The bells of the St. Vid Church started to toll all by themselves, and the citizens woke up and defended the city.

Turks' worst enemy, Croatian ban Franjo Frankopan, died in Varaždin from scorpions oil.

One of the most beautiful love stories of Varaždin was told by Ksaver Šandor Gjalski.

Suzana Malatinsky, or Countess Drašković and later Countess Nadasdy, was known for her sumptuous balls and the story of her arrival in Varaždin is very interesting.

Do you know what was eaten and what the Varaždin Christmas meal looked like in medieval times?

The event from 1628 shows that not only foes, but also friends drowned in the trenches of the Old Fort.

People have always wondered when it would happen and what doomsday would look like.

The rumour circulated that 13 June, 1857 will be the doomsday, and many people of Varaždin believed it.

Adrenaline Park 'Vručina' near Ludbreg offers visitors the organization of bachelor parties, teambuilding, birthdays and numerous adrenaline activities.

The Ivan Rabuzin Cultural Center, opened in 2011, is the center of most cultural events in the City of Novi Marof.

The Old Town of Ludbreg consists of a square-shaped castle and two outbuildings. Around the castle you can still see glipmses of a defence moat, to which the water came from the Bednja river. The castle has a ground floor plus three additional floors, first of which is significantly higher.

 Just 7 minutes drive from the center of Varaždin, Lumini Center offers a great deal of entertainment in addition to shopping.

Every city has hidden mysteries and secrets and is there a better way to get to know a new city than playing a game in it?

Gaj Cinema is a cult Varaždin cinema located right next to City Hall. It shows independent, European and Croatian films.

The Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin has three scenes (a big scene and two chambers), and the repertoire usually includes national dramatics, especially the first performances of Croatian writers. There are also classics, Central European playwrights, and the peculiarity of the repertoire is the performance of classical works in the Kajkavian dialect.

Indoor and outdoor swimming pools in Varaždinske Toplice offer numerous attractions for their visitors. Waterpark includes water attractions such as a waterslide, a fast canal, a water mushroom and a whirlpool.

At the Topličica excursion site there is a restaurant with about 200 seats, two large pools with slides, a children's amusement park, two earthen and one asphalt tennis courts, two Ping-pong tables and a large parking lot.

Aquacity, popularly known as the "Varaždin Sea" is located three kilometers from the center of the baroque town of Varaždin. Its landscaped environment makes it an oasis for relaxation, walking, swimming and recreation.

Situated in a natural, wooded setting along the Drava River, the Drava pools attract numerous bathers looking for refreshment during the hot summer months.

The City Swimming Pools are a true oasis of health and enjoyment for everyone in Varaždin, its surrounding towns and all visitors looking for recreation and relaxation. 

The idyllic surroundings of the forest on the banks of the River Drava is the location for the Varaždin Sports Hall. The Varaždin Sports Hall is home to a number of sports such as basketball, handball, volleyball and various bowling clubs. In addition to sporting facilities, the Varaždin Sports Hall is ideal for concerts, fairs and other such events.

Almost in the center of the city of Ludbreg, in the street of Ivan Gundulić, in a row of ordinary looking houses, "Grandma's house" with "Grandpa's court" is located. The house preserves the valuable and rich heritage of the Ludbreg area from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A centuries-old tradition of lace-making in Lepoglava has created and preserved a very peculiar form of lace-making: the Lepoglava čace. The beauty and magic, which are velieved to have been brought to Croatia by the Pauline order, can be enjoyed in the Lepoglava lace selling gallery.

The Prikratki Gallery is located in the mere heart of the historic Varaždin. What makes it special is that the owner and the author of the displayed works creates eclectic works of art from the "ordinary", old metal objects, tools and machines. 

Visit the Mountaineering Museum and get to know the mining tradition and the "treasure" of Ivanec.

This monumental two-storey palace, built in row on the south side of the Franjevački square (St. Franciscans' Square), has the shape of an elongated rectangle which closes the inner courtyard with three connected courtyard wings.

