Tivoli Castle
Tivoli Castle (Slovene: Grad Tivoli), originally called Podturn Manor, is a mansion in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.
The mansion is located in the city's Tivoli Park (part of the Rožnik neighborhood), north-west of (and visible from) the city centre, at the foot of Rožnik hill. It is the terminus of the Jakopič Promenade (formerly the Lantieri Promenade), itself the continuation of Cankar Street.
Built in the 17th century atop the ruins of a previous Renaissance-period castle, the mansion was initially owned by the Jesuits, but came into the possession of the Diocese of Ljubljana following the 1773 suppression of the Jesuit order. Used as the bishop's summer residence, it was surrounded with orchards.
Field marshal Radetzky
In the mid-19th century, it was bought by the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph I, who in 1852 presented it as a gift to the veteran Habsburg marshal Joseph Radetzky. Radetzky renovated the mansion in the Neoclassical style, giving it its present appearance, and spent much of his retirement in it with his wife Francisca von Strassoldo Grafenberg, a local Carniolan noblewoman.
The field marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (1766–1858) contributed a lot to the arrangement of Tivoli Park.[1] There was a full-size bust of Radetzky on display in Ljubljana in front of the Tivoli Castle from 1882 till 1918.
In 1851, it won a prize on the Great Exhibition in London. Today it is preserved by the City Museum of Ljubljana.[2][3]
Cast Iron dogs
In 1864, the Austrian sculptor Anton Dominik Fernkorn created four cast iron dogs,[4] still on display in Tivoli Park in front of the Tivoli Castle. The dogs do not have tongues, and it has been falsely rumoured that Fernkorn committed suicide by shooting himself due to this mistake.[1]
Twelve years after Radetzky's death in 1858, a statue of the famous general was erected on the plaze at the top of the stairs leading to the castle, guarded by four cast-iron dogs made by the sculptor Anton Fernkorn. The monument was removed after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918, and placed in the National Museum of Slovenia, but the dogs have remained in their original places.
In 1863, the mansion was bought by the Municipality of Ljubljana, who used it as (among other things) a poorhouse, later subdividing it into condominiums. In 1967, it was again renovated and became the venue for the International Center of Graphic Arts Ljubljana.[5]
An alpine-style building called the Švicarija (German: Schweitzerhaus 'the Swiss House', formerly the Tivoli Hotel)[6] stands behind the mansion. The Jesenko educational trail leads past it.
References
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Poklon je izvrstna samopromocija" [A Gift is a Superb Self-Promotion]. Dnevnik.si (in Slovenian). 30 October 2010.
- ↑ "Seznam kipov v Tivoliju in na Rožniku" [List of statues in Tivoli and on Rožnik] (in Slovenian). Modern Museum of Ljubljana. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
- ↑ Jezernik, Božidar (2004). "Moč spomina: premoč pozabe: 'zgodovina ljubljanskih nacionalnih spomenikov'" [The Power of Memory, the Supremacy of Oblivion: 'The History of National Monuments in Ljubljana']. Zgodovina za vse [History for All] (in Slovene and with an abstract in German) XI (1): 6–8. ISSN 1318-2498.
'Cel svetje lahko sram...' ['All the World can be Ashamed']
- ↑ "Seznam kipov v Tivoliju in na Rožniku" [List of statues in Tivoli and on Rožnik]. Muzejske novice [Museum News] (in Slovenian) (Museum of Modern History of Slovenia): 14–16. ISSN 1854-3510. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
- ↑ Virtualtourist.com
- ↑ Habič, Marko. 1997. Prestolnica Ljubljana nekoč in danes. A Pictorial Chronicle of a Capital City. Ljubljana: DZS, pp. 164–165.