Lužnica Château, Baroque château in Zaprešić, Croatia.
Lužnica Château is a single-storey, three-winged Baroque manor with a projecting central hall and two side wings of equal length opening onto a courtyard. Four cylindrical corner towers with conical roofs, originally residential rather than defensive, stand at its corners. The south façade is larger than the north, and the interior has a rustic ground floor and a first floor with traces of wall paintings.
The von Rauch noble family acquired the estate in 1791 and began substantial renovations and expansions that shaped its current structure. These changes reflected the architectural taste and ambitions of the aristocratic household during the Age of Enlightenment.
The name Marijin dvor has been attached to the manor since 1928, when the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul took over. The sisters ran a women's household school from 1940, a kindergarten and singing and music lessons. Since 2007 the Marijin dvor spiritual-educational centre has offered programmes and made the rooms available to the wider community of Zaprešić.
The manor stands in Lužnica, a few kilometres west of Zaprešić, where the Sava valley meets the Marijagoričko hills. Its three wings open onto a courtyard, and a landscaped park of eight hectares surrounds it, with a 2.5-kilometre walking path, a lake and shaded arbours. The building is used by the Sisters of Charity for conferences and seminars, so visits should be arranged with the Marijin Dvor centre in advance.
The staircase's main wooden step bears the year 1791, and a charter records the consecration of the Chapel of the Holy Cross in the southeast wing in 1761; these two dates underpin the manor's dating. The chapel holds a late-Baroque polychrome wooden altar of the Holy Cross with a Crucifixion painting and rocaille motifs.
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