Ružica Grad: the most beautiful rose on Papuk forest, Croatia

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Croatia’s Papuk Nature Park, listed as one of UNESCO Geoparks, is a little slice of heaven.

Among the many folk tales around the area, two revolve around the town of Ružica, Ružica Grad, the largest preserved fortified town in the region of Slavonia, whose first historical mention dates back to 1357.
It is located in the northeast part of the Nature Park, above the calm surface of the Orahovica Lake, and has guarded many secrets over the centuries.
In fact, since the origin of the medieval structure remains unknown, it has become the stuff of legend over the years and, according to popular folk tales, it used to be the meeting place of fairies, where they brewed potions, created new spells, sang and danced.
Fairies met in peace here until, one day, their fun was cut short by a powerful nobleman who decided to build his fortified town at that exact spot.
Soon their little paradise became a construction site: their favourite meadow was being walled in, and their favourite shade under the trees disappeared with the stroke of an axe.
The fairies, horrified at this threat to their gathering place, used their magic to ruin the nobleman’s construction plans and, whatever the workers would build during the day, they would destroy overnight.
When morning came, the angry nobleman searched for the culprits throughout the village, and the people only shrugged their shoulders. Thus he ordered the workers to begin construction again, only for the fairies to destroy everything again during the night.
The cycle repeated several times until the nobleman posted guards around the site, who discovered what the fairies were up to at night.
Angered by this, the nobleman decided to erect a net around the construction site.
The hair of the most beautiful fairy, Ružica, became entangled in the net, and she was caught.
The other fairies could only watch helplessly and cry as the cruel nobleman dragged her by her hair, which held all of her power, and, as a warning to all the fairies, walled her in the town’s foundations.
The other fairies scattered, but their curse did not end there: just as the trumpets announced the completion of the construction, a stone slid down and killed the nobleman, ending his lineage.
His name was lost to history, but the town was named after the most beautiful fairy of the Papuk forest, Ružica, that still lives in the name of the old fortress.

However, folklore in the region of Slavonia tells another story about the origin of the name “Ružica Grad”.
A beautiful and noble princess named Ružica was left in command of the town after her father and brothers were killed in a battle with the Franks.
She decided to pick a husband who would help her defend her people at a jousting tournament, where she invited all of the finest knights, including the unknown Black Knight (Crni vitez), who beat all of the local knights one after the other.
When the time came to announce the winner, the mysterious stranger took off his visor and revealed that he was actually a Frankish knight who came to conquer another Croatian town.
Princess Ružica couldn’t allow the town to fall into the hands of the man who killed her family, so she threw herself off the highest tower in town.
Soon afterwards, the entire area was overgrown with beautiful rosebushes, as red as the princess’s blood, and the town came to be known as Ružica Town (from ružica, meaning, notmby chance, “little rose”).

And still today the ruins of Ružica Grad still stands on a steep rock, surrounded by the fresh Papuk forest, as a witness of untold times.