Severin na Kupi is a village and part of Vrbovsko municipality, in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, in Croatia. It is situated above the Kupa valley on the part of the D3 highway formerly known as the Lujzijana. It is known for the cliffside Severin castle, one of the best preserved remains of an extensive Christian fortification network during the Turkish wars. As of 2021, it has a population of 113. It was once more populous, and in 1776-1786 it was the titular seat of its own county.
Name Severin na Kupi is not to be confused with Severin Bilogorski. There is also a Severin in Polabia. Most importantly, it may be named after Severin of the historical Banate of Severin. A connection with Saint Severin cannot be ruled out, but there is no significant local veneration of a saint by that name, and one historical source uses the form Siverin instead, possibly indicating an early Chakavian attempt to rationalize the name as sěverъ "north".
It was recorded as Szeverin on the 1673 map of .
Geography
There outer wall of the castle is not defensive in origin, apart from the main gate and outer courtyard gate, which guard the entrance to the castle. The western outer wall is decorative apart from the westernmost enclosure, which served to keep game in. There is no wall on the north, which is bounded by a steep slope, with a narrow footpath consisting of hairpin turns leading down to the Kupa river below from the castle grounds, and a similar path long from the east gate of the castle grounds down to the waterhouse.
Floorplans of the castle have been made by the Austrian cadastral surveyors (1862), by Gjuro Szabo (1920) and by Frigyes Kőnig and József Szatanek (2009).
Climate The climate is harsher than in most of the Kordun, but milder than in most of Gorski Kotar.
History
Frankopan period The castle of Severin was not mentioned in the 1486 Modruše urbarium entry for Brnardin Frankapan's possession of Lukovdol, but was mentioned (for the first time) in a 1558 damage assessment of Stjepan IV Frankapan Ozaljski following a Turkish raid. Lopašić believed the castle already existed at the time the urbarium was drawn up, but there can be no confirmation without Oxygen dating.
A raid in 1577 by the bey of Livno was even more disastrous for the population of the Severin area than that of 1558.
Upon the death of Stjepan Ozaljski in 1577, the castle was inherited by the sons of Nikola Šubić Zrinski thanks to the former's 1572 will, but in 1580 they had to give Severin up to Gašpar I Frankapan Tržački. The seat of the Tržački family was in Bosiljevo, but they sometimes spent time in Severin.
After the gains of the Turkish invasion were halted with the construction of Karlovac in 1579 and started to be reversed, the abandoned areas were resettled. Already in 1544, Nikola Šubić Zrinski settled Catholics from Rmanj in the nearby Vukova Gorica, Prilišće and Rosopajnik. The area around Severin was resettled with Slovene and German serfs from Carniola, and especially Gottschee. Surnames like Rauch, Schneeberger, Verderber, Znelač and so on began to appear in the Severin area. Although some pre-Turkish surnames survived in the area among returnees.
In 1601-1609, general Vid Kisel baron of Fužine (Ljubljana) settled Vlachs around Severin.
In 1609, the estate of Gašpar Frankapan was divided among his three sons. Severin went to the youngest son, Vuk II Krsto Frankapans. Vuk did not live in Severin, but in Novigrad na Dobri, thanks to the enmity that arose between the local Vlachs and the Frankapan family after the latter tried to collect taxes from them, whereas according to Kisel they were only obligated to provide military service. One time, Vuk was ambushed by the Vlachs, but Vuk escaped.
In 1625, Vuk relieved the residents of Gorica above Severin of various duties and made them freedmen.
On 4 June 1657, as part of a delimitation between the possessions of the Zrinski family in Brod and those of the Frankapan family in Severin, a document was drawn up before a committee in Moravičke Drage consisting of baron Planker oberhautmann of Karlovac on behalf of Juraj IV Frankapan and Juraj Sili kapetan dvoranski and vicekapetan of Žumberak and Boltizar Babonosić prefect of Ozalj on behalf of Petar Zrinski. Those who gave testimony about the boundary were Martin Goljak (80), Matija Šnepergar (80), Mihajlo Šepec (80), Petar Butina (85), Petar Abramović (85), Lovro Crnković (85), Juraj Šnepergar (88), Juraj Podnar (90), Matija Goljak (90), Jakov Goršet (90), Jakov Butina (90) and Martin Blažević who claimed to be a centenarian and helped build the Turanj tower in Gornje Moravice when ordered by brothers Juraj and Nikola Zrinski.
In the final years of the Frankapan period, the estate of Severin was administered by Juraj Kukuljević, and the last Frankapan era lord of Severin was Ivan Stanešić.
In 1670, during the Magnate rebellion, Severin was plundered by German officers from Karlovac. Fran Krsto Frankopan was beheaded in 1671.
Cameral period After the beheading, Severin was acquired first by the Hungarian and then by the Graz Chamber until 1682. Grgur Pavišić administered the estate as inspektor, while Juraj Kukuljević was responsible for its economic affairs as fisk.
Janko Herendić, whose fiefs were in Bubnjarci, Lipa and on the Mrežnica, acquired a smaller share of the fief of Severin. On 20 April 1679, Janko wrote a land grant for Ivan Benić in the house of his brother priest Ferenc Herendić in Severin. The transcript survives in the HDA in Zagreb, and was published by . The parish of Lukovdol, to which Severin belonged, may have been Glagolitic as late as the 17th century.
