Maribor

This article is about the city in Slovenia. For the association football team, see NK Maribor.

Maribor
—  City  —
Maribor's Old Town along the Drava river
Flag Coat of arms
Maribor Location of the City of Maribor in Slovenia
Coordinates: 46°33′N 15°39′E
Country	Slovenia
Municipality	City Municipality of Maribor
Government
• Mayor	Andrej Fištravec
Area
• Total	41 km2 (16 sq mi)
Elevation	275 m (902 ft)
Population (1 January 2012)
• Total	94,984
• Density	2,318/km2 (6,000/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+01)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+02)
Post code	2000
Area code(s)	02
Website	www.maribor.si

Maribor ( pronunciation  German: Marburg an der Drau) is the second largest city in Slovenia with 95,200 inhabitants as of 2011. Maribor is also the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria and the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor.

Maribor was, jointly with Guimarães in Portugal, the 2012 European Capital of Culture. In November 2010 the European Youth Forum announced that Maribor will be the 2013 European Youth Capital Info.

Names

Besides Slovene name, the city is also known under several other names in different languages - Latin: Marburgum, German: Marburg an der Drau, Italian: Marburgo.

History

Maribor in the 17th century. A copper engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer, 1678.

In 1164, a castle known as the Marchburch (Middle High German for "March Castle") was documented in Styria. It was first built on Piramida Hill, which is located just above the city. Maribor was first mentioned as a market near the castle in 1204, and received town privileges in 1254. It began to grow rapidly after the victory of Rudolf I of Habsburg over Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. Maribor withstood sieges by Matthias Corvinus in 1480 and 1481 and by the Ottoman Empire in 1532 and 1683, and the city remained under the control of the Habsburg Monarchy until 1918.

Maribor, previously in the Catholic Diocese of Graz-Seckau, became part of the Diocese of Lavant on 1 June 1859, and the seat of its Prince-Bishop. The name of the diocese (after a river in Carinthia) was later changed to the Diocese of Maribor on 5 March 1962. It was elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Benedict XVI on 7 April 2006.

Jewish community

See also: History of the Jews in Slovenia and Maribor Synagogue

Maribor Synagogue

The Jews of Maribor were first mentioned in 1277. However, it is suggested that there was already a Jewish quarter in the city. Notwithstanding, the first reliable source for Jews living in the city appears in 1317. The Jewish ghetto was located in the southeastern part of the city and it comprised, at its peak, several main streets in the city centre as well as part of the main city square. The ghetto boasted a synagogue, a Jewish cemetery and also a Talmudic school. The Talmudist, and Halakhist Israel Isserlein was the chief Rabbi of Carinthia, Styria, and Carniola, and thus spent most of his life as a resident of the city. The Jewish community of Maribor was numerically most significant around 1410. After 1450, the circumstances changed dramatically: increasing competition that coincided with an economic crisis dealt a severe blow to economic activities that were crucial to their economic success. According to the decree issued by Emperor Maximilian I in 1496, Jews were forced to leave. Restrictions on settlement and business for Jews remained until 1861.

In April 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Lower Styria was annexed to the Third Reich. The Jews of Maribor were deported to concentration camps beginning in late spring of 1941.

Maribor synagogue is one of the oldest preserved synagogues in Europe, and one of only two left in Slovenia.

Early 20th century

Before World War I, the city had a population that was 80% Austrian Germans and 20% Slovenes; most of the city's capital and public life was in Austrian German hands. Thus, it was mainly known by its Austrian name Marburg an der Drau. According to the last Austro-Hungarian census in 1910, the city of Maribor and the suburbs Studenci (Brunndorf), Pobrežje (Pobersch), Tezno (Thesen), Radvanje (Rothwein), Krčevina (Kartschowin), and Košaki (Leitersberg) consisted of 31,995 Austrian Germans (including German-speaking Jews) and just 6,151 ethnic Slovenes. The surrounding area however was populated almost entirely by Slovenes, although many Austrian Germans lived in smaller towns like Ptuj.

