Prandau - Normann Castle (Valpovo)

Prandau-Normann Castle or Valpovo Castle is a palace or castle in Valpovo, Croatia. It was owned by the noble Prandau-Normann family from the baroque period. The castle was strengthened by the Ottoman Turks, who left the red-brick, horseshoe-shaped fortifications in pretty good condition when they were ridden out of town by the Austrians in 1687. In 1721 the Habsburg court awarded the town to the Tyrolean family of Hilleprand von Prandau, who governed Valpovo as absentee landlords until Josip Ignatz Hilleprand von Prandau (1749-1816) decided to abandon the hurly-burly of Viennese life and settled here for good. Using the existing fortress as the nucleus of his palace, Josip Ignatz added a neoclassical façade topped by a clock tower, whose creamy-pink colour scheme is still in fabulous condition. Passing through the tunnel-like gate beneath the clocktower brings you into an attractive cobbled courtyard overlooked by a sandcastle-shaped medieval tower and a whitewashed gothic chapel. In front of the palace a stone bridge leads across the former moat to the castle park, a perfectly preserved 19th century landscaped affair rich in deciduous trees.