Founding
city and settlement in Varaždin County, Croatia
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Varaždin (pronounced [ˈʋâraʒdiːn] or [ʋaˈrǎʒdin]; Hungarian: Varasd, also known by alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, 81 km (50 mi) north-east of Zagreb. The total population is 46,946, with 38,839 in the city settlement itself (2011).
The city is best known for its baroque buildings, music, textile, food and IT industry.
In Hungarian the town is known as Varasd, in Latin as Varasdinum and in German as Warasdin. The Hungarian Varasd is composed of város meaning city and the diminutive suffix -d.
The total population of the city is 46,946 and it includes the following settlements:
The administrative sections of Varaždin are local committees (mjesni odbori). These are:
The first written reference to Varaždin, whose historical name is Garestin, was on 20 August 1181, when King Béla III mentioned the nearby thermal springs (Varaždinske Toplice) in a legal document.
Varaždin was declared a free royal borough in 1209 by the Hungarian King Andrew II. The town became the economic and military centre of northern Croatia. Due to Ottoman raids, the town was structured defensively around the old fortress, and acquired the shape of a typical medieval Wasserburg. In the early 13th century, the Knights Hospitaller (Croatian: Ivanovci) came to Varaždin, where they built the church and a monastery. In the mid-13th century, the church of St. John belonging to the Hospitallers was taken over by Franciscans, who extended it over several centuries, eventually replacing the medieval structures with early baroque.
At the end of the 14th century, Varaždin fortress passed to the hands of the Counts of Celje. Over the following centuries Varaždin had several owners, the most influential being Beatrice Frankopan (1480–1510), wife of Margrave Georg of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who built the town hall; her successor was Baron Ivan Ungnad (1493–1564), who reinforced the existing fortification. At the end of the 16th century Count Thomas Erdődy became its owner, assuming the hereditary position of Varaždin prefects (župan), and the fortress remained in the ownership of the Erdődy family until 1925.
The town was the seat of Slavonnian Military Border in late 16th century.
The 16th century is also the beginning of fires being recorded; starting with a fire in Varaždin in 1558, although no details are given. We know more about the great fire of 27 May 1582, that had such dire effects that the Varaždin population counted time as "prior" and "after the Great fire". The losses include the parish church, the Franciscan church and a friary (subsequently the Franciscans left Varaždin), the chapels of St. Vid, Michael and Holy Trinity, the homes of the local tollhouse clerks and customs officers. The stronghold was spared but the fire jumped the city walls and ravaged the suburbs close to the river Drava. The citizens asked the king for help and were granted state tax exoneration for the following six years by the Hungarian royal chamber, relieved from tax duty for one year and were assigned free serf labor. Austrian archduke Ernest wrote to Varaždin County officials on 9 July 1582 to provide free lumber for the citizens who had lost their homes in the fire. That fire prompted authorities, not only in Varaždin but also in other towns, to set up watch posts with guards on lookout for possible fire.
A fire on 29 April 1586, burned down a number of buildings. The following year, 1587, saw two fires: one on 10 May that burned 23 homes in the Royal street, and one on 26 December that burned only one home. At that time, Varaždin, contrary to some other towns, did not have any organized fire-fighting service. The next fire recorded, in 1592, brings in the town protocol the description of «pitiful and grieving town of Varaždin»; among the damages are noted that of several public buildings, including the town hall and St. Nicholas church. Another fire in 1599 destroyed 66 buildings in and around the street of St.Vid. 1599 also sees the town officials take the first fire fighting measures. This ordnance seems to have had some effect, as the next recorded fire dates from mid-17th century.
The great fire of 1646, that destroyed more than half the town and damaged many of the remaining buildings, did not deter the town's growth, as better buildings replaced the "ugly town district". Sigismund Trautmanstorf(de), a member of Austria's nobility, reports a fire on 1 May 1648, fuelled by high wind, that destroyed more than a half the town within its walls - several hundred of houses disappeared. The town magistrate asked King Ferdinand III to relieve the town from Royal chamber taxes, due to the current devastation; the king granted that request and on 27 October 1649 he pardoned the town from paying overdue taxes of 500 Hungarian forint, with the specific reason of «half of Varaždin perishing in the fire of 1 May 1648».
On Easter Monday of 27 March 1665, an extremely large fire started in Brodovski konec suburb (E-N-E of Varaždin) and, due to a strong wind, crossed the town walls and spread all over town. It destroyed Varaždin churches (parish church, Jesuit church and Franciscan church), spared only eight homes and new stables belonging to Varaždin stronghold's military commander; it also destroyed several towers from the town walls, albeit sparing the one used as main armoury - a lucky escape, as that one held the gunpowder magazine; thus sparing some lives. Beside the inner town buildings, the entire suburb outside the upper gates was also destroyed in the fire, from the east all the way to the stronghold's toll gates; this included part of the main street and Vidovski konec street, toward Biškupec village (about 3 km south of Varaždin); the next day the fire caught Vidovski konec and burned all its buildings down. St. Florian's chapel was built in Varaždin in 1669, as a votive chapel after the 1665 fire (catholic patron saint St. Florian was believed to protect from fires, thus has many dedicated chapels and churches - such as that in Koprivnica, first mentioned in 1680, or in Križevci after their fire in 1735).