During World War I, many Slovenes in Carinthia and Styria were detained on suspicion of being enemies of the Austrian Empire. This led to distrust between Austrian Germans and Slovenes. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, Maribor was claimed by both the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and sent to German Austria. On 1 November 1918, a meeting was held by Colonel Anton Holik in Melje's barracks, where it was decided that the German speaking city should be part of German Austria. Ethnic Slovene Major Rudolf Maister, who was present at the meeting, denounced the decision. That same day he was awarded the rank of general by the National Council for (Slovenian) Styria and organized Slovenian military units which successfully seized control of the city. All Austrian officers and soldiers were disarmed and demobilized and to new German Austria. The city council then held a secret meeting, where it was decided to do whatever possible to regain Maribor for German Austria. They organized a military unit called the Green Guard (Schutzwehr), and approximately 400 well-armed soldiers of this unit opposed the pro-Slovenian and pro-Yugoslav Major Maister. Slovenian troops surprised and disarmed the Green Guard early in the morning of 23 November. Thereafter, there was no threat to the authority of Rudolf Maister in the city.

On 27 January 1919, Austrian Germans gathered to await the United States peace delegation at the city's marketplace were fired on by Slovenian troops, who apparently feared the crowd of thousands of ethnic German citizens. Nine citizens were killed and more than eighteen were seriously wounded;^{[citation needed]} who ordered the shooting has never been conclusively established. German sources accused Maister's troops of shooting without cause. Conversely, Slovene witnesses such as Maks Pohar claimed that the Austrian Germans attacked the Slovenian soldiers guarding the Maribor city hall. Regardless of who was responsible, the Austrian German victims had all been unarmed.^{[citation needed]} The German-language media called the incident Marburg's Bloody Sunday.

As Maribor was now firmly in the hands of the Slovenian forces and encircled completely by Slovenian territory, the city was recognized as part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes without a plebiscite in the Treaty of Saint-Germain of September 1919 between the victors and German Austria.

After 1918, most of Maribor's Austrian Germans left the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs for Austria. This included the German-speaking officials who did not originate from the region. Austrian German schools, clubs, and organisations were ordered closed by the new state of Yugoslavia, even though ethnic Germans still made up more than 25% of the city's total population as late as the 1930s. A policy of cultural assimilation was pursued in Yugoslavia against the Austrian German minority similar to the Germanization policy followed by Austria against its Slovene minority in Carinthia. However, in the late 1930s the policy was abandoned and the Austrian German minority's position improved significantly in an attempt to gain better diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany.

World War II and aftermath

Adolf Hitler on Stari most bridge in Maribor, Yugoslavia in 1941.

In 1941 Lower Styria, the predominantly Yugoslav part of Styria, was annexed by Nazi Germany. German troops marched into the town at 9 pm on 8 April 1941.

On 26 April, Adolf Hitler, who encouraged his followers to "make this land German again", visited Maribor and a grand reception was organized by local Germans in the city castle. Immediately after the occupation, Nazi Germany began mass expulsions of Slovenes to the Independent State of Croatia, Serbia, and later to the concentration and work camps in Germany. The Nazi goal was to re-Germanize the population of Lower Styria after the war.^{[citation needed]} Many Slovene patriots were taken hostage and some were believed to have been later shot in the prisons of Maribor and Graz.^{[citation needed]} This led to organized partisans resistance.^{[citation needed]}. Maribor "hosted" a German PoW camp from 1941 to 1945 for many British, Australian, and New Zealand troops who had been captured in Crete in 1941.

The city, a major industrial center with an extensive armaments industry, was systematically bombed by the Allies in the closing years of World War II. A total of 29 bombing raids completely destroyed and devastated around 47% of the city area, killing 483 civilians and leaving over 4,200 people homeless.

By the end of the war, Maribor was the most destroyed and devastated major town in Yugoslavia. The remaining German-speaking population, except those that had actively collaborated with the resistance during the war, was summarily expelled following the end of the war in 1945. Associated with the mass killings of alleged Croatian Home Guard members and their relatives trying to escape from Yugoslavia and executed by the Yugoslav Army, mass graves were discovered in 1999 and 2002.

Postwar period

After the liberation, Maribor capitalized on its proximity to Austria and on its skilled workforce, and developed into a major transit and cultural center of northern Slovenia, enabled by Tito's decision not to build an Iron Curtain at the borders with Austria and Italy and to provide passports to Yugoslav citizens.

When Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991, the loss of the Yugoslav market severely strained the city's economy, which was based on heavy industry. The city saw a record unemployment rate of nearly 25%. After Slovenia entered the European Union in 2004, introduced the Euro currency in 2007, and joined the Schengen treaty, all border controls between Slovenia and Austria ceased on 25 December 2007. The economic situation in Maribor after the mid-1990s crisis worsened again with the onset of global economic crisis combined with European sovereign-debt crisis.

In 2012, Maribor saw the beginning of 2012–13 Maribor protests which spread into 2012–2013 Slovenian protests.

