How did it all begin?
Back in 1745, Antun Janković bought the northern part of the Sirač estate from the royal chamber, which included the settlement of Podborje, the area of today’s Daruvar. The name Podborje remained until 28 February 1765, when Queen Maria Theresa, in the diploma she handed to Antun von Janković, awarded the attribute “de Daruvar”. It read “castrum Podborje aliter Daruvar” (city of Podborje, otherwise called Daruvar), from the coat of arms of Antun von Janković, which contained a crane (in Hungarian – daru), which he, as a nobleman, inherited from his grandfather Bonaventura Janković, originally from Baranja.
Antun Janković had a castle built for himself in Podborje called Daruvar (Ždralovgrad) with a spacious park around it, about which the then researcher and travel writer Friedrich Wilhelm von Taube wrote: “It is the most beautiful castle in the whole kingdom, so it would not be ashamed even in Vienna.” Since there were already several houses south of the castle, the name Daruvar spread to that part of the settlement as well.
The castle is built in the shape of the letter U. Three wings of the castle border the courtyard facing north, where greenhouses and a nursery in the garden were once located. There are sixty rooms on the ground floor and first floor. The central place in the central wing is occupied by the largest room of the castle – the salon. In addition to this dance and concert hall, upstairs were the library, dining room, boudoir, bedrooms, men’s salon and guest rooms.
Owners after Count Janković
In the second half of the 19th century the castle was sold to Magdalena Lechner, and she was succeeded by Antun Tüköry, who ruled the property until the end of World War II. In 1919, the Daruvar market town bought the castle from the Croatian Agricultural Bank, remodeled it and used it as a school until 2004.
Permanent exhibition of the castle
On the ground floor of the castle today there is a decorated Wine Salon and an exhibition of written documents about the Janković family in Hungarian and Croatian written by the Hungarian historian Terézija Jánosné Horváth Balogh. The first floor houses the Room of Counts Janković, the Room of Jewish Culture and Tradition, the Homeland War in Daruvar Permanent Exhibition and the Daruvar in the Second World War Memorial Room. On the ground floor of the castle today there is a decorated Wine Salon and an exhibition of written documents about the Janković family in Hungarian and Croatian written by the Hungarian historian Terézija Jánosné Horváth Balogh. Today, the first floor houses the Room of Counts Janković, the Room of Jewish Culture and Tradition, the Homeland War in Daruvar Permanent Exhibition and the Daruvar in the Second World War Memorial Room.
Palace Garden – summer refreshment under the largest male ginkgo tree in Croatia
The Palace Garden was created according to the plans of Viennese architects, simultaneously with the construction of the castle, and was completed in 1780. At the time of Janković, the meadow covered 14 hectares. The garden bears the characteristics of baroque and landscape style, and some of the trees planted then are still there. The central preserved part on the side of the castle, in front of the main entrance, is dominated by a male ginkgo biloba tree. This male tree is the largest and oldest specimen of its kind in Croatia, the circumference of its trunk is about seven meters, and since 1974 it has been protected as an individual tree.
The Castle Garden is protected as part of the Daruvar urban complex and as an immovable cultural monument together with the Janković Castle. It is an ideal spring promenade, and in summer you can find shade under the canopy of the largest ginkgo tree.
