Cakovec

Cakovec grew around a castle held from 1546 by the Zrinski family, who turned Medimurje into their power base and the castle into a court - Nikola Zrinski the poet and general wrote and campaigned from here in the seventeenth century. His brother Petar and their relative Fran Krsto Frankopan were executed at Wiener Neustadt in 1671 after the conspiracy against Habsburg rule collapsed, and the family's estates were confiscated, which ended both houses as powers. The castle was rebuilt in baroque form after an earthquake and now holds the Medimurje county museum, standing in a public park in the middle of the town.

History

In Roman times the site was Aquama, a military post and legionary camp in marshland, mentioned by Strabo. The town takes its name from the ispán Csák Hahót, who at the start of the 13th century built a timber fortification later called Csák's tower; it is first mentioned in 1328. It passed from the Laczkfy family (1350-1397) to the Counts of Celje (1405-1461) and the Ernušt family (1473-1540), and on 15 March 1546 Nikola IV Zrinski of Szigetvár became its owner, beginning the town's main period of growth: the castle was lavishly decorated and set in a park with statues. On 29 May 1579 Juraj IV Zrinski granted privileges to the people of the fortress and its suburbs, the start of Čakovec as a free market town and still celebrated as City Day. The town was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1738 and a fire in 1741; later the Festetics family turned it into a large estate with crafts and trade, the railway arrived in 1860 on the line linking Budapest with Rijeka and Trieste, and electricity followed in 1893 (Wikipedia, Čakovec).

Highlights

• The Zrinski seat from 1546 - the family's base in the far north.
• Nikola Zrinski's court - the soldier and poet who worked from here.
• The end of two houses - Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan executed in 1671.
• A baroque rebuild - now the county museum, in a public park.

When to go

Year round. Half a day.

What to expect

Little of the Zrinski-period interior survives - the rebuild was thorough. The museum is a general county collection. Cakovec is a working town off the tourist routes with modest services.

Nearby

Strigova and the Medimurje wine hills are north-west; Varazdin is south.