Ptuj (; , ; ) is the eighth-largest town of

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

, located in the traditional region of

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

(northeastern

). It is the seat of the Municipality of Ptuj. Being the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, it has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman military fort, located at a strategically important crossing of the Drava River along a prehistoric trade route between the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic.

History

Early history

Ptuj is the oldest recorded town in Slovenia. There is evidence that the area was settled in the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

. In the Late

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

it was settled by

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

.''PtujTourism.si''.
The History of Ptuj
. Accessed November 8, 2006.

First mentions

By the 1st century BC, the settlement was controlled by

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

as part of the Pannonian province. In 69 AD,

Vespasian Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...

was elected Roman Emperor by the Danubian legions in Ptuj, and the first written mention of the city of Ptuj is from the same year. ''Poetovium'' was the base-camp of Legio XIII ''Gemina'' where it had its legionary fortress or '' castrum''. The name originated in the times of Emperor

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

, who granted the settlement city status and named it ''Colonia Ulpia Traiana Poetovio'' in 103. The patristic writer Victorinus was Bishop of Poetovio before his martyrdom in 303 or 304. The Caesar Constantius Gallus was divested of his imperial robe and arrested in Poetovio before his subsequent execution in Pola (354) (Amm.Marc. Hist. XIV) The battle of Poetovio in 388 saw

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene C ...

's victory over the usurper, Maximus. The city had 40,000 inhabitants until it was plundered by the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

in 450.

Middle Ages

In 570 the city was occupied by Eurasian Avars and Slavic tribes. Ptuj became part of the Frankish Empire after the fall of the Avar state at the end of 8th century. Between 840 and 874 it belonged to the Slavic Balaton Principality of Pribina and Kocelj. Between 874 and 890 Ptuj gradually came under the influence of the Archbishopric of Salzburg which had both spiritual and temporal rule over the town; city rights passed in 1376 began an economic upswing for the settlement.

Habsburg Monarchy and Austria-Hungary

After the re-establishment of the Habsburg rule in 1490, following

Matthias Corvinus Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and ...

's conquests, the Archbishop of Salzburg was stripped of the remaining temporal authority over the town and the surrounding areas; Ptuj (known in German as Pettau) was officially incorporated into the Duchy of Styria in 1555. Pettau was a battleground during the Ottoman wars in Europe and suffered from fires in 1684, 1705, 1710, and 1744. Its population and importance began to decline in the 19th century, however, after the completion of the

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

route of the Austrian Southern Railway, as the line went through Marburg (Maribor) instead. According to the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, 86% of the population of Pettau's Old Town was German-speaking, while the population of the surrounding villages predominantly spoke Slovenian. After the collapse of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

at the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Pettau was included in the short-lived Republic of German Austria.

Establishment of Yugoslavia

After the military intervention of the Slovenian general Rudolf Maister, the entire territory of Lower Styria was included into the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

). During the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

, the number and the percentage of those identifying as

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

in the city, which was renamed Ptuj, decreased rapidly, although a relatively strong ethnic German minority remained.

World War II

After the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Ptuj was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. From 1941 to 1944 the town's Slovenian population was dispossessed and deported. Their homes were taken over by German speakers from South Tyrol and Gottschee County, who had themselves been evicted according to an agreement between

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

. These German immigrants, along with the native German ''Pettauer'', were expelled to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in 1945; many later settled in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. Since 1945, Ptuj has been populated almost completely by

Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( ), are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, Slovenian culture, culture, and History of Slove ...

Culture

The Kurent or Korant Carnival

Ptuj is the center place of a ten-day-long carnival in the spring, an ancient Slavic pagan rite of spring and fertility, called Kurentovanje or Korantovanje. Kurent is believed to be the name of an ancient god of hedonism - the Slavic counterpart of the Greek god Priapos, although there are no written records. Kurent or Korant is a figure dressed in sheep skin who goes about the town wearing a mask, a long red tongue, cowbells, and multi-colored ribbons on its head. The Kurent(s) from Ptuj and the adjoining villages also wear feathers, while those from the Haloze and Lancova Vas wear horns. Organized in groups, Kurents go through town, from house to house, making noise with their bells and wooden sticks, to symbolically scare off evil spirits and the winter.

Landmarks

The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint George and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor. It is a three-naved Gothic building from the 13th and early 14th century, but the structure incorporates parts of a much earlier structure, dating to the mid-9th century. * Ptuj Castle * St. George's Church * Little Castle * Ptuj Town Hall * Ptuj Town Theatre * Town Tower * Dominican monastery * Orpheus Monument * Franciscan monastery * Upper Mansion * St. Oswald's Church

Town quarters

* Center * Breg–Turnišče * Ljudski Vrt * Jezero * Panorama * Rogoznica * Grajena * Spuhlja

Notable people

* Brigita Brezovac (born 1979), bodybuilder * Nastja Čeh (born 1978), Slovenian international footballer * (born 1977), geopolitical analyst and expert of international relations * Tim Gajser (born 1996), motocross racer * Luigi Kasimir (1881−1962), artist * Benka Pulko (born 1967), long-distance motorcycle traveler, writer, photographer, humanitarian and Guinness World Record holder * Miha Remec (1920−2020), science fiction author * Angela Salloker (1913−2006), actress * Aljaž Skorjanec (born 1990), dancer and choreographer * Viktor Skrabar (1877–1938), lawyer and archaeologist * Aleš Šteger (born 1973), poet * Victorinus of Pettau (died 303), bishop and martyr * Dejan Zavec (born 1976), boxer

Sister cities

Ptuj is twinned with: * Aranđelovac, Serbia * Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia (2002) * Burghausen, Germany (2001) * Ohrid, North Macedonia (2006) * Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, France (1998) * Varaždin, Croatia (2004)

Gallery

File:Ptuj Castle Ouroboros 27102006 01.jpg, Ouroboros at Ptuj Castle File:Ptuj from the castle.JPG, Seen from the castle File:Ptuj Castle inside.JPG, Ptuj Castle File:Ptuj3.jpg, A street in the center of Ptuj File:Ptuj panorama 01.jpg, Panoramic view from Ptuj Castle File:Ptuj panorama 02.jpg, Panoramic view of Ptuj File:Ptuj_-_Orfejev_spomenik_1.jpg, Orpheus Monument at Slovene Square

References

External links

*
Ptuj
on Geopedia
ptuj.info
(Tourism website) {{Authority control Cities and towns in Styria (Slovenia) Populated places in the Urban Municipality of Ptuj Spa towns in Slovenia