Fires in the 18th century include that of 1745, set up by soldiers spiteful of their lodgers, which destroyed a number of homes and a brewery. In 1748 another fire destroyed much of the southern suburbs, including 119 homes and several hundred stables and barns.
In 1767, the Croatian Royal Council - newly installed in town - gave order to the Varaždin town authorities to uphold restriction on drying flax and hemp fiber on house stoves, on smoking around barns and stables, and on replacing wooden chimneys by brick-built ones, the latter an expensive task: 1768 records show that that concerned most of Varaždin's chimneys, a fire hazard compounded by that the people hardly ever cleaned them. In 1755, Varaždin had only one chimneysweeper, not even paid on a regular basis. The presence of the country's gouvernment in town somewhat changed the attitude towards fire. For example, upon another fire in 1769, there were records of efficiency in putting out the fire. Members of the town's administration showing up at fire sight were to take charge of the operation, duties were assigned to firefighters and their performance monitored.
A record from 1771 mentions 32 buildings and many stables and barns destroyed by fire. That year, the Hungarian Chamber representative proposed to the town authorities to help those who lost homes in fire rebuild in bricks and setting up stoves outside their houses - not only in Varaždin town center, but also further in the town outskirts. Thus in 1774, the Hungarian chamber demanded from Varaždin town authorities that burned-down homes of Sračinec village be replaced with raw brick buildings. Moreover, in 1767 the town owned only one water-sprinkling device with a two- to three bucket capacity; in 1772 Queen Maria Theresa issued an ordnance listing necessary equipment that the town's authorities had to purchase for fire-fighting, and by 1773, the town owned most of this equipment. In 1771, Varaždin authorities made fire-fighting compulsory for all citizens.
But this did not spare the town from its next big fire, that of 25–26 April 1776. It started in the Sračinec suburb (west of Varaždin) and, again due to strong wind - and the carelessness of a merchant who had stashed gunpowder in his house, which exploded and added fuel to the fire -, spread to Varaždin. Of the 113 buildings held within its walls, 70 were entirely destroyed and 11 partially destroyed; the northern suburb had held 256 buildings, of which 111 were entirely destroyed; and of the 245 homes in the southern suburb, 135 were destroyed : altogether, from the total of 614 homes, 316 were destroyed - more than half. Most of the nobility fled the town, and with it the country's government so recently installed there. But the commoners (primarily merchants and artisans) remained - and turned their town into one huge building site: by 1780 the number of homes equaled that prior to the fire. After that fire, the town authorities decreed a public prohibition of wooden houses inside the town walls; even more specifically, brickmade chimneys became compulsory. The authorities ensured that adequate building materials were available. A committee was set up to inspect all chimneys and list down those which were fire hazards. Incentives were set up too, rewarding those citizens who were first to help in fire fighting; in the 18th century, there were public citations for citizens who showed up at fires with fire-fighting sprinkling equipment, as well as those who arrived on site with large amounts of water to put out fire. Later, fire insurance policies were set up with insurance companies.
In spite of all those set-backs, the 17th and 18th centuries saw Varaždin's economy and culture expand; within that period it grew from around 3,000 inhabitants around the year 1600 to around 5,500 inhabitants by the end of the 18th century.
In 1756 or 1766, the Ban Ferenc Nádasdy chose Varaždin as his official residence, and Varaždin became the capital of all of Croatia. It hosted the Croatian Sabor and the Royal Croatian Council founded by Empress Maria Theresa.
The April 1776 fire put an end to that presence in town.
The periods of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation had a great influence on Varaždin. With the arrival of the Jesuits, the school (gymnasium) and the Jesuit house were founded, and churches and other buildings were built in the Baroque style. In the 18th century Varaždin was the seat of many Croatian noblemen, and in 1756 it became the Croatian administrative centre. The fire of 1776 destroyed some 80% of the town, resulting in the administrative institutions moving back to Zagreb.
Varaždin was the seat of Varaždin County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, ruled by the Kingdom of Hungary after the compromise of 1867. The Hungarian stamp, issued in 1881 shows both names.
By the 19th century Varaždin had been completely rebuilt and expanded, with flourishing crafts and trade, and later the manufacture of silk and bricks. The theatre and the music school were founded. From the second half of 19th century, fire fighting was organized and specialized fire-fighting societies were established; the very first fire fighting volunteers in Croato-Slavonnian Kingdom was organized in Varaždin in 1864.
In the 20th century Varaždin developed into the industrial centre of northwestern Croatia. The textile manufacturer Tivar was founded in 1918. A silk factory was started in 1929, the one which would later start the sportswear brand YASSA.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Varaždin”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.