Varazdin, Croatia

Andelinjak, an alley where angels sleep

We had an hour's bus ride to the town of Varazdin, former capital of Croatia. The town burned down in 1776 and the capital moved to Zagreb. The town was rebuilt in Baroque style and is quite clean, and beautiful. Here instead of tourists, we ran into a lot of students taking school field trips. The town is also known as the Town of Angels. We encountered angels peaking out of windows, on the facades of houses, and most especially an alley called Andelinjak, a place where angels sleep. The town is one of the most well-off in all of Croatia, almost full employment due to the textile factories, dairies, and the soft drink industry.

 

Mary and Petra in front of Verazdin's Castle

The highlight of the visit was our tour of the castle originally built in the 14th century and updated through time to stop the Turkish invasion (they succeeded). Here we learned and saw artifacts I'd never seen before. For example, did you know that a moat is built around a castle primarily to make it impossible for invaders to tunnel under the walls? Or that the official language in Croatia was Latin until 1847, when Napoleon declared Croatian as the official language and allowed it to be taught in the schools? We saw guild chests, which held the treasury and important documents for the various guilds of the town. We learned that medieval castles had square towers, but after the invention of cannon balls,  the walls were thickened and the towers rounded to help repel the cannon balls. We saw a "saw clock" where the clock was also the weight and went down the tines of the saw to provide energy to the mechanism, painted gun targets that also became the award at the end of the competition (complete with bullet holes), and a portable organ from 1668 that still plays. Then we learned that the hook in maces was used to bring down a knight on horseback . Our guide through the castle was very informative. We then headed for lunch of the typical cuisine of the area: honey brandy, the local beer, Pan, cabbage salad with pumpkin oil dressing, and duck with mashed potatoes with a local spice. Dessert was corn flour cake with a berry topping. 

 

 

Shooting target and Award