"Let's go to Varazdin!" (Imre Kalman "Marica")

"Let's go to Varazdin!" (Imre Kalman, "Marica")

Baroque town Varaždin, the center of one of the oldest Croatian zhupaniya. It was about him that one of the heroes of the famous Imre Kalman operetta, Baron Zupan, sang, inviting Maritsa to his city Varazhdin!:

"Let's go to Varazdin!

Oh, for your sake, let's go now!

There are so many wonderful days.

Among my native fields

The two of us will be the happiest.

On one of the churches of Varazhdin you can see a sculptural image of a petrified bear. According to legend, the church was built on the site of a bear den, not finding which the bear petrified and remained on the church facade.

We begin our tour in the park of Vatroslav Jagich, a Slavic scholar, philologist, born in Varazdin, who at the end of the 19th century taught at many European universities, including St. Petersburg and Odessa, was awarded the Order of Merit in the study of Slavic languages. During a walk through the park, we will talk about the fate of the monument to Vatroslav Jagich, installed here, or rather about the evil rock that pursued it: not only did the workers damage one of the legs during transportation from Zagreb and restore it with their own forces, in connection with which the figure stands in a strange pose, so after the installation of the monument it turned out that Vatroslav Jagich is dressed in a women’s cloak!

Speaking of Varazdin, we cannot but mention Kazimir Draskovic, a representative of the local aristocracy of the 18th century and his wife Suzanne Malatinsky, whose right to divorce Kazimir Draskovic buys from her ex-husband. The family is shocked, the court of Vienna is indignant, but the count is in love! We will admire the palace of Count Drashkovich with the family coat of arms on the stone portal on the central square of Varazdin.

In many tourist places there is a tradition: tourists need to rub / touch the monument and make a wish with faith and hope that the wish will come true. In Varazdin, tourists “trud” nothing less, and the thumb on the left foot of an eight-meter monument to the Croatian bishop Grgur Ninsky by the famous Croatian sculptor Ivan Meshtrovic. For many years of existence, and the monument was installed in 1931, it was rubbed to shine!

The city of Varazdin for almost 10 years, or rather from 1767 to 1776, was the capital of the Croatian Kingdom, and probably would have remained the capital if not for the terrible fire of 1776. There are many versions of the cause of this fire. In all versions, the main characters are: a serf boy, a pig, an unsweetened cigarette and straw. On one of the streets of Varaždina there is even a monument with the image of a boy and the pig that caused the fire, and as a result, the capital of the Croatian Kingdom returns to the city of Zagreb.

The feudal castle, probably the main attraction and business card of Varazhdin, depicted on all advertising avenues, was built and reconstructed over several centuries from the 14th to the 19th century. The castle acquired special importance in the 16th century, during the peak of danger from the attack of the Turks. Currently, inside the castle there is a museum of the city of Varazdin. In addition to exhibits related to the history of the city and the region, the museum presents an interesting exposition of the history of bathing costume, from the time of the introduction of the first sea and river baths in the late 19th century.

On Ursulinok Street we will talk about the history of this monastic order and its appearance in Varazdin in 1703 at the invitation of Countess Drashkovich to open a school for girls.

Welcome to Varazdin!