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The castle of Vurberk is situated on the southern edge of the Slovenske Gorice hills and was first mentioned in 1238. It was badly damaged during a bombing in 1945. A smaller part of the ramparts was renovated, while the biggest part is still in ruins. Today, the castle is mainly used as a performance site, as there is an 'amphitheatre' in its yard.
In the wall of the Church of the Virgin Mary are tombstones of noblemen and a medallion with a portrait from antiquity.
In the immediate vicinity of the castle, they have recently discovered energetic points, in total 31 so far, which have become very popular with people due to their, apparently, healing purposes. The oral tradition has it that every day during the reign of the Herberstein family the family doctor used to send patients suffering from pulmonary diseases on a walk in the forest growing on the castle hill. Patients had to follow determined paths running among trees and rest only on particularly designated spots.
The Vurberk castle lies on a crossroads of four very important directions from east, and another two coming from south and leading to north.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.