Dvorac Eugena Savojskog Bilje

This hunting lodge in the Baranja village of Bilje, about ten kilometres from Osijek, was built in the 18th century for the Austrian military commander Prince Eugene of Savoy. It stands on the edge of the marshy floodplain of Kopački rit. Its defences recall the Renaissance way of fortifying a building, that is, the lowland castles of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

If you take the road north-east from Osijek, you will soon reach the palace park, where conifers and broadleaf trees have predominated since 1977; in 1824 it was surrounded by plum orchards and woodland, and only later was it laid out as a park. In 1720 a palace chapel dedicated to Our Lady was built as part of the complex, and it served as the parish chapel until the parish church was built.

Today the hunting lodge houses part of Hrvatske šume (Croatian Forests) and the administration of the Kopački rit Nature Park public institution. There is also an exhibition gallery, Eugen Savojski, in the cellar.