Hostel Pekarna

The Birth of Maribor

The history of Maribor begins on a proud hill rising above the city. In the 12th century, a castle of the Drava march which lent its name Marchpurg or Marburg to Maribor, was standing proudly on the top of that hill. 

The castle which was built as a means of defence against Hungarians and was one of the defence points of the march burnt down in 1528. 30 years later it was restored in the Renaissance style, but in 1790 it was demolished once again and from the remains a pyramid was built which lent its name to the hill on the top of which it was standing, i.e. the Piramida hill. All that was left of the castle was a trench with a steep embankment and a well without a rim. On the top of the trench, we find a neoclassical chapel with the inscription saying that a lightning destroyed the original pyramid in 1821. 

The castle in the march was first mentioned in 1164, but it was most probably built before that because Bernhard Spannheim was already mentioned with a predicate “of Maribor” – it can be concluded that it stems from the castle that stood on the Piramida hill. 

After the Count Bernhard banished the Avžin family from the Drava valley he supposedly inherited the Eppestein estate in Podravje and thereby transferred his throne to a newly built castle on the Piramida hill and thus founded Maribor. The new lord of Maribor set up a settlement of artisans under the castle which was not granted any special legal status, while another settlement was established by the Koroška cesta Road consisting of 34 house plots. Together with the bishop Konrad I of Abensberg he also established the Maribor parish. Furthermore, he restored the old Roman bridge on which he built a tollhouse, whereby he set the settlement foundations of future urban development. 

The Maribor fortress was first mentioned in the chronicles dated from 1147 where it was recorded that the Count Bernhard fell in the 2nd crusade in Asia Minor and that he bequeathed everything to his heir and cousin the march Count Otakar, i.e. he among other things also bequeathed his house – daz huss ze Marpurch as well as the Maribor and Limbuš ministerialis.

The first reliable report on the existence of a fortress at the top of the hill is from 1164 in which it is recorded that the march count handed over the Melje land plot to the St. Paul's monastery and in turn he received two farm holdings located under the Maribor fortress into his estate. 

However, the first settlement in Maribor was not established under the castle due to the manor house located under the castle and the south-east area that was highly swampy. Therefore, the settlement was established along the Koroška cesta Road leading to the present-day Main Square. Soon the settlement became an administrative centre of a vast provincial/judicial administrative unit with a provincial court. In addition, it also became a centre for trading with wood, wine, wheat as well as a centre for milling and tanning crafts.

The text was collected and edited by: Eva Mataln 
Translation: Maja Miklavc & Miha Oda
Photos: Igor Unuk

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