Pakrac Old Town

The old town of Pakrac, i.e., its present remains are in the very heart of the city where the buildings of the post, police and city administration are.

It was one of the biggest forts in West Slavonia, a stone, hard city in the shape of an irregular pentagon, fortified with 7 circular towers on the corners and another biggest defense tower on the inside. The owners, and most probably the constructors of this fort, were the Hospitallers (even though it was mentioned somewhere that they might have been Templars), a well-known and powerful crusading order who owned Pakrac in the 13th century.

Around the fort, there was a big ditch filled with water which represented additional insurance for this impressive building when the wooden drawbridge was lifted. The first Croatian mint was probably placed inside the fort since it is known for sure that it was working in Pakrac in the middle of the 13th century before being moved to Zagreb in 1260. A widely known coin was minted here – Slavonian banovac, which was a means of payment in the neighboring countries as well due to the purity of silver and fine manufacture.

A marten was used for the first time on banovac, so the current Croatian currency got its name after this coin that was minted in Pakrac. For a long time, Pakrac fort was the siege of Vran priory, and the secular persons heading it were part of the most powerful people of the Croatian kingdom. The owners of the old Pakrac town were also the notorious brothers Talovac, Marko, and Ivan.

Looking at the presupposed reconstruction of the fort today, we can only imagine what kind of a fairytale place it used to be. A mighty stone fort surrounded by a water ditch, a big wooden bridge on a pulley, medieval knights, a fair area in front of the fort, and most probably a settlement, i.e., small wooden houses built outside of its walls. All this was medieval Pakrac that can be hardly imagined based on what was kept from it until today.