Varaždin

Varaždin first appears in writing on 20 August 1181, when King Béla III mentioned the nearby thermal springs in a legal document, and in 1209 King Andrew II declared it a free royal borough. It became the economic and military centre of northern Croatia, and against Ottoman raids it was organised around its fortress as a moated water castle. From the end of the 16th century the fortress belonged to the Erdődy family, who kept it until 1925. In the late 16th century the town was the seat of the Slavonian Military Frontier.

Fire shaped the town as much as war. Great fires in 1582, 1648 and 1665 each destroyed much of it, yet Varaždin kept growing. In the mid-18th century it became the seat of Croatia's government, hosting the Sabor and the Royal Croatian Council founded by Empress Maria Theresa. On 25–26 April 1776 a fire that began in a western suburb destroyed more than half the town's houses; the nobility and the government left for Zagreb, but merchants and artisans rebuilt, and by 1780 the number of homes was back to its earlier level. Wooden houses were then banned inside the walls, and brick chimneys became compulsory.

In the 19th century crafts, trade, silk and brick-making flourished, and the theatre and music school were founded. The 20th century made Varaždin the industrial centre of north-western Croatia, with the Tivar textile works from 1918, later Varteks. On 12 July 1941 the Ustaše declared Varaždin free of Jews, the first city in Croatia to be so declared. In 1991 the town saw only a few days of fighting, when the large Yugoslav army barracks surrendered after a siege.

Varaždin is often called the best preserved and richest historic town in continental Croatia, and it is seeking a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Its identity is bound up with the baroque: the palaces, churches and town hall, and the Varaždin Baroque Evenings, a festival of baroque music held every autumn since 1971. In 2023 Varaždin became the first Croatian city named a UNESCO Creative City of Music.

At the end of each summer Špancirfest, a ten-day street festival begun in 1999, fills the inner town with concert stages, street performers, craftspeople and food stalls, and draws visitors from across Croatia and neighbouring countries. The town also hosts VAFI, an international animation film festival for children and young people, held since 2010. On ceremonial occasions, and in a weekly changing of the guard at the town hall, the Purgari, a historic town guard, appear in uniform, and in the warmer months the police patrol the centre by bicycle.

The town cemetery is a source of particular pride. Founded in 1773, it was transformed between 1905 and 1947 by Herman Haller, who replanned it as a park of trees and alleys where residents could walk; it is now protected as a cultural and natural monument. A local folk custom, the christening of a new bridge, survives here and in some nearby towns, and the town has strong clubs in handball, basketball and other sports.

At the 2021 census the City of Varaždin, with its surrounding settlements, had about 44,000 people, about 36,000 of them in the town itself. It is the seat of Varaždin County, one of the most densely populated in Croatia, and like the country as a whole the county lost people between the last two censuses.

The town was one of the few in Croatia whose industry was not directly damaged in the 1990s war. Textiles, led by Varteks, food processing, led by Vindija, metalworking and construction are joined by a well-developed IT, financial and banking sector, encouraged by a free investment zone. Education is a growing part of town life: University North, founded with Koprivnica, has operated in both towns since 2015, and two faculties of the University of Zagreb have campuses here.

Life is relaxed and organised around the compact centre, where people meet over coffee on the squares, shop in the old streets and walk in the cemetery and the fortress grounds. Varaždin Arena, near the Drava, was one of the venues of the World Men's Handball Championship in 2009 and again in 2025.

Varaždin eats in the tradition of northern Croatia, close to the cooking of Zagorje and Međimurje. Varaždinski klipići are the town's own pastry, listed among the classic pastries of the country. Zagorski štrukli — dough filled with cottage cheese, sour cream and eggs, boiled or baked, savoury or sweet — are found on many menus, and cottage cheese with cream, sir i vrhnje, is a staple of the region. Bučnica, a pie of summer squash and cottage cheese, and zlevanka, a simple baked cornmeal pastry with fillings, are other home-style dishes of the north.

Across the Drava, Međimurje has its own cheese, turoš, and its own celebrated cake, Međimurska gibanica, layered with apple, poppy seed, walnut and cottage cheese fillings. Stews of vegetables with a little meat or sausage, known as varivo or čušpajz, are everyday food, and potato-dough dumplings filled with plums are a favourite sweet.

The region's drink is gemišt, white wine mixed with mineral water, and the vineyards of Zagorje and Međimurje supply the town's wine. Numerous cafés fill the centre, and the restaurants of the old town serve this northern home cooking.