Castle Veliki Tabor, Northwest Croatia, Sep 2019

There is one good thing about persistent inclement weather a photographer can take advantage of: they can catch up on editing and sharing any photos that have been sitting in the archives for too long because there never seems to be their turn to be dealt with. One of such sets of pics I have are those I took last year during a usual visit to my home country Croatia. My niece Haidi, her partner Bruno and I took ourselves for a day trip to one of Croatia's fascinating castles, Veliki Tabor. The fortress sits high up on top of a hill, near the town of Desinic in the northwest region of Croatia called Zagorje, not far from the village where my mother was born and raised. Built in the middle ages, the castle is preserved almost in its original form and is one of Croatia's best preserved and most attractive castles.

Veliki Tabor is known for a number of legends and stories the most famous one being the story of Veronika of Desinic, who falls in love and has a forbidden affair with the Count Herman II's son Fridrik of Celje. They elope and get married secretly in the neighbouring Slovenia, but the furious and vengeful Count's army was soon after them. Veronika was caught and imprisoned in Veliki Tabor and was also accused of being a witch who cast a spell on the Count's son. She was drowned in a large vat in the courtyard of the castle and her body built into the wall connecting the tower to the fort entrance. The tragic and intriguing story has been an inspiration to numerous artists who have created works in visual arts, literature, drama and other forms of art.

After visiting Veliki Tabor we went for some refreshments to the delightful country restaurant "Gresna Gorica", just a couple of minutes drive away from the castle. I can't praise enough the wonderful authentic Croatian food, atmosphere and natural surroundings this place provides. There just isn't anything better out there!

A word about my photo processing in this post. This isn't the way I would normally present my photos; this time I felt a bit adventurous and wanted to do something different and striking that would work well with the subject matter. The post is about an ancient castle, so I thought I'd apply a vintage, old photo heavily vignetted, faded and hazy look with light leaks and odd scratches and marks; and a couple of monochrome edits, too. It's not the sort of edit I'd often use, but I enjoyed the sense of creativity and fun it gave me while working on these images.