Climate

Maribor features an humid continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. Average temperatures hover around 0 degrees Celsius during the winter. Summers are generally warm. Average temperatures during the city's warmest month (July) exceedes 20 degrees Celsius, which is being one of main reasons for Maribor wine tradition. The city sees on average roughly 1000 mm of precipitation annually, and it's one of the sunniest Slovene cities with an average of 266 sunny days throughout the course of the year.

Climate data for Maribor
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	17.4 (63.3)	21.5 (70.7)	26.0 (78.8)	28.0 (82.4)	30.9 (87.6)	34.7 (94.5)	35.8 (96.4)	36.8 (98.2)	31.4 (88.5)	27.2 (81)	21.5 (70.7)	20.7 (69.3)	36.8 (98.2)
Average high °C (°F)	3.6 (38.5)	6.4 (43.5)	11.2 (52.2)	15.4 (59.7)	20.6 (69.1)	23.6 (74.5)	25.7 (78.3)	25.4 (77.7)	21.2 (70.2)	15.5 (59.9)	8.6 (47.5)	4.5 (40.1)	15.1 (59.2)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−0.3 (31.5)	1.7 (35.1)	5.8 (42.4)	10.1 (50.2)	15.1 (59.2)	18.2 (64.8)	20.1 (68.2)	19.6 (67.3)	15.4 (59.7)	10.1 (50.2)	4.4 (39.9)	0.8 (33.4)	10.1 (50.2)
Average low °C (°F)	−3.6 (25.5)	−2.1 (28.2)	1.3 (34.3)	5.2 (41.4)	9.8 (49.6)	13.0 (55.4)	14.9 (58.8)	14.7 (58.5)	10.9 (51.6)	6.2 (43.2)	1.1 (34)	−2.2 (28)	5.8 (42.4)
Record low °C (°F)	−21.0 (−5.8)	−20.2 (−4.4)	−15.2 (4.6)	−5.1 (22.8)	−1.1 (30)	3.6 (38.5)	6.3 (43.3)	5.5 (41.9)	−1.0 (30.2)	−5.9 (21.4)	−12.7 (9.1)	−17.6 (0.3)	−21.0 (−5.8)
Precipitation mm (inches)	42 (1.65)	47 (1.85)	64 (2.52)	73 (2.87)	91 (3.58)	119 (4.69)	115 (4.53)	122 (4.8)	103 (4.06)	100 (3.94)	91 (3.58)	66 (2.6)	1,034 (40.71)
Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	9.5	8.9	11.0	12.7	13.9	14.4	13.1	12.2	10.3	10.6	11.4	11.0	139.0
Mean monthly sunshine hours	73	104	136	163	218	222	252	234	179	131	78	64	1,852
Source: Slovenian Enivironment Agency (ARSO) (data for 1971-2000)

Contemporary

Seat of University of Maribor

The city hosts the University of Maribor, established in 1975, and many other schools. It is also home to the oldest grapevine in the world, called Stara trta, which is more than 400 years old.

Maribor is hometown of NK Maribor, a Slovenian football team. They participated in the UEFA Champions League in 1999–2000 season, and in the UEFA Europa League in 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons.

Every January, the skiing centre of Mariborsko Pohorje, situated on the outskirts of the city on the slopes of the Pohorje mountain range, hosts women's slalom and giant slalom races for the Alpine Skiing World Cup known as Zlata lisica (The Golden Fox). Every June, the two-week Festival Lent (named after the waterfront district called Lent) is held, with hundreds of musical, theatrical and other events.

The most listened radios from Maribor are the commercial radio stations Radio City and Radio Center (Slovenia). They are followed by the national non-commercial Radio Maribor.

Maribor was named as an Alpine city in 2000 and chosen as European Capital of Culture 2012 alongside with Guimarães, Portugal. In 2011 it was also announced that Maribor will be European Youth Capital in 2013.

Architecture

The Maribor Town Hall

Many Medieval structures still stand in Maribor. Of the remains of city walls, the most prominent are the Judgement Tower, the Water Tower, and the Jewish Tower. The Maribor Cathedral was built in the Gothic style in the 13th century. The Town Hall was constructed in the Renaissance style.

Piramida Hill with dominates at the northern border of the city. Ruins of the first Maribor castle from the 11th century and a chapel from the 19th century are situated there. The hill offers an easy-to-reach view of Maribor and its southern hinterland with the Drava River.

