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Croatia and the Borders of Christianity:The Fortified Cistercian Abbey of Castrum Thopozka

Cistercian abbeys in unstable regions, including frontier regions, were sometimes strongly fortified for their own protection and that of their estates. A number of such houses were situated in conflict areas such as Spain and north-east Germany, near the contested Baltic area. These structures were occasionally used to defend larger territories in which the abbey was located, for instance territorial ecclesiastical units. An example of this type of Cistercian abbey is the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary in medieval Toplica (modern-day Topusko, in central Croatia). Its geographical location at the borders of the bishopric of Zagreb enabled the abbey to become a leading religious institution in the area. The defensive role of Topusko Abbey came to prominence at the very end of the Middle Ages, in the 1520s, when the central abbey fort (castrum Thopozka) was constructed as part of the organized defence of the Croatian kingdom against Ottoman Turks, but some of the defensive buildings of the abbey were erected in the thirteenth century, much predating the Turkish invasions. This chapter uses published and unpublished sources and secondary literature to reconstruct and examine the abbey’s defence system and its significance for the larger territories of the bishopric of Zagreb and the Hungarian-Croatian kingdom. Furthermore, this essay discusses the cultural role of Cistercian monks and their interactions with ecclesiastical and lay institutions on the frontier and beyond

Cistercians, Monasteries, Middle Ages, fortifications, Abbey of the Blessed virgin Mary, Toplica (Topusko)

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