This article is about a time when the castle politics of the Žovnek/Celje noble family was marked by a remarkable expansion of property. This was also the time of the acquisition of Smlednik, the first major estate or castle in Carniola, where the ambitions of the free Lords of Žovnek, or later the Counts of Celje, began to be increasingly directed in the following decades. They continued to build up their holdings there and thus laid the foundations for their own possessions in Carniola. The acquisition of the patronage of the parish of Vodice, the establishment of vicariates in Smlednik and Utik, and the chaplaincy in Spodnje Pirniče show that the Celje family were also trying to consolidate their main centre in Kranj, Smlednik Castle, in ecclesiastical territorial organisation. The church and the Confraternity of St Mary on Šmarna Gora also acquired noteworthy assets through purchases and donations during the time of the Celje nobility.