Draft:Budački castle

Budački or Gorica  is a ruined castle on the left bank of the river Rijeka, which flows into the Radonja, a tributary of the Korana. It had a rectangular floorplan, and every corner had its own tower, making it one of the stronger fortifications of the region.

In medieval times, there lived in the Gorica county an eponymous noble clan, "od Gorice". The county included the areas around the Kupa and Mrežnica by Karlovac to those around the Korana by Veljun and east beneath Petrova Gora by Vojnić. Most members of that clan were small landed nobility, but at the core were a number of feudal lords with more possessions. The largest belonged to these houses: Banski or Novakovići around Banšćina and Velemerić, Barilovići on the Korana, Dragačići in Trebinja and Otok and Mrzlo Polje, Ivkovići in Peć and Duga Resa, Oršići in Dol and Orehovac and Lipovac (Generalski Stol), Zimići in Zimić near Budački, Tomašići in Belaj, Radinovići in Babina gora, and Tušilovići in Tušilović. The main house among them were the lords of Gorica, which was in the 16th century called Budački, after the old Lika family of the same name, located in today's Donji Budački in the Vojnić township.

The Budački family came from Lika, in flight from the Ottoman Turkish Army, to the region at the end of the 15th century, together with many other families, among which were the Herendići from Bužim in Lika, the Stančići from Obrovac on the Una, the Biševići from Šibenik, the Mišljenovići from Kamičac, and the Darovići from Knin. Assuming the tradition that derives the Budački family from the castle Budak, they would have lost their original castle to the Turks when they conquered Lika in 1536, receiving in exchange the castle Buća (near Gornji and Donji Viduševac) from the Topusko Abbacy. Budak had been more of a fortified city than a castle, which in 1685 and 1689 during the reconquest of Lika defended itself so well that the soldiers nicknamed it "Little Buda". …

During the Hungarian–Ottoman Wars, this castle formed along with Barilović and Zvečaj an important node in the Hungarian defense network.

Budački fell in 1575 to the army of Ferhad Pasha Sokolović following a battle near the forest that saw the death of Herbard VIII von Auersperg, leaving Barilović on the front line.

The castle stood until the beginning of the 19th century, under the command of the Budački division of the Slunj regiment of the Austrian Military Frontier, but then the regional government gave the order for it to be destroyed. Practically nothing remains of the castle.

Budački family tree
This is the family tree of the House of Budački, part of the Croatian nobility in the Middle Ages, which died out as such in 1707.