Međimurje County

Map showing Medjimurje county within Croatia

Međimurje - Međimurska županija is a triangle shaped region in most northern part of Croatia. In western part of the county, there are slopes of Alpine foothills, while toward the east it touches the flat Pannonian plains. It does border with Slovenia and Hungary, with Austria being just over the corner. Međimurje is flattered by the name Hortus Croatiae - the park of Croatia. The climate is continental, with hot generally stormy summers, foggy autumns, severely cold and snowy winters.

Physical characteristics

The county covers plains between the rivers of Mura (Mur in German) and Drava, both of which regularly do flood and rather frequently change their paths. Eastern limit of the county is at Legrad. The hydro dam on the Drava is to supply electric power, is used to prevent flood control and for irrigation. Of the whole area, 51 000 ha are used in agriculture, but unfortunately, due to high population density, is devided into very small units. 3 000 ha are covered with the orchards, 1 000 ha of the hilly area with small picturesque towns like Štrigova are the wineyards. Pasturelands and forrests are roughly 10 500 ha. It is between 120 and the Mohokos's (344) m above sea level. The closest cities are Varaždin, Koprivnica, Nagykanisza, Murska Sobota, Bjelovar, Maribor, Graz, in all three states.

People

The area has 125 000 residents in 126 smaller municipalities and is populated mainly by Croatian of the Roman Catholic extraction with up to 4% of the Hungarians, Germans, Slovenes and Roma. It is relatively small (729.5 km²), often called in peoples mind Međimurje malo, with Čakovec of 17 000 being the cener of all the local activities. The demographic of the region was changed swiftly in the period between 1950 to 1975 with the significant reduction in size of the basic population unit - the family. The natural population increase is minute. Each of the bigger municipalities has the elementary school center while Čakovec does offer more, the Gymnasium, technical and construction high schools as well as the academy, (Pedagoška akademija Čakovec), to fulfill the local and cuntry's needs for education cadre. Significant portion of the population is employed in Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and beyond. In the national perspective, there is movement of that pool of population toward the Istra region.

Communication

It is strong trade and communication hub connecting central Europe with Varaždin, Zagreb, Karlovac as well as the port of Rijeka on the shores of the Adriatic sea in Kvarner bay. A pipeline passes from Omišalj on the Adriatic cost toward the refinery in Lendava (Lendva), Slovenia. Kotoriba boasts of the first railway station building in Croatia and one of the first railway track connecting it to Čakovec in the westbound direction. First railroad track was built here helping to connect Budapest with southern ports Rijeka and Trieste in 1860. The road infrastructure is good including the new expressway connecting Hungary via Goričan to Zagreb and the sea shore. Everydays communication in business, trade and education within as well between the counties and countries does make the area very dynamic and open.

Business and economy

The economy of the area is based on textile, metal and food processing plants. printing, building materials with construction, plastics. There are now very small deposits of coal near Mursko Središće, exploration of which was part of the economic life betwen the 1925 and 1972. The total output than was close to 4 600 000 t but is not considered profitable today. Village Križovec might be the only place in the world where people used and still do extract the boulders of the coal from the bottom of the running Mura river. Gas and crude oil deposits were found as first in Croatia here, in Selnica and Peklenica. The last place got its name from the word "pekel" meaning the "hell", since the local people quickly noticed the peculiar properties of the dark, greasy liquid in small ponds appearing spontaneously in ponds on the ground. At the time, reserves have been calculated to be aeound 170 000 t. There was exploatation in process when demand in the world was in infancy, and no other sources were even needed. There are thermal recreational spas in Vučkovec. Geothermal resources do exist but again, that can not be considered as the profitable energy source but is used for the purposes of the leisure and recreation. Gold particles could be found in both river sands but not in quantities sufficient to be worth of extraction today.

