Near the outfall of river Paka into river Savinja Hartnid from Ort had his estate. Just before
he died he donated two farms from this estate in 1262 to monastery in Gornji drad and in 1264
Hartnid of Ptuj supposedly rented those two farms to brothers of Kacenštajn. In 1339 Konrad and
Ortolf of Hornek sold "tower near Šmartno" to Friderik of Žovnek for the amount of 126 marks
os silver. So this year marks the first direct mentioning of the estate. In 1416 Henrik Apfaltrer
in his and his brother's name denounced the tower (der türen an der Pak), which was his
heritage, in the benefit of count of Celje who later the center and headquarters Pakenštajn
(purkstal vnd gesezz Pakenstain) rented out to Hans Maisenreiter on June 18th 1419.
In the year 1443 Maisenreiter's widow Wendel left al her estates to the counts because her
husband was in their debt in amount of 15.000 pounds. In 1456 when counts of Celje died out, Pakenštajn
became property of provincial prince and in 1458 emperor Friderik gave it as feud to Kunigunda,
daughter of Herman of Ekenštajn and wife of Jörga Globitzer. Even if the tower and the court are
mentioned in a document, actually what was meant was one building with tower characteristics. In
1468 court near Paka is mentioned and in 1491 again the tower.
Even before 1635 Regina Globitzer sold the small dominion to Elias Andrian but already in 1599
Jernej and in 1614 Maksimiljan Herić are named by the building Pakenštajn (zu Packenstein).
They gained the estate by dowry. In 1727 according to parish register Marija Šarlota and Marija
Barbara noble Modersheim (domina in Pakenstein) carry the name of the dominion Pakenštajn.
Owner at the time J. noble Modersheimu was followed from around 1778 to 1807 Sattelbergers, then
until 1827 by Anton Johan noble Grandi and after him Franc Leitner until 1834. In 1848 owner at the
time Jožef Vincenc Novak constructed near outbuildings new mansion in a form of classicistic
provincial villa. In 1870 the estate was taken over by Oskar baron noble Warsberg who two years
later took off decaying roof off the castle and left it to its destiny.
Old story tells that counts of Celje had their "Jungferzwinger" on Pakenštajn castle. Even at the
end of the 19th century there were supposedly existing sellar in which stolen young
girls were disappearing. A word about sellar, although wine sellar, can be found in a bulletin
of research camp Šmartno ob Paki 2002, where the architecture group gathered in their report:
»The most interesting was the discovery of the sellar in Mali vrh, where supposedly tithe for
Pakenštajn castle was collected. The oldest part of the building is bathtub-like vaulted wine
sellar with perfect but fragmentally preserved Renaissance paintings on the outside: big stitched
corners, profiled window frames and decorative band of palmettes. Found parts of nonglazed
tiles with wallpaper pattern confirm that the origins of the building are from mid-16th
century to mid-17th century. The building was not known nor protected in expert circles
even if it is excellent monument which belongs to the circle of nobles architecture.«
Maybe in this case these are that sellar...
The building, depicted by Vischer in 1681, shows typical image of Renaissance mansion with
corner towers at the roof and rectangular Renaissance defence wall reinforced with bastions on
the corners. This image of the building does not correspond to the characteristics of the
preserved ruins. Unfortunately I do not have any image. Likewise in Kaiser's depiction we
cannot find any characteristics which could be linked to present ruins.
When you drive through Šmartno ob Paki towards Velenje, you will see in front of "ERA vino"
store a wooden direction sign, which among others shows the direction towards "stari grad"
("old castle") to the right. Some 10 meters ahead a view to the ruins will open on the left.
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Literature: |
Stopar, Ivan, Dr.: "Grajske stavbe v vzhodni Sloveniji - Med Solčavskim in Kobanskim", Viharnik, Ljubljana, 1993,
ISBN /
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Shows and entertainment: |
Various meetings and events, also concerts. Inner ward can accept a lot of people and a concrete stage is
visible on a place of the former house, attached to the tower.
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back
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Ruined wall of south-western corner with its irregular construction
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Same wall from which visually steps out the shape of walled-in window
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North-eastern corner
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North-western corner where we can by looking closely see
phases of its upgrading
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On the inside of the north-western corner, where the tower was connected
to a later attached house, a console with gutter is visible; visible bricks are witnesses of later reconstructions;
it is possible that a passage was once here but was later walled-in
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Buttress is attached to north-eastern corner; buttresses were mostly typical for
Renaissance constructions, but here it probably appears due to relatively thin walls of the tower
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View on a ruins of a tower from northern elevation
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View towards north-western courtyard and a pub of Apicultural society
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"Nether", lower courtyard
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View from western direction of remains of the tower, of a house, which was once
attached to the tower on this side, no remains are visible
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Visible remains of the defence wall or a building on the western side
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Defence wall, which divides lower and upper level of inner ward
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Remains of the defence wall or a foundations of a building on far south side
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Remains of the defence wall, which holds to the north-western corner of the tower;
with it once an inner ward was surrounded so the building gained the form of a castle
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Defence wall is supposed to be around 60 cm thick but it seems that
it's only around half of that thickness
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Ruins of Pakenštajn castle, drawing H. Kartina, 1913; from
photo lobrary of ZVNKD RS in Ljubljana
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Pakenštajn manor, old Kaiser's suite from around 1830
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