Gardens on the Castle Walls: Researching and Reconstructing Nineteenth-Century Wallpapers

Project Title: Gardens on the Castle Walls: Researching and Reconstructing Nineteenth-Century Wallpapers

Total Project Value: 50.000,00 €

Project Duration: April 2023 – August 2026

Project Partners: Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Culture and Media, Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb; Croatian State Archives; Wallpaper Department of the Institute for Paper Conservation GesBR; ArcheoLab, Éclart Walls.

About the project:

For 170 years, the wallpaper in Trakošćan’s Small Library was admired without anyone knowing it was poisonous. Identifying its arsenic pigment forced a new approach to conserving toxic interiors and the same research recovered three wallpapers lost since 1950s, reconstructed from fragments and archival photographs, and returned them to the rooms their owners designed for them.

Les Fleur du mal – Small Library

Fruit-Patterned Wallpaper – Dining Room

Rococo Peony and Acanthus Wallpaper – Music Salon

Lily or Iris Pattern –Location Unknown

Youtube video about the project.