Novi Dvori of Zaprešić

Novi Dvori of Zapre1i7, located in Zapre1i7, Croatia, is a historic manor complex that began as an early 17th‑century country house and later acquired 19th‑century neo‑Gothic additions. First recorded as an independent estate in the early 1600s, it developed from a predominantly wooden, one‑storey manor into a layered seat of local landed families and state figures, making it prominent in regional social and political life.

The estate first appears in documents from the 17th century and grew under successive noble owners, including the Zrinski, ikulin, Sermage, Festetics, and Erddy families. Each proprietor extended the house eastward over generations. By the second half of the 18th century the property was transformed from a simple manor into a more substantial fortified residence, with new farm buildings and service structures added to support estate agriculture.

In the mid‑19th century the estate passed into the hands of Josip Jelai7, who bought it from the Erddy family in 1851 and formalized the sale in a written agreement dated 23 March 1852. The law of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia required that candidates for the office of Ban, the kingdoms viceroy, hold property on Croatian soil; that rule was briefly set aside at the time of Jelai7s appointment because of the Revolutions of 1848, an exception he acknowledged at the time. As Ban, Jelai7 enlarged the residence by adding an east wing that extended the building by eighteen metres and by carrying out decorative works on the exterior and upper rooms.

Jelai7 also commissioned a small neo‑Gothic chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph in 1855; construction took about two months and the chapel was blessed on 25 May 1855 by the Archbishop of Zagreb, Juraj Haulik. Jelai7s infant daughter Anica was buried there. When Josip Jelai7 died in 1859 the estate passed to his brother uro, who oversaw the completion of a family tomb in 1884 in accordance with his brothers will. The tomb was built using leftover stone from the reconstruction of Zagreb Cathedral following the 1880 earthquake.

In the twentieth century members of the Jelai7 family moved portions of the household collection into public care: in 1919 Countess Vera Jelai7 donated weapons and paintings from the house to the Croatian Peoples Museum, and in 1934 the sisters bequeathed the estate to the Croatian people. Remains of family members were transferred from a city cemetery arcade into the family tomb in 1933 at the request of Countess Anka. The tomb suffered vandalism on the night of 24 July 1935.

After the defeat in the April War of 1941 and the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia the castle served as the residence of Ante Paveli7; during that time a terrace was added to the southern facade. Following World War II the property was converted for use as an agricultural high school. The castle underwent renovation in the 1960s. The school relocated to Zagreb in 1977 and the estate stood empty thereafter. The family tomb was desecrated again in 1987, with the remains of Josip Jelai7, his brother Antun, and daughter Anica disturbed. In May 2017 the city secured 40 million HRK from European Union funds to renovate the manor completely, with plans to adapt the restored building for ceremonial residences and exhibition use.