The weather station in Varaždin, located next to the Alojzija Stepinca Street and Vatroslava Jagića promenade, was built in 1909. It is put up on the octogonal base with three steps.

The Trakošćan Castle is a cultural asset, a protected historic unit consisting of the castle and the surrounding buildings, a park and a forest park with a lake

The Regional Museum of Varaždinske Toplice was founded in 1937 by Josip Čabrijan, a pharmacist from Varaždinske Toplice. The museum is located on the ground floor of the Old Town in the center of Varaždinske Toplice.

Darwin Butković was born on 24 April 1962. He graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Zagreb in 1981.

The Angels Museum is located in 14 Silvija Strahimira Kranjčevića Street in Varaždin. Often the motifs are the artists' trademark that we recognize without a doubt.

The space of K10 Gallery is intended for the KERAMEIKON collection of contemporary world's ceramics, comprised of 225 ceramic works of art from 45 countries.

The gallery is located in a charming little courtyard on house number 15, revealed by a „cimer“ (a traditional shop sign).

The classicist Hercer Palace was built in 1791. The Hercer family crest was carved in stone above the main entrance. During the 18th century the family became exceedingly wealthy through its running of the post office and bought their way into the nobility.

Although the smallest of all city museums, the Museum has proved attractive to many visitors.

The Varaždin City Museum has been the home of the Gallery of Old and New Masters since 1939. It holds over 5300 artworks, divided into 10 collections.

At the northern edge of the historical centre of Varaždin, separated from the city by embankments and moats, is the Varaždin Old Town.

This museum is owned by a famous Croatian collector and restorer from Varaždin, Živko Skuhala.

There are 11 bell towers, 6 churches and 3 monasteries in the old city core. The highest tower is the tower of the Franciscan church (54,5 m) built in 1641. The patron saint of Varaždin is St. Nicholas.

Mačkova cave (The Great Cave near the village Goranci) is an important ancient and paleontological site in Croatia and this part of Europe.

This is the area of special geological and geomorphological characteristics, rich landscape and habitual diversity and cultural and historical heritage.

Trakošćan forest park is one of the most beautifully formed parks, which with its rich vegetation and interesting views creates a unique experience of intact nature.

Unlike other cemeteries, the Varaždin cemetery, creaeted by the visionary soul of Herman Haller, is not only a resting place of the dead, but also a remarkable example of park architecture and a nature monument.

The City's feudal fortress known as the Old Town is the most important historical building in Varaždin.

The town of Ludbreg is known in Croatia as the Sanctuary of the Most Precious Blood of Christ.

Between the 1st and the 4th century AD, near a thermal water spring, there was a very important Roman settlement named Aquae Iasae in the place of today's town of Varaždinske Toplice.

The tradition of lace-making is an example of culture of the area. As the high point of the baroque tradition, lace gives a touch of festivity to everyday life.

In a historic necklace of Central European cities Varaždin reveals itself to its guests as a rare urban pearl. 

The town of Ludbreg is one of the oldest settlements in Croatia. That little town in Podravina region has developed on the crossroads of roads leading from the East to the West and from the north to the south, and all the traders had to pass over the river Bednja.

The Vindija cave, a protected nature monument, is located in Donja Voća Municipality. The cave is a geological, geomorphological and botanical nature monument.

Kameni vrh in Lepoglava is a fossile volcano formed around 22 million years ago.

Water vicinity has always been one of the main advantages for raising settlements. Therefore the Drava river has determined Varaždin's location and its development into an urban centre.

Arboretum Opeka, a protected natural rarity, a horticultural monument, is one of the most important nature monuments in the Varaždin County and one of the most valuable horticultural objects in Middle Europe.

The most charming mountain of northern Croatia, holding a little town of Ivanec in its hug, is a favourite destination of numerous hikers and nature lovers who visit its beautiful clearings covered in flowery meadows…

Even the locals are often surprised when they see a bear in the eastern wall of the old stone tower. The legend of a petrified bear is connected to the mere beginning of this town and its oldest church.

