The Podolje Mansion in Samobor – History of Construction and Design

Autorica donosi interpretaciju građevnog rasta i transformacije dvorca Podolje (Praunsperger Bošnjak) koja se temelji na rezultatima restauratorskih istraživačkih radova, kao i na arhitektonskoj analizi građevine koje povezuje s povijesnim podacima o obitelji i dvorcu iz rukopisne ostavštine Milana Praunspergera. Kula Podolje, vjerojatno građena tijekom 15. stoljeća, poslije integrirana u tijelo dvorca, najstariji je građevni sloj građevine. Nakon što je odigrala važnu ulogu u obrani Samobora od turskih napada, potkraj 16. stoljeća, u skladu s povijesnim okolnostima počinje njezina postupna preobrazba i prenamjena. Dogradnjom s kraja 16. stoljeća, kao i nizom intervencija iz 17. stoljeća koje poduzima obitelj Szaich, obrambenu funkciju zamjenjuje stambena te se formira dvorac čija je tlocrtna forma već tada bliska današnjoj. Iz toga razdoblja potječe veći dio prostorne strukture dvorca, svodne i stropne konstrukcije, dio karakterističnog pročeljnog oblikovanja. Obitelj Praunsperger preuzima vlasništvo ženidbenom vezom 1779. godine te ostaje vlasnikom do današnjih dana. Ta je obitelj dvorac preoblikovala u romantičarskom duhu 19. stoljeća, pridodavši mu kulu sa stubištem i balkonsku lođu, a potkraj 19. stoljeća i historicističko ruho glavnom južnom i bočnom zapadnom pročelju.The article proposes an interpretation of the construction progress and transformations of the Podolje (Praunsperger Bošnjak) Mansion, based on the results of conservation research and the architectural analysis of the building, combined with historical records of the family and the mansion from the handwritten documents of Milan Praunsperger. The Podolje Mansion, originally a tower belonging to the Old Town and subsequently a mansion of the Szaich and then the Praunsperger family, has seen a series of transformations over a period of more than five hundred years, having nonetheless retained a harmony of an ensemble composed of different historical layers. It is a testament to the defence of Samobor from Ottoman raids, but above all, it is an outstanding example of residential architecture from the 16th, the 17th, and the early 18th century that has despite later adaptations kept many features of architectural design from the earlier periods. Apart from its spatial layout and characteristic construction elements, from barrel vaults with lunettes to wooden beams with cut edges, it also features an example of rare type of vault from the 16th century. It is a record of typical facde design at the turn of the 17th to the 18th century, as much in its stone window mouldings and portal sculpture as in the mortar layer that is characteristically organic and vivid, with a simple two–colour painted scheme combining bone white and ochre. The 19th–century interventions are telling of the typical predilection for the picturesque and the symbolic, as well as of a connection to nature, which bespeaks of the Romanticist view of life but also of a search for style that would cater to the period’s tastes. The transformation of the mansion front at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century is another confirmation of the owners’ eagerness to embellish the mansion and adjust it to the spirit and trend of their time. The historical layeredness of the Podolje (Praunsperger Bošnjak) Mansion is its major trait and therefore represents the basis of conservators‘ opinion on how to present the facdes in the future. The pre–existing condition combines both the structures of its defensive phases of the 15th and 16th century and the later constructions, in other words, the transformations that were aimed at adjusting it to the needs and lifestyles from the 16th to the late 19th i.e., early 20th century. The conservation will opt, depending on the situation, for either restoration or reconstruction, to present elements of the tower, the facdes from the turn of the 17th to the 18th century, the complete fronts of the staircase block articulated in the spirit of the Rundbogenstil, and finally the window mouldings originating from the Historicist renovation of the main south and the side west facde