After sampling the wines, we returned to the boat. Although I did not have enough time to see the village, I did manage to sneak outside for a very brief view of Ilok Castle, or as some called it, the Odescalchi Castle. It is an impressive on a hill in the middle of town built on the foundations of the castle of King Nikola Iločki from the 15th century . I managed to take a few photos of it.
The castle was built in the 15th century by Nicholas of Ilok a Croatian viceroy and king of Bosnia. We did not visit Bosnia-Herzegovina this year, which I did see the last time we were in the Balkans. It is another of those states that was created when Yugoslavia disintegrated and needless to say, a lots of serious warfare happened there. Many lives were lost in those battles.
The Ottoman Turks conquered Ilok in the 16th century but the Austrian Hungarians recaptured it in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. As a result, the grateful Emperor Leopold I granted the castle to Livio Odescalchi, the nephew of Pope Innocent XI who was also a member of the powerful Odescalchi family. That family reconstructed the castle in the Baroque style in the 18th century. The Yugoslavian government (communist at the time) nationalized the castle in 1945. Apparently, the wine cellars are among the most famous in Croatia, and we never got to sample any of the wine from there. Sometimes, life sucks.