In the ancient times, at the place of the today's Trakošćan castle there was a lonely fort surrounded by vast thick forests.

Grapevine was probably grown in the Varaždin area as early as in the Roman times, and historical sources say that the citizens of Varaždin have had their own vineyards for years and they care about them very much.

When Varaždin's public notary Krunoslav Čolo started offering the Varaždin passport to the visitors of the Špancirfest festival on his stand, it soon became an attractive town souvenir that many eminent Croatian and European politicians who visited the festival brought back to their homes. However, Varaždin indeed issued passports in the past.

The three naiads, spring nymphs on a marble relief panel dating from the 2nd century discovered in Varaždinske Toplice, could be tied to an old legend of the three beauties from Varaždinske Toplice- Božica, Margareta and Simona.

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary- Queen of the Most Holy Rosary in the village of Remetinec near Novi Marof has got a long and intriguing past.

Bela, a lonely fortified town on the hill above the river Bednja's valley, guarded an important path even in the early Middle Ages.

In the Hrvatsko Zagorje traditional cuisine turkey is definitiely the most valued delicacy and an essential part of festive holiday tables. Zagorje turkey is highly valued for its delicious taste and high quality meat, so it had the reputation of a superior delicacy far from the hills of Zagorje region.

The beautiful Trakošćan castle would be a ruin if it hadn't been for Count Juraj Drašković, who decided to renew it in 1853 and make it the most beautiful castle south of Bavaria, admired by generations of visitors.

Many bizarre stories have been woven into Varaždin's history. One of them is definitely the story of the butcher Martin Miklec from the late 17th century.

If asked, many will say that the oldest square in Varaždin is the King Tomislav Square. However, the oldest square is the Franciscans' Square.

n September 1995 the vow that the Croatian Parliament made in 1792 was finally fulfilled. The Parliament vowed to build a votive chapel in Ludbreg if God will protect them from the plague that ravaged this part of Croatia that year.

This will probably never be known for sure. However, there are at least 3 legends about the name of this town, which used to be a Roman settlement Castrum Iovia.

In one of their crusades in the late 15th century, the Turks burnt down the monastery in Lepoglava, with all the records of the founding and its first years burning in the fire. Therefore the exact year when this famous Pauline monastery was built will forever remain unknown.

Among others built by the Paulines around Lepoglava, the Chapel of St. George in Purga stands out with its proportion and beauty. This is one of the most beautiful monuments of Baroque art in Croatia.

Ivanec and Ivančica, Ivanečko Polje or the Ivanšček creek are only few of the names in the Ivanec area that remind and hold the memory of the Knights Hospitaller, who came to Croatia in mid-12th century.

Up until the middle of the 15th century the free royal town of Varaždin didn't have any fortifications to protect it from the enemy armies. After it was burnt to the ground in 1446, the citizens decided to build the walls and protect their town.

Apart from a remarkable cultural wealth left to us by the Paulines, Lepoglava hides a valuable mineral treasure, a semi-precious stone agate, which can be found only around Gaveznica, our only inactive volcano, that will tell you an exciting story of our planet's history.

Four years after the awful fire in which Varaždin was burnt down (in 1665), the citizens built St. Florian's Church at the north side of the Old Town.

There is always an old legend or at least a spooky story tied to vast, dark forests, passed on the younger generations. The paka forest near Novi Marof, stretching along the Kalnik hills, hides many legends, one of which being the one of Crna Paka (Black Paka) and the old Gradišče fort.

The slopes of the Ivančica mountain, covered by thick forest, have always entertained the folks' imagination, and many of the creepy stories about supernatural beings were kept until today.

Varaždinske Toplice, our oldest and most famous thermal spa, was famous for its thermal water even in ancient Rome.

Ludbreg is a town that many legends are tied to.

The organ in St. Mary's Church is one of the few organs in northern Croatia built in an Italian traditional style.

The Trakošćan castle was built in the late 13th century as part of the northwest Croatia defense system. It served as a smaller observation point for observing the road from Ptuj to the Bednja valley.