In the 2000s, plans were made for a new modern business, residential and entertainment district, called the Drava Doors (Dravska vrata) and nicknamed the Maribor Manhattan. This project included many new exclusive residential apartments, offices and conference halls, a green and recreational space, and other objects. It also included a 111 metres (364 ft) tall skyscraper that would be the tallest building in Slovenia. Due to lack of financial assets, the project is on hold.

In 2008, the Studenci Footbridge (Studenška brv) was renovated upon the plan by the Ponting company. In 2008, at the 3rd International Conference Footbridge in Porto, its design was awarded the prestige Footbridge Award.

In 2010, Maribor organised an international architectural competition ECC Maribor 2012 – Drava 2012 to gather proposals for design and reconstruction of the Drava banks, construction of a new art gallery, and for a new footbridge. Its jury received about 400 solutions for the three projects. The footbridge and the river embankments will be built in the near future, whereas the art gallery was replaced with the cultural centre MAKS, currently under construction.

In 2011, construction started near the Drava of a new modern Faculty of Medicine. It was designed by the arhitect Boris Podrecca and is expected to be completed in 2013.

There are plans to renovate the Maribor Public Library and the Town Hall Square (Rotovški trg) at which it stands. In addition, the renovation of Maribor Island (Mariborski otok) on the Drava is planned.

Tourist attractions

The over 400 year old Žametovka vine growing outside the Old Vine House in Maribor, Slovenia. To the right of the vine is a daughter vine taken from a cutting of the old vine.

Maribor has many tourist areas, attractions, and events:

• Lent Festival - major festival event held for approximately two weeks at the end of June. Every year the festival attracts theatre, opera, ballet performers, classical, modern, and jazz musicians and dancers from all over the world as well as visitors. There are also mimes, magicians, and acrobats performing during the festival.
• House of the oldest grapevine in the world (Hiša stare trte) - in Maribor is also the world's oldest living grapevine, which was in 2004 signed in book of Guinness World Records. The grapevine of Žametovka is about 440 years old.
• Women's slalom and giant slalom races for the Alpine Skiing World Cup known as "Zlata lisica" (The Golden Fox). This event is hold on mountain range Pohorje which is also the most visited place - both recreational and touristic in winter and also summer.
• Maribor Island (Mariborski otok) - the oldest public baths, but still important and well visited place in Maribor. The city also offers many indoor swimming pools (Pristan, Fontana).
• Maribor Castle, Maribor Town Hall Rotovž, Betnava Castle, Plague Memorial, Maribor, ruins of old castle Upper Maribor on Piramida Hill.
• Medieval Maribor's defence walls with defence towers all along the old-city limits.
• Wine and culinary specialities - international and Slovene cousine (mushroom soup with buckwheat mush, tripe, sour soup, sausages with sauerkraut, cheese dumplings, apple strudel, special cheese cake called gibanica). Also many popular restaurant with Serbian cuisine.
• Vinag Wine Cellar (Vinagova vinska klet) - with 20.000 m2 surface and 2 km (1 mi) length has 5,5 millions litres of excellent wine.
• Maribor City Park (with City Aquarium and Terrarium, wide promenade, which lead to the Three Ponds (Trije ribniki), in the park containing over 100 local and foreign species of deciduous and coniferous trees).
• Pohorje Adrenaline Park(Adrenalinski park Pohorje) with High Ropes Course, one track line PohorJET, summer sledding and Bike park Pohorje.
• Maribor Synagogue (Sinagoga Maribor) - built in 14th century, it is the second oldest in Europe. Today, it serves as a centre for cultural activities and it offers visitors various events including exhibitions, concerts, literary evenings and round tables. The Synagogue is located in the square Jewish square (Židovski trg) in the former Jewish quarter.
• Kalvarija and Piramida (well visited city hills Pyramid, Maribor) surrounded by vineyards, and ruins of old castle Upper Maribor.
• Birthplace of Austrian admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff in "Slovenska ulica" (at today's "Admiral" caffe)
• Pekarna alternative cultural (former squat) area next to Magdalena Park.
• 2013 European Youth Capital.

• 

  Maribor Castle

• 

  Judgement Tower

• 

  Franciscan Church

• 

  Water Tower

• 

  Plaque Column

• 

  Betnava Castle

• 

  The Old Vine: considered the oldest vine tree in the world

• 

  Maribor Cathedral

City districts

The city districts (Slovene: mestne četrti)

The city of Maribor has 11 districts as listed below, but the whole Municipality of Maribor also includes Kamnica, Pekre, Limbuš, Razvanje, Melje, Malečnik-Ruperče and Brestrenica-Gaj. The river Drava divides the districts Center, Koroška Vrata, Melje and Ivan Cankar from the other districts of the city. They are all connected with 4 traffic bridges, 1 train bridge and 1 pedestrian bridge.

