The Holy Cross Chapel

Ascending up the gravel path one comes across the Holy Cross Chapel.

Built on the plateau part of the slope and surrounded by trees, the chapel completes the romantic impression and the picturesqueness of the gardens, and is an important element of the park composition within the Trakošćan natural complex.

In the second half of the twentieth century, this ecclesiastical building was closed and left to decay. In the early 1990s, renovations were carried out to make the chapel a proper place for Sunday masses, weddings, concerts...

Today, the former private property of the Drašković family is in the care of the museum, while the Holy Cross Chapel remains a branch chapel of the Bednja Parish, as it has been over centuries.

From the chapel’s history

Records of the canonical visitations inform us about the construction of the Trakošćan Chapel. It was built for Josip Kazimir Drašković and his wife Suzana Malatinski. In September 1752, Franjo Glušić, who was pastor of Bednja, consecrated the foundation stone. In 1754, on the forth Sunday after Easter, he consecrated the finished building in a great ceremony.

Recent conservation excavations found a trace of an older church that stood on the samesite but there is no information about the time of its construction nor until what time it was in operation.

St. Januš

What gives this place a particular kind of charm is the fact that such a small interior incorporates the entire inventory needed to equip a church: an elevated choir for the organ and singers, a pulpit, choir stalls, and the altar with a huge crucifix.

The exterior of the chapel is simple, just the facade that incorporates the bell tower with projecting decorations. The interior is formed in two parts of equal length: a rectangular nave and a sanctuary that ends with a shallow apse.

The local name of this chapel is Saint John (Ivan in Croatian but locally Januš), who was the patron saint of the Drašković family, and Ivan (John) is also the most frequent name in the family.