Vipavski Križ, formerly Sv.Križ ("St.Cross") is as a settlement mentioned for the first
time in 1030 because of the at the time existing church of St.Cross. The hill on which
the village is located was already populated before the Roman era. In 1482 the settlement
was reinforced by a surrounding defence wall because of the threatening Turkish invasion.
The castle explicitly is for the first time mentioned in 1535 but somewhere we can find
the information that it was built already at the end of the 15th century together
with defence walls - reinforced Tabor.
Further reinforcing of the settlement was accelerated by the wars between Habsburgs and
Venetians. Habsburgs who succeeded counts of Gorica pawned the castle to Count Vitto della
Torre, the son of the first count of St.Cross Ivan Feb. Vito's son Franc, with german
nickname count Thurn from St.Cross, then, when he became regional leader of Goriška, in 1547
sold the dominion to his relative Ahac from Pliberk's branch of counts Thurn. In 1589
the castle once again becomes the property of Torres - Thurns of St.Cross and they sold it
to counts Attems in 1605 which remained the owners in the following centuries. When the
Vipava valley was occupied by French in 1809 the Attems' left the Cross for a while and
later returned. Soon after they returned they started to sell their estates. The last
lord of the castle Karel Nikolaj Attems abandoned the building in 1842, when he moved to
Furlanija. In 1885 only about one sixth was bought by school pledge - fund and reconstructed
it to a school which is still active.
The castle of St.Cross was built by Italian models which take their motives directly from
antique tradition. It is designed as low, symmetrical Renaissance small castle with four
single-storey residential wings and four immense circular towers - roundels in the corners,
which do not exceed the height of the remaining buildings. Such formally clean and in
proportions symmetrical Renaissance castle building cannot be found anywhere else in Slovenia.
The castle which from the outside, because of its massive towers - around two meters thick
in the ground floor, shows an image of typical fortification but when entering the courtyard
it look like the manor because the wings with their arrangement and characteristics of their
windows and other openings do not have fortification characteristics; on the contrary, everything
speaks of comfort and luxury of life of its former residents.
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Literature: |
Stopar, Ivan, Dr.: "Gradovi na Slovenskem", Cankarjeva založba, 1987,ISBN 86-361-0280-4
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Contact details: |
Vipavski Križ
Vipavski križ 1b<>
5270 Ajdovščina
Slovenia
president of : Peter JEŽ
Tel: +386 (0)5 364 77 96, +386 (0)41 642 235
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Shows and entertainment: |
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Rustic entrance portal in the
newer part of the defence wall with a year 1613
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South-western bastion;
we can see, that the floor ground is oblique and bounded at the top by
semicircular stone profiles
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Entrance facade of the eastern
wing which is in its lower part made of nicely cut stones; the groove is visible in which
a drawbridge was seating when it was pulled up; in front of the facade a moat was located
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Castle courtyard with the well; view
towards east
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Southern wing
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Baroque well -
cistern, which tells, that Eleonora noble Attems gave the water
to the thirsty castle; chronogram shows the year 1758
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The only reconstructed, northern wing
in which a school resides nowadays; round windows - oculi are clearly seen which can be
found on all wings
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Entrance to the basement under
the north-west bastion; also a floor under the basement is supposedly in this wing
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Arched place, doors at the end, which
leads to other basement rooms which are probably connected to the entrance on the other
side of the northern wing (see next photo)
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Western entrance into basement under
the northern wing
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Light loop in the ground floor of
the north-eastern bastion
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Eastern wing
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South-eastern overgrown bastion
with an arrow loop at the bottom
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More recent passage through
eastern wing which leads to a smaller children playground
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North-eastern bastion
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Window in the north-eastern bastion
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Arrow loop in the ground floor, which
represents something unique; it is equiped with in stone blocks chiseled grooves for
bolts so they could close the arrow loop when it was not used
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Facade of the renovated northern wing
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Southern wing
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Western wing with the original entrance to the
castle visible
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Original entrance to the castle
with visible remains of additional doors which helped to even more reinforce
the entrance to the castle
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Embedded coat of arms of counts Thurn
at the entrance to the monastery
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Capuchin convent (count Friderik Attems
had it built in 1634), placed south-west from the castle
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Castle with its southern defence embankments
with defence walls
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