Petrijevci

Jelengrad – the Normann-Ehrenfels castle is the castle with perhaps the shortest lifetime of all the castles in Croatia.

It had existed for only three decades. A forest path, several old trees and a small hummock left from the former garden pavilion - is all that is left from the hunting castle and gardens on the bank of Drava.

Even after seven decades, Jelengrad is still present in the memory of Petrijevci residents. Reminder of it is the inn of the same name on the Petrijevci-Valpovo road, built on location of the former forester's cottage, which marked the entrance to Lipovacka forest and start of the approach to the castle.

Although located several kilometers northwest of Petrijevci, isolated and on the wooded bank of river Drava, Jelengrad was a part of Petrijevci. This place – half way between Osijek and Valpovo, which are 14 kilometers away – is located on the bank of river Karasica, which enters into Drava just at Petrijevci.

Petrijevci are known by the Roman settlement Mursella, by the medieval name Karasevo, by the Hospitallers' estate (medieval knight order), by patron St. Nicholas (whose church is mentioned for the first time in 1333, which is also the first mention of Petrijevci - oppidi Petrievci), by the bridge over Karasica of the Turkish period, and by the fact that in the thirties of the 18th century it was the largest settlement (with 161 households) on the Valpovo demesne.

History of Petrijevci and Jelengrad is inseparable from the history of Valpovo nobility and their temporal masters, Barons Hilleprand von Prandau and Counts Normann-Ehrenfels.