Not far from the Bežanec castle, in the village of Valentinovo, is the house of Janko Leskovar. The writer and teacher Janko Leskovar was born and lived for a while in this 19th-century one-storey house. He served as a teacher in many places: Valpovo, Prišlina, Krapinske Toplice, Krapina, Karlovac and Zagreb, and after retirement he returned to his native village. Leskovar was preoccupied with the psychological analysis of his characters who were emphatically uninterested or incapable of fighting for their lives. A special sort of characters is named after him – leskovarac, a passive hero who is inclined to dwell in the past, constantly thinking and remembering events that end tragically. He is best known for his works “Misao na vječnost (Thought of Eternity), “Propali dvori“ (Fallen Courts) and “Sjene ljubav“ (Shadows of Love).