Maribor, Slovenia - Pueblo Sister Cities

Maribor, Slovenia

Alt View

Maribor Panorama

Maribor

Slomsek Square

Univerza

Marburg an der Drau

Distance from Pueblo: 5,517 mi
Population: 108,000 (2002)

RELATIONSHIP
Pueblo has a significant population of Slovenian descent. We are now pursuing a Sister City agreement with the City of Maribor. A delegation from Pueblo visited Maribor in 2004. We met with Mayor Boris Sovic, and discussed the possible activities to be carried on under the Sister Cities agreement.

Maribor developed in an area 270 meters above sea level beside the Drava River at the transition from the narrow Drava River Valley to the Maribor and Drava plains. It lies at the junction of five natural geographical regions: the hills of Slovenske gorice, the Kozjak mountain range, the Drava Valley, the Pohorje mountain range, and the Drava plain. It has an advantageous position at the juncture of roads and railways from Vienna to Trieste and Zagreb and through the Drava Valley toward Lendava, Ptuj, and Klagenfurt. The Municipality of Maribor has a population of around 133,000.

The Maribor area was populated with smaller settlements in the late Bronze Age, the late Iron Age, and the Roman period. In the Roman period, two roads ran across the area from Celeia (Celje) and Poetovio (Ptuj) to Flavio Solva (Lipnica) and Carinthia. Maribor was mentioned for the first time in documents from the 12th century as Marchpurch castle (its Slovene name ÒMariborÓ came into use in 1836), in 1182 it was mentioned as the center of a provostship, and in 1189 as the seat of a parish. Maribor acquired city status before 1254 when the city walls were built to form a complete city organism and the first streets developed within the walls. The large Jewish population helped make Maribor a center of commerce and banking, and the expulsion of the Jews in 1497 was a major blow to the economic power of the city. The city was often devastated by fire, Turkish raids, and plague epidemics. In the 18th century, the Vienna - Trieste road was improved, and the increase in heavier transit traffic decisively influenced the commercial and industrial situation in the city. The railway from Vienna completed in 1846 made wider links possible with the region of the eastern Alps. In this period the medieval city wall was pulled down, and the suburbs became more closely connected with the city center. The first major investments were made by Austrian industrialists, and numerous important buildings and institutions were erected in the city.