Oršić period On 20 April 1682, Leopold I granted the larger part of the fief of Severin to Ivan Franjo Oršić for his services in suppressing the Magnate rebellion, for which he became captain of Križanić Turanj and was made a baron and appointed to the Modruš captainate in place of Johann Adam von Purgstall, at a price of 10,000 forint paid to the Hofkammer and 7228 to the kaptol in the name of a debt remaining from the time of Petar Zrinski.
On 1 February 1718, grof Bernard Oršić of Slavetić wrote a land grant in Severin for Paval Gerić, concerning his vineyard on Veliki vrh, bordering that of Marko Severinski to the right, of Oršić himself to the left, Malinska steza below and Babićev obrov above. The transcript by S. Sečen, chancellary of Severin, survives in the HDA.
In 1736, Severin na Kupi may have been the Severin in which the Metropolitan of Gornji Karlovac, Danilo Ljubotina, had intended to found a new bishopric.
By the time of the visit of the Zagreb County commission under judex nobilium Franjo Dolovac and adjunct Antun Spišić in June 1774, the territory of the former Frankopan fief of Severin had been divided into 4: The fief of Krsto II Oršić with the castle of Severin and serfs in: Severin itself, Klanac, Damalj, Plešivica, Jadrč, Randosti, Kosac, Blaževci, Štefanci, Zapeć, Plemenitaš, Lukovdol, Gorenci, Močile, Draga and Smišljak. The fief of widow Ana Vojković née De Pozzi with serfs in: Umol, Grabek, Dugače, Beč, Crnomanji, Radočaj, Gorenci, Lisičina and Gorica. The fief of the future podžupan Juraj I Ivančić with serfs in: Umol, Grabek, Dugače and Beč. The fief of Barbara Tompe with serfs in Umol and Grabek. Severin had a relatively high population of freedmen, but freedmen in the sense that they were free from the physical and transport corvées. They were still obliged to perform carpentry and masonry for the castle.
On 14 February 1776, the was created by Maria Theresa, named after Severin, but with Karlovac as its capital, although county assemblies were sometimes held in Mrkopalj or Rijeka. It was created after a 1765 decree called for the restoration of the ancient Vinodol County, largely on the initiative of Krsto Oršić, who granted rooms in his castle for use as offices. It was abolished on 20 March 1786 by Joseph II, allegedly because of low tax revenues, with the town of Severin being transferred to Zagreb County as a kotar. The memory of this county would live on in Severin itself, which painted its crest on a building in the town square in the 21st century, and which travellers continued to hear about when passing through Severin throughout the 19th century:
In 1780, the Report of the Commission for the Introduction of Urbarial Organisation on the Possessions of Klanac, Damalj, Plešivica and Severin na Kupi (), today with signature HR-ZaNSK R 6687, was drawn up.
In 1803, Ivan Oršić renovated the old fortress of Severin as a residential castle, leaving the following inscription on a plaque above the main gate:
The original castle was a tall fortress occupying the present northwest and northeast corners, forming two square towers with a chapel between them, a moat surrounding them, and a moat surrounding them, complete with a drawbridge. The castle was reduced to a ground floor, a storey and an attic, but was expanded in area by the inclusion of a courtyard. Cylindrical towers in the style of the Kerestinec castle were added to each of its southern corners. A cistern was dug outside the castle, to which water was transported by aerial lift from the Kupa at a spot where a waterhouse was later built. The cistern is surrounded by stone seats with a view of Kot pri Damlju, whose slopes were once vineyards, supplying the castle with most of its wine, which was stored in the retaining wall of the uppermost terrace.
After the construction of the long in 1803-1811, Severin gained a new importance as one of the larger towns on the road from Karlovac to Rijeka. For example, the Seljan map of 1847 skips Komorske Moravice, Skrad and Lokve along the Lujzijana, featuring nothing between Severin and Mrzla Vodica. The construction of the road, eventually named after Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, began under Josip Filip Vukasović in Rijeka in 1803, and reached Severin in 1808, shortly before Vukasović's death of a wound sustained at the Battle of Wagram. The road was completed to Karlovac in 1809 by the French. This road would greatly increase regional logging exports and bring significant traffic through Severin. Later on, the shareholder's society of the Lujzijana, with seat in Vienna would purchase land in Severin, constructing a tollbooth there. In 1874, the society would sell all its assets along the road, including the large building they constructed in Severin.
In 1860–1879, Matija Mažuranić wrote a 62 folio manuscript today titled Writings on the Building of Roads in Gorski Kotar and Lika (), today with signature HR-ZaNSK R 6424. A 21 folio manuscript dated 1872 titled Darstellung der Entstehung des Baues ... der Luisenstrasse togethr with a translation by I. Mikloušić is kept as HR-ZaNSK R 4572.
As a temporary measure devised by the commission during the unification of trans-Sava provinces, the Severin District was founded by royal decree on 5 July 1822. The intent was to re-establish the Severin Županija, but it was instead decided to transfer the Severin District to Zagreb County on 2 September 1823, ending the short-lived district.
Vranjican period The Vranjican period was and often still is considered to be the golden age of Severin's history. Thanks to the family's industrial wealth, the town saw unprecedented economic growth, retention of administrative importance disproportionate to its population, and high leadership approval. Immediately after, the town stagnated severely. The increase in population in the Vranjican period gave way to emigration and economic success would not return until the asphalt pavement of the Lujzijana allowed for the development of a considerable foodservice industry in the 1970s.