No.	District
1.	Center
2.	Koroška Vrata
3.	Ivan Cankar
4.	Magdalena
5.	Tabor
6.	Studenci
7.	Pobrežje
8.	Nova Vas
9.	Tezno
10.	Brezje - Dogoše - Zrkovci
11.	Radvanje

Sport

In November 2012 Maribor hosted the World Chess Championship with a special guest Garry Kasparov. It was presumed that Maribor would host the XXVI 2013 Winter Universiade, but the Government of Slovenia declined financial support of the project in February 2012 due to lack of the assets. In March 2012, the International University Sports Federation decided that it would organise the universiade elsewhere.

Association football club NK Maribor, playing in the Slovenian PrvaLiga, play their home matches at the Ljudski vrt stadium in Maribor. Maribor's handball club is RK Maribor Branik. They compete in the Slovenian First League of Handball and play their matches in the Tabor Hall. HDK Maribor, an ice hockey team, and KK Maribor (basketball) are also competing at the professional level in the top domestic leagues.

Notable natives and residents

List of notable individuals who were born or lived in Maribor:

• Bernhard von Spanheim, duke of Carinthia, founder of the city
• Leon Štukelj, Olympic champion
• Zlatko Zahovič, association football player
• Tomaž Barada, taekwondoist
• Sani Bečirovič, basketball player
• Danilo Türk, former president of Slovenia
• Saša Vujačić, NBA basketball player
• Fredi Bobic, German-Slovene association football player
• Andrej Brvar (sl), poet
• Aleš Čeh, association football player
• Lev Detela (sl), writer, poet, and translator
• Mladen Dolar, philosopher
• Filip Flisar, ski cross champion
• Vekoslav Grmič, Roman Catholic bishop and theologian
• Herta Haas, second wife of Joseph Broz Tito
• Polona Hercog, tennis player
• Israel Isserlin, Medieval rabbi
• Archduke Johann of Austria, Habsburg nobleman and philanthropist
• Drago Jančar, author
• Janko Kastelic, conductor and music director
• Matjaž Kek, association football player and manager
• Ottokar Kernstock (de), Austrian poet
• Aleksander Knavs, association football player
• Edvard Kocbek, poet, essayist, and politician
• Katja Koren, alpine skier
• Anton Korošec, politician
• Bratko Kreft, author
• Rene Krhin, association football player
• Marko Letonja (sl), conductor
• Rudolf Maister, military leader
• Janez Menart, poet and translator
• Guiseppe Morpurgo, Founder of Generali
• Mima Jaušovec, female former tennis player
• Tomaž Pandur, stage director
• Tone Partljič, playwright, screenwriter, politician
• Žarko Petan, writer, essayist, theatre and film director
• Janko Pleterski, historian
• Tomaž Gnyra, carpenter
• Miran Potrč (sl), politician
• Zoran Predin, singer
• Ladislaus von Rabcewicz, Austrian civil engineer
• Stanko Majcen (sl), playwright
• Zorko Simčič (sl), writer and essayist
• Anton Martin Slomšek, Roman Catholic bishop, author, poet, and advocate of Slovene culture
• Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, Austrian admiral
• Anton Trstenjak, theologian, psychologist, essayist
• Prežihov Voranc, writer and political activist
• Krištof Wildenrainer, mayor, who defended Maribor from Osmans in 1532
• Karmina Šilec (sl), conductor
• Luka Šulić, cellist, member of the 2Cellos duo
• Jan Muršak, second ever Slovenian NHL hockey player
• Luka Krajnc, association football player
• Maja Keuc, singer

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Slovenia

Twin towns — sister cities

Maribor is twinned with:

Graz, Austria Greenwich, England, United Kingdom Kraljevo, Serbia Marburg, Germany

Osijek, Croatia Pétange, Luxembourg Pueblo, Colorado, United States Saint Petersburg, Russia

Szombathely, Hungary Tours, France Udine, Italy

References

Notes

External links

• Official website (Slovene) (English)
• Tourism homepage (Slovene) (English)
• Maribor, the official travel guide to Slovenia
• Interactive map of Maribor at Najdi.si (Slovene)
• Maribor travel guide from Wikivoyage