In the long winter nights in the calls of owls, sometimes you can hear the carries of Veronike Desinicke, at times the pretty girl who lived in the 15th century in the place of scenic beauty Desinic beneath the Veliki Tabor castle, in which the powerful Ban Croatian Count Herman II Celjski lived. His young and handsome son Fridrih, riding across his fathers land, the beautiful Veronica caught his eye, with whom he soon fell in love with. However the Count disagreed with the relationship, who at the time was very influencial in Europe. The young lovers ran away to the Slovenijian town Fridrihšatajn neat Kocavja on the boarder of Gorski Kotar. The towm was built by Herman for his son as a hunting ground, so the town recienved that name. In these forests filled with wild life Fridrih and Veronica met.

    Sadly the honey moon did not last long as Count Herman found out about the secret meeting place where his son was, and right away he sent his troops to capture the young lovers. The troops surrounded Fridrihštajn, however Fridrih rescued Veronica and showed her the way across Gorskog kotara, Pokuplja, Moslavine, Bilogore and Kalnika towards the little village.Svata Margita, where veronica hide in the house of a villager. Here Fridrih himself would sometimes stay the night while hunting in the area rich with wild ducks and other such animals. Fridrih could not escape his fathers troops and so they brought him to Veliki Tabor after a few days. His father was so angry he did not want to see Fridrih so instead he ordered the troops to take him and lock him up in a tower in the castle. The tower was 8x8 big and 23m high. The tower had no roof and as soon as fridrih was locked in the door and windows were closed up, only leaving a small space through which the unhappy Fridrih could receive food and water. After spending four lond years in the tower count Herman finally decided to let his son out. Sadly when Fridrih was let out of the tower, which bears his name, today it is called Fridrih's tower or Fridrih's "stolp" he was mentally and phisically unable to carry on living a normal life and is therefore mentioned no more in history. Veronica too had little luck. Herman's troops soon found out where she was staying and told the count of her whereabouts. The troops captured her and brought her to the Veliki Tabor village where she was jailed in the small prison without windows at the entrance to the village.

   Ban Herman soon called the judges and acussed Veronica of being a witch and enchanted his son. The judges worked hard and the heaing of veronica and lasted for two whole day. At the end of the second day the judges said "count Ban, there no wrongs that this girl has committed. The only thing she is guilty of is great love towards your son Fridrih. Love has never been a sin or crime but it is one of the most beautiful things in the world. This ends our work around here, sir!" the judges were leaving and before they had time to leave the Town count Herman gave orders to the court officials to drown Veronika straight away. The official carry out these orders by filling a wooden box with water in the middle of the castle. They caugth Veronika soon after and they held her head under the water until they were sure that she had taken her final breath. They then carried the dead body to the first floor of the casrle and there they built her body into a wall which divides the pentagonal tower with the front door. Cleaning the Castle in 1982. we found one scull, for which has been verified that belongs to a woman person. Is this scull belonging to the poor Veronika, we can not be sure whether it is or isnt but all we can say is, "God rest her soul".

….go back to the time of counts, dukes, beautiful women and castles with countless numbers of rooms and thousands of secrets…. After 101 years, you can read about the roles Veronika Desincke and count Fridrih Celjskog played in one of the most historically romantic stories ever written in Croatia. Published by: F.I.L art. Krapina 2000, ISDN 953-6390-01-9 (published first edition in Zagreb 1899)

Hinko pl. Davila (Krapina 1858. - Zagreb 1925.) he was a pharmacist and a novelist who's family had roots in Spain (Avila, Castilla, XII. century). During his life, four of his novels were published, some biographies mentioning the book, "From journy to Paris" in the year 1899, which appeared to be lost.