Maribor

Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, the seat of the Drava statistical region and the Eastern Slovenia region. Maribor is also the economic, administrative, educational, and cultural centre of eastern Slovenia.

Maribor was first mentioned as a castle in 1164, as a settlement in 1209, and as a city in 1254. Like most Slovene ethnic territory, Maribor was under Habsburg rule until 1918, when Rudolf Maister and his men secured the city for the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which then joined the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1991 Maribor became part of independent Slovenia.

Maribor, along with the Portuguese city of Guimarães, was selected the European Capital of Culture for 2012.

Name

Maribor was attested in historical sources as ''Marpurch'' circa 1145 (and later as ''Marchburch'', ''Marburc'', and ''Marchpurch''), and is a compound of Middle High German ''march'' ' march (borderland)' + ''burc'' 'fortress'. In modern times, the town's German name was ''Marburg an der Drau'' (; literally, 'Marburg on the Drava').

The Slovene name ''Maribor'' is an artificial Slovenized creation, coined by Stanko Vraz in 1836. Vraz created the name in the spirit of Illyrianism by analogy with the name ''Brandenburg'' (cf. Lower Sorbian ''Bramborska''). Locally, the town was known in Slovene as ''Marprk'' or ''Marprog''. The name ''Maribor'' was accepted among Slovenes only 25 years later, when Lovro Toman published a song named ''Mar i bor'', giving the name a Slovene compound ''Mar'' 'to care' + ''i'' 'and' + ''bor'' 'to fight for'. In addition to its Slovene and German names, the city is also known as ''Marburgum'' in Latin and ''Marburgo'' in Italian.

History

Prehistory

The oldest known remnants of settlement in the Maribor area date back to the 5th millennium BC, at the time of the Chalcolithic. With the construction of Maribor's western bypass, larger settlements were discovered dating from the 44th to 42nd century BC. Another settlement from around the same period was also discovered in Spodnje Hoče, a town right next to Maribor and another below Melje Hill near Malečnik. Another settlement below Melje Hill was also found dating to the 4th millennium BC.

A more intense period of settlement of the Maribor area occurred in the 3rd millennium BC with the advent of the Bronze Age. In the 13th to 12th century BC, in the age of the Urnfield culture, new settlements were found in Pekel. Around 1000 BC, new settlers moved to the Maribor area. An urnfield cemetery was found from that period in today's ''Mladinska ulica'' and another necropolis was also found in Pobrežje.

Antiquity

With the Iron Age and the Hallstatt Culture, new settlements began to appear on hills. One of them was Poštela in the Pohorje Mountains. Poštela was an old town that was abandoned in the 6th century BC and inhabited again in the 2nd century BC.

During Roman times, the area where Maribor later developed was part of the province of Noricum, right on the border with Pannonia. During that period, Roman agricultural estates known as ''villae rusticae'' filled the area around Radvanje, Betnava, Bohova, and Hoče. The best-known of them was in today's Borova Vas neighborhood of Maribor. An important trade route was also established in the area, connecting Celeia and Flavia Solva in one direction with Poetovio and central Noricum on the other.

Medieval history

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Maribor area was settled by the Slavs.
A Slavic cemetery was found in Radvanje dating to the 10th century AD. The area of what later became Maribor was first part of Samo's Empire and later the area stood on the border between Carantania and Lower Pannonia. In 843 the area was absorbed into the Frankish Empire.

In the Frankish Empire, the area again stood on the border, this time between the Frankish Empire and the Principality of Hungary. To protect the Frankish Empire from Hungarian raids, a castle was built on Pyramid Hill. The castle was mentioned for the first time on 20 October 1164 as ''Castrum Marchburch''. A settlement soon began to grow below the castle. Maribor was first mentioned as a market near the castle in 1204, and it received town privileges in 1254. It is likely that the castle stood before 1164 because Bernard of Trixien, the count of the region, already used the title ''Bernhard von Marchpurg'' 'Bernard of Maribor' in 1124.

The town began to grow rapidly after the victory of Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty over King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. The town built fortifications, and trade, viticulture, and crafts started to grow. The town had a monopoly over the entire region and also controlled the viticulture trade with Carinthia. The first churches were built, and also around this time the first Jews arrived. The Jews built their own ghetto in the southeastern part of town, where they also built the Maribor Synagogue. Most Slovenians lived in the northwestern part of town on what is now Slovenian Street (''Slovenska ulica'').

During the Middle Ages the castle belonged to the important Lordship Marburg with the old castle Obermarburg. In 1478, a second castle was built on the northeastern side of the town, today known as Maribor Castle. In 1480 and in 1481, Matthias Corvinus besieged the town but failed to conquer it on both occasions. In 1496, Maximilian I issued a decree to expel all Jews from Maribor and Styria. In 1515, the Maribor Town Hall was built and a few years later, in 1532, Maribor again came under siege, this time by the Ottoman Empire. In the battle that became known as the Siege of Maribor, a 100,000-strong Ottoman army under the leadership of Suleiman the Magnificent attacked the town, which was defended only by the local garrison and its citizens. Despite all the odds, Maribor was defended and the legend of the Maribor shoemaker who raised the sluice gates and flooded the Ottoman army is still popular today.

Modern period

In the 17th century, numerous fires razed the town. The biggest ones occurred in 1601, 1645, 1648, and 1700. As a consequence the town was rebuilt numerous times. In addition to fires, the plague decimated the town's population. The largest plague epidemics occurred in 1646, 1664, and 1680. Due to the plague, the town lost 35 percent of its population. In gratitude for the end of the plague, a plague column was built in 1681, with the original being replaced in 1743. In 1846, the Southern Railway was built through the town, which resulted in great economic growth and territorial expansion. In 1859, Anton Martin Slomšek, a bishop of the Diocese of Lavant, transferred the seat of the diocese to Maribor, and he further encouraged the use of Slovene. With the transfer, Maribor also received its first higher school. Four years later, Maribor was connected with Carinthia with the construction of the railway from Maribor to Prevalje. The first daily Slovenian newspaper, called ''Slovenski narod'', was established in 1868 on today's Slomšek Square (''Slomškov trg''). On 4 April 1883, the first electric light in Slovene ethnic territory was installed on Castle Square (''Grajski trg''). The renowned electrical engineer Nikola Tesla