Tivoli Castle

Tivoli Castle ( _sl. Grad Tivoli) is a mansion in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

The mansion, located north-west of the city centre in the Rožnik neighborhood on the Rožnik hill, was built in the 17th century on the location where the ruins of a previous mansion in Renaissance style stood. It was initially owned by the Jesuits. In 1773, following the suppression of the Jesuit order, the mansion came in the possession of the Diocese of Ljubljana and was used as a summer residence for the bishops. In the mid 19th century, it was bought by the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I who in 1852 gave it as a gift to the veteran general Joseph Radetzky. Radetzky renovated the mansion giving it its present outlook and spent a lot of time in it with his wife Francisca von Strassoldo Grafenberg, who was a local Carniolan noblewoman. After Radetzky's death in 1858, a monument to the famous general was erected in the top of the staircase, watched by two cast-iron dogs. The monument was removed after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918, and placed in the National Museum of Slovenia, but the dogs have remained in their original place.

In 1863, the mansion was bought by the Municipality of Ljubljana, who transformed it into an asylium for poor people and later into a condominium. In 1967, it was again renovated and became the venue for the the International Centre of Graphic Arts [ [http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Slovenia/Mestna_Obcina_Ljubljana/Ljubljana-688015/Things_To_Do-Ljubljana-Tivoli_Park_and_Mansion-BR-1.html Virtualtourist.com] ] .

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