Croatian Castles and Palaces

Croatia has more than seven thousand significant architectural objects of historic beauty, romantic intrigue, pride… and among them are about one thousand castles and palaces.

So Croatia has an impressive number of fortifications: almost every city on the coast and many on the mainland boast city walls or a fort or two. Over the centuries, Croatia’s lords and noble families were also busy building castles and palaces.
The distinction between these various structures is sometimes a little blurred, but generally, castles provided both protection and housing for a specific lord or noble family, while forts were not generally private residences, and palaces were not fortified.
Of Croatia’s castles, many are now in disrepair, but several have been well preserved or recently restored (like the Eltz Palace in Vukovar devastated by the Serb aggression in 1990’s) and have opened their doors to the public as museums or venues for events such as plays and musical performances. You could spend days hunting castles in Croatia and here are some that I like in the continental part of Croatia. (Click on image to enlarge)