer to city downtown (Jelacic square, to be exact), Sused is much closer to city’s residential area – it is situated above city’s westmost quarter Podsused (coming from the north, from the last house to the entrance into the castle takes no more than 2-minute walk while from the south, from the center of Podused, it can be reached by a 10-minute walk through the park at the slope of the hill). The castle is built at the top of a steep hill, at a favorable strategic point, not far from a confluence of rivers Krapina and Sava, and it controls both land and river traffic routes.
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| Ivan Standl: castle Sused (1869/1870) |
Although situated in the capital’s suburbs, somehow it has always been and has remained in the shadow of castle Medved. Maybe cause it isn’t seen from the town the way Medved is so it doesn’t “catch the eye”, it doesn’t attract people, doesn’t “call” them. The castle can be seen when driving on highway towards/from Krapina, but most of the time the abundant vegetation screens the view to its walls. So many pass by, looking at wooded hill, not knowing that it holds secrets of the past, old walls of a castle.
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| view of the castle from the East (from the other side of the moat) |
Considering the vicinity of residential area and very good public transport connection with the rest of the city (train, bus) and accessibility by car, it is a real shame that Sused doesn’t have more visitors.
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| view of the castle from the East (closer look) |
If one day you’ll find yourself in Zagreb and decide to visit this “accessible” castle, at the plateau on the top of the hill you’ll be greeted by a set of well preserved walls. Coming from the Podsused, through the park, the first thing you’ll reach is the moat that surrounds the castle from the south, SW and SE while on the north side is a natural steep slope.
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| moat |
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| view of the castle from SW |
Crossing the moat, you enter the outer bailey which is the new part of the castle, built in the 16th ct. Not much of walls if preserved here and you can hardly tell apart any structures but we know this part was surrounded by outer curtain wall which was strengthened at the SW side by a round tower next to which might have been the main entrance to the castle.
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| part of the outer bailey, view from the SE |
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| West curtain wall |
But, if you pass through the door at the south wall into the residential (older) part of the castle, you’ll see another picture as the walls are much better preserved here.
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| view of the old part (and the entrance) from the South |
Passing through the door will take you into the small inner bailey (courtyard) with a well.
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| well |
It is enclosed by buildings which ground floor rooms have been workshops while the 1st floor was residential.
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| remains of buildings enclosing the courtyard with a well |
If you look closer, at the north part of the castle you’ll notice two doors with preserved stone doorposts.
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| doorpost |
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| doorpost |
The castle has had a chapel, separated from the palace. Its exact location is not know: it might have been situated in the rectangular structure (interpreted as a tower) at the NE corner of the castle. This is corroborated by the find of chapel’s portal lunette, with the “Imago Pietatis” motif, that was found near the “tower”. This motif came into use during the 13th ct. and was especially common during the renaissance period (the 15-16th ct.).
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| "Imago Pietatis" lunette; Croatian History Museum |
The exact moment of the erection of the castle is not know. It is supposed it was build by a king Karl Robert of Anjou (1301-1342) at the beginning of his reign. In historical documents, it was mentioned for the first time in 1316. But there is a possibility an earlier wooden fort existed at this location before the 14th ct. Archaeological finds from the 9th ct., found in the vicinity of the castle, confirm the continuity of the site although the excavations haven’t explicitly proven the existence of an older fort. But in favor of its existence goes the location of the castle – its position at height of only 194 m is more “premongol” than “postmongol” (in Croatian it means before and after the Mongol invasion in 1242) as “postmongol” castles are regularly built at higher altitudes due to the fear of their builders (we can say they have followed the rule: higher = safer = better :-) ). And this position is definitely not very high and not extremely well protected by the nature itself.
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| remains of west curtain wall with a loophole |
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| remains of walls in the north part of castle |
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| Ferenc Tahy's tombstone |
After the castle was built, it remained in the possession of the king until 1345. when the owner became Nicholas of Gornja Stubica from the Toth family which owns the castle, together with castle Stubica, till 1439. At that time, due to the marriage, it passes into the hands of Henning family. The Henings remain in the possession of the estate till 1409. when the family became extinct in the male lineage. In 1534, the king gives away the estate to Zagreb’s bishop Simon Erdödy, but the descendants of the Hennings demand their rights. From that moment onwards, the castle passes from one hand to another until, in 1559, the owner of one half of the estate becomes Andrew Henning Teuffenbach. After his death, the estate passes into the hands of Andrew Bathory and the descendants of the Henning family: Ursula Maknicer and Ambros Gregorijan. Bathory sells his part of the Susedgrad-Stubica estate to Ferenc Tahy while the Hennings want it all for themselves and such division of the estate has caused the peasant revolt in 1573. lead by Matija Gubec. After the revolt was suppressed, Ursula Maknicer and Ambros Gregorijan came again into the possession of the estate.Castle Sused was abandoned at the beginning of the 17th ct: according to one theory, it has burnt down, according to the other, it hasn’t … and its real destiny might be reveled by some future excavations.
Later, the estate often passes from one proprietor to another and, at one moment, its owners are noble family Sermage who hold the title “de Szomszedvar” (of Sused).
And now, when we know what we are talking about, it’s time for some critics :-)
It’s a real disgrace, outrage how seldom the castle is cleaned of vegetation. Once I have brought a friend from Europe to see the castle and when we got there, I wanted to die of shame! Due to the overgrown vegetation, it wasn’t possible to enter the castle. The grass and bushes were almost over our heads so, who likes it, be my guest, but us, no thanks! I don’t even want to imagine the number of ticks and other beasts that were waiting for a “fresh meat” to show up. Authorities should put to work their employees who cut tree branches and mow lawns to do more working and less goofing off, or in other words: to work more than five minutes after which they sleep at least 30 minutes in their little tractors (and I’m not telling stories here, these are the facts I’ve eye witnessed many times). It should be the other way around: they should work for 2-3 hours and then take a 5/10-minute rest. And then, how could we expect for more people to visit Sused when they can’t even walk about the place they came to see. So typically Croatian.
And the state of the walls, we shouldn’t discuss it at all. At every step there is a danger of a stone falling onto your head. No warnings anywhere, and the absence of the warning for the well in the courtyard is the funniest part. If you don’t know where it is, and if it’s covered with vegetation, and if you don’t watch your step, you can easily fall into it. It’s not a very deep hole, but it’s enough for you to break your leg – people have broken thousands of legs walking on the normal asphalt roads! But don’t let all this to talk you out of the idea to visit Sused. Go, take a look and see for yourself what we are letting to “rot” in the back yard of our capital.
And at the end we can only wish Sused a brighter future with more maintenance and wall conservation, with more visitors, better representation in Zagreb’s tourist offers and final step out from the shadow of “big brother” Medved.
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