History

Archaeologycal findings do confirm neolithic inhabitants on locality known as Ferenčica near Prelog, (Iz povijesti Medimurja), which accordering to urban legend was inhabitad by the bad, virtueless people. The tribe's origins are still uncertain today. The area was later, in Ist century AD known by the Romans as Insula intra Dravam et Muram, ("the island between Drava and Mura rivers"), while today's very city as locality was called - Aquama, ("the wet city"). It did serve as the military post and the booth camp. Today's city name comes from the count Dimitry Csaky (Dimitrij Čak), who with the beginning of the 13th century errected the timber fortification which eventually were named "Csaky's tower". It is mentioned for the first time in 1328. The place appears for the first time in the official books in 1333. Faster development of the locality started to be eminent since 1547 under Nikola Šubić Zrinski. Since 1579, the population of craftsmen and merchants outside the walls were granted right to trade, so to be the beginning of the formal and legal city strucure.

The very region has history of being in hands of different rulers and powers, the military, mainly buffer zone between the Ottoman Empire and Viennarepresenting. The most important is the period during the 16th and 17th centurie when Čakovec was the headquarter of Croatian rulers, military leaders and intellectuals among whom the Zrinski family is most famous one. Nikola Zrinski, (1620 - 1664) distinguished himself in the wars against the Turks. At the coronation of Ferdinand IV he carried the sword of state, and was made captain-general of Croatia. He was killed during a hunt under dubious circumstances. Petar Zrinski, in conflict with the Austrian Empire was accused of treason and executed in 1671 in Wiener Neustadt. His wife Katarina Zrinski died inprisoned by Austrian rulers in 1674. Since that moments in time, the castle life itself started to decay, to sink into oblivion, to be the thing of the past, while the town's activities and their importance started to grow. After 1848,Josip Jelačić, national military leader pushed the Hungarian forces from that region, and soon the city was freed by the political decree. With the year 1860 the railroad was introduced, while in 1893 the electic power with 131 lantern started to illuminate most of the city streets.

Miscellaneous, sightseeings

During the Henry Morton Stanley expedition in Africa in 1882 chief explorer Dragutin Lerman discovered in Congo on river Kwil huge waterfalls and named them - Zrinski waterfalls, the name they still carry today.

The school of animated film ŠAF, (Škola Animiranog Filma) is active and doing just well taking its part in domestic and many international festivals.

The county, due to the cultural influence of Austria and Hungary has rich ethnological and folcloristic history. More than 15 000 songs in the county has been collected by ethnomusicologist Vinko Žganec.

Tourist possibilities do exist in fishing and hunting sector with numerous objects to stay and visit like Međimurska hiza when one can try local cousine, meet local people, participate in local plays, see local costumes.

In Čakovec, the Zrinski's castle, the palace with local Museum of Međimurje with 17 000 historical items and the gallery must be seen. So are baroque frescoes of Ivan Ranger dating between 1776 and 1786 in church of Sveti Jeronim,(St.Jerome), in Štrigova, and the chapel of Sveta Jelena, (St.Helen), in Šenkovec.

First crude oil pipe line was built in this part of Europe between Mursko Središće and Selnica in 1901. Interestingly at that time the annual production of the oil was less than 7 000 t.

Municipalities

Other two cities are Mursko Središće and Prelog. Towns are Sveti Martin na Muri, Sveta Marija, Draškovec, Donji Kraljevec, Donja Dubrava, Belica, Šenkovec, Macinec.Nedelišće, with one of the first Croatian printing press installed and operating there since 1570 by the order of Zrinski's. Čakovec is keeping special friendly ties with the town of Schramberg in Germany.

Local notable people

Lidija Bajuk - musician
Lujo Bezeredy - sculptor
Dragutin Feletar - historian, geographer
Joža Horvat - adventurer, writer
Ladislav Kralj-Međimurec - artist (aquarels)
Nikola Pavić - poet
Ruža Pospiš-Baldani - opera singer
Josip Štolcer-Slavenski - composer,
Vinko Žganec - folklorist