Trsat Castle (Croatian: Gradina Trsat) is a castle in Trsat, Croatia. The castle is thought to be located on the exact spot of an ancient Illyrian and Roman fortress. Croatian nobleman Vuk Krsto Frankopan is buried in one of the churches. Trsat Castle was completely reconstructed and renovated in the 19th century, when the mausoleum of military commander Laval Nugent was built inside. Today Trsat Castle is enriched with new facilities and events - visual arts gallery, summer outdoor concerts and theater performances, as well as fashion shows and literary evenings. Inside Trsat Castle, at the address Partizanski put 9A, you will find the Info Point of Trsat Castle where you can get any information about this building and the city of Rijeka.
Trsat Castle History
Trsat Castle from the 13th century, whose site has been used since Roman times to be an easy place from which to control access to the sea along the Rječina River, is situated on the steep hill overlooking the Rječina Gorge on its left bank, just above the city of Rijeka. It is possible that there was a Hypodian fortification here, Darsata, from which the Roman fortification Tarsatica took its name. This Roman fort was of vital importance on a road that connected Aquileia to Pannonia and Senia. It was owned by the Frankopan family who built the present castle, on the site occupied by the Illyrian Tarsatica, to protect their possessions in Vinodol.
The capture of the Trsat castle forced the Ban of Croatia, Andrea Bot of Bajna, to intervene in the Austro-Venetian war, and in June 1509 he first recaptured Trsat with his Croatian army and then entered Rijeka after expelling the Venetians. In October 1509, the Venetians finally withdrew and Rijeka returned to the possessions of Maximilian of Habsburg. This remarkable episode is the only event that binds Rijeka to Venice, and consequently to Italy, throughout its history from the 7th century onwards.
In the 17th century the castle fell into decline due to the receding threats of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Its decline was accelerated by the earthquake of 1750. In 1811, during the Napoleonic wars, Captain Hoste, in pursuit of the French, arrived with his frigate in Rijeka where he was appointed lieutenant-governor. The situation in Trieste soon drove him away, but in 1826 he had the satisfaction of handing over the castle to Field Marshal Nugent, an Irishman who was then commanding the Austrian troops in the vicinity, in order to confer on him the rank of Austrian nobleman. The general was later honored by the Austrians and was given the Trsat Castle as his residence. He had it restored in neo-Gothic style and built a mausoleum adorned with the Nugent family crest. It remained in the Nugent family until almost the end of World War II, when the general's great-granddaughter, Countess Nugent, died at the age of 82.