PEJACEVIC
CASTLE - NAŠICE
Manor House Museum of the Countess Composer
Nasice must
be doing something right. A pleasant town on the main road from Varaždin
(see Varazdin Baroque City) and the railroad between
the capital of Zagreb and the eastern city of Osijek (see Osijek
on the Drava), in the province of Slavonia. Našice (pronounced Na-shi-tse)
suffered significant damage during the Croatian “Homeland War” of
1991, but has done a lot to recover. In the last few years the town, first
mentioned in historic records as early as 1229, has won awards for the
best city park, best museum and a few other bests, for which they are rightfully
proud, so either the fix is in or they’re doing something right.
In
the heart of Nasice on green park grounds is the very pretty 19th Century
baronial mansion,
once owned by the noble Pejacevic family, known as the
Pejacevic Castle. The manor house was first built in 1811, then renovated
in 1864 with an added more ornate faux-Baroque façade, additional
decoration and two corner towers during the grand époque age of
European nobility. The Pajacevics originally came from Bulgaria and named
as counts by Kaiser Leopold I in 1696. The Pajacevics moved around a bit
with one branch of the family purchasing the large estate around Nasice
in 1734. 
The
family produced a couple of important Croatian political figures, but the
person most connected with the house is Croatia’s first woman
composer, Dora Pejacevic. She was born in Budapest in 1885, where her father
Count Teodor Pejacevic married the Hungarian Countess Lilla Vay de Vaya,
a prominent pianist who started her daughter with early piano lessons.
Dora Pejacevic, a child prodigy, began composing when she was 12 years
old. She lived only a portion of her life in Nasice, studying in Zagreb
and she died from childbirth complications in Munich in 1923 and is buried
in the local cemetery.
One
of the curiosities of the house is that it had no kitchen, meals were
prepared in the servants
house and carried to the mansion by an electrical
rail dumbwaiter through an underground tunnel. Most of the rooms of the
mansion are taken up today by the local Ethnographic and Historical Museum
of Našice, with displays of historic periods from prehistoric up
to the Second World War. The life of the nobility is represented by the
remaining
photos and mementos of the Pejacevic family. A more modest Croatian
lifestyle is represented in what is called the "Peasant Room" 
set
up as the interior of a typical three-room rural home. A weaving and spinning
exhibit is quite colourful, and a collection of paintings by Croatian artists.
The piano where the countess composer worked still resides in the upper
salon under her portrait, as a rugged bust of the old count who watches
in permanent regard. After World War II, during the Yugoslavia socialist
era (see Marshal
Tito Birth House), the "castle" came
into public hands and the museum was opened in 1994. The surrounding park
is in the English garden style, with a swan shaped pond and another smaller
mansion built in 1901.
Fero Vino Winery
If wine touring
through central Croatia (see Wine
Hotel Vinarija) check out the
local winery of Fero Vino, whose logo you'll see about town. The Fero Vino
Vineyards wine cellar in Fericanci was first built in 1962 but the old
equipment from the socialist era was acquired in 1995 and a modern boutique
winery began operating under the the name of Feravino Fericanci. The cellar
is located next to the main road of Podravska Magistrata, 6 miles west
of Nasice in the center of Fericanci, worth a stop.
If you want to stay in Nasice, the Park Hotel is just next to the castle grounds, the restaurant serves daily brunches and weekend family buffets, with an outdoor patio and has an automated gambling casino, which seems quite popular throughout Croatia. © Bargain Travel Europe
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Info
Civic
Museum Nasice
Fera
Vino Winery
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SEE ALSO:
HOTEL CASTLE GJALSKI - KRAPINA-ZAGORJE
MAILATH CASTLE - TUDOR MANSION OF DONJI MIHOLJAC
