The history of a castle that was impossible to build (13 photos + 1 video)

Perched on a rocky cliff in the heart of Croatian Slavonia, Ružica Grad Fortress stretches an impressive eight thousand square meters and is considered the largest in the region.





Its origins, lost in the mists of the Middle Ages, have given rise to many legends. The most poetic of these claims that long before the stone walls were erected, this place was a magical sanctuary where fairies gathered under the cover of night to create their magical elixirs.



The idyll was shattered by a proud and self-assured nobleman, who intended to build an impregnable citadel on this site. In response to the invasion, the fairies unleashed their magic: every night they destroyed what the humans had spent all day building.





Blinded by rage, the nobleman ordered the hill to be entangled in nets. The most beautiful of the fairies, Ružica (Rose), fell into the trap. As a warning to all the fairies, she was immured alive in the foundations of the future walls. But the fairies' revenge was terrible: on the day of the celebration marking the completion of the fortress, a loose stone block killed the conqueror and forever ended his line. And the name of the beautiful fallen fairy, preserved in the fortress's name, has survived the centuries.



Today, Ružica Grad crowns the summit of Mount Papuk and remains silent, a mute witness to that ancient drama where reality has long been inseparable from fairy tale.





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