City of Maribor

Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia, with its rich and varied history, hides real treasures that are just waiting to be discovered.

The city lies at the crossroads of important European routes, is surrounded by numerous wine hills and has an exceptional range of local wines. It boasts the oldest native vines in the world (400 years old), which were entered in the Guinness Book of Records in 2004. The culinary offer available in the town and its surroundings provides a pleasant and high-quality dining experience to suit all tastes.

Maribor's squares and streets invite you to discover them. The Old Town is home to a castle, museums and galleries, where you can learn about Maribor's rich history.

Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Maribor's Pohorje Mountains offer unspoilt nature and many opportunities for summer and winter sports activities.

Maribor is a cultural city with events and festivals throughout the year (e.g. Lent Festival, Borštnikovo srečanje, MKC festivals), and a city of successful athletes and sports clubs. The most successful is still the Olympian Leon Štukelj (1898-1999), a world gymnastics great, after whom the sports hall and square in the centre of Maribor are named.

The city can also boast the following titles:

Maribor was also the host of the 2023 European Youth Olympic Festival, the largest sporting event in Slovenia.

Destination Maribor - Pohorje is included in a pilot national programme called the Green Scheme for Slovenian Tourism.

With its incredible diversity, Maribor offers experiences, adventures and holiday opportunities for lovers of wine and cuisine, sport and recreation, culture, nature, rural tourism, congress and business tourism, gambling and shopping.

CULTURAL CENTER PEKARNA

Hostel Pekarna, or HOP, has a lot of beautiful, unique and unforgettable things from its past and as we look ahead into its future. HOP comprises the entire second floor and the attic of the Administration Building, which was completely renovated and modernised in 2011. On the second floor, HOP offers bed and breakfast accommodation in seven four-bed rooms with private bathrooms. Guests have use of a shared kitchen, a large dining room with two computers, a comfortable living room with TV and a sun terrace overlooking the park. The attic is set up as a residence centre. Guests can choose between modern apartments or studio apartments. Each apartment has its own kitchenette and bathroom, and some studio apartments have their own terrace. There is also a large communal terrace in the attic area. The people behind HOP's story want the hostel to be something special, unique, a place where guests feel at home. We are not just a hostel, we are a hostel with a soul, a hostel with an ear, and above all a hostel with substance. We don't want to be the same, we want to be diverse, different, just like our guests are diverse and different.

The building, which we now call “Pekarna”, i.e. “The Bakery”, was designed from the beginning for military purposes and military needs. It was built before 1897 as the Imperial Royal Military Supply Depot. It was an enclosed complex of warehouses and two bakeries. The original size of the complex was larger than today. The building was given its final form in 1903. After the Second World War, the complex was taken over by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), which renamed it the Slava Klavore Military Hospital, and with the demilitarisation, after the departure of the JNA from the Republic of Slovenia, the complex became free. In 1994, various interest and cultural groups occupied the abandoned buildings of the former military barracks and moved in new activities. This also marked the beginning of the organised redevelopment of the existing buildings with their own hands and resources.

The administration building is probably one of the first to be built in the complex. It was called the “Administrationsgebäude”. The ground floor was used as a reception office when it was built, as an officer's wardrobe shop during the JNA era, and not long ago you could buy the cheapest crockery in town here. Later, like other buildings in the complex, it was occupied by various users (mostly artists). Before the renovation, they were either evicted to alternative premises or left without a place to operate.

Today, next to the Pekarna Hostel, the administration building houses the following institutions:

Mladinski kulturni center Maribor (Youth Cultural Centre Maribor)

https://mkc.si/

Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže (Institute for Support to Civil Society Initiatives and Multicultural Cooperation)

https://pekarnamm.org/

Indijanez

https://www.indijanez.si/

Društvo za razvoj humanistike – Zofijini ljubimci (Association for the Development of Humanities – Zofia’s Lovers)

https://zofijini.net/

Zavod Igrišče (Institute for the development and implementation of programmes and methods for working with children and young people)

https://igrisce.org/

The cold store (the building you see if you look to the left when you leave the hostel) was built in 1897 as a warehouse for oats and preserves. It is a very simple building on two floors, architecturally adapted for the transport of storage materials. Today, various associations operate in these premises.

This building was built as a bed storage facility. The north side of the building was attached to the now-removed railway track, while the south side was adorned by a now-forgotten vegetable garden. Today, Gustaf is a space that, through its activities, enables the existence of an independent culture in the city. It provides the conditions for the creation and development of various interest groups and individuals.

http://www.gustaf.si/

This building is the youngest in the complex, having been built only between 1902 and 1903. It was originally called the Flour Warehouse, but the present name “Lubadar” stuck because of its construction. The outer brick walls are a paradise for wood parasites. In 1995, the Ciproš Book Lovers' Association was founded, and it is still active on the ground floor of the building. The aim of the association is to intercept books before they are destroyed and to restore their dignity by returning them to the shelves. The Ciproš Bookshop is the largest bookshop in this part of Europe.

http://kid.kibla.org/~bukvarna/index_slo.html

The building, built as a bakery for baked bread. During the Yugoslav era, the "KOMIS" military bread was baked here. It is the only production building in this complex. It was built in 1897 and its purpose gives the complex its name, “Pekarna” (Bakery). Later, two extensions were added to serve as a leavening room. The bakery supplied bread to the army until 1991. The oven in the building was built in the same year as the building and is still preserved today. The abandoned premises of the former bakery were also occupied by young people in 1994.

Today, the building houses the MC Pekarna, a club where concerts, other cultural events, exhibitions, etc. are held.

https://pekarna.net/

Josip Broz Tito was the long-serving President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) for life. He was born into a large family of wealthy farmers, originally from Podsreda. He was trained as a locksmith, and in the autumn of 1913, he began his military service in Vienna and Zagreb, where he graduated from the non-commissioned officers' school in 1914 with the rank of conductor. He was captured and wounded during the war. Later he turned to politics, adopting Leninism as his political orientation. He was imprisoned for his political activities and soon after his release immigrated abroad, from where he continued to participate in domestic politics. Tito managed to rise to the position of leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. He issued a proclamation calling on the peoples of the Yugoslav region to fight the Nazis armed struggle. Tito chose to openly oppose and split the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. All the constitutional acts of Yugoslavia since the Constitutional Law (13 January 1953) have allowed the repeated election of Josip Broz Tito to the highest office of President of the Federal Republic. However, after the adoption of the new Constitution in 1974, he was elected President for life. With the help of the army and the Communist Party, he ruled Yugoslavia until his death. He was considered a statesman of world renown. Tito's critics most resented his ruthless crackdown on “occupation helpers” and “domestic traitors”, as well as political opponents who were declared “enemies of the revolution”.

City of Maribor

CULTURAL CENTER PEKARNA

Hostel Pekarna

Pekarna

The administration building and the cold storage

Gustaf

Lubadar

MC

Statue of Josip Broz Tito