| General Description : |
Motif: The Pejačević Palace, 1804 There are various explanations what exactly has determined the name of Virovitica: was it the Hungarian word for “a small door” (Verocze), or one of the names for the river Verevca, Vereucce or Virovca, mentioned as early as the year 950 as the river along which Árpád’s military commander Botond was buried (who, being “tired of the long warfare exertions started getting ill in rather strange ways and eventually died”). Or, could it have come from the name derived from the term for the waters of the stream full of eddies coming flowing down the nearby mountain Bilogora and passing close to the settlement – called Odčenska Rijeka. Yet, there is the unquestionable fact that the written history of the city, with St.Rok defined as its patron saint after the great plague of the year 1552, was begun in 1234, when Duke Coloman with his Charter gave this “large market town of Virovitica” (“magna villa Wereucha”) a number of privileges. The term “large market town” suggests that this was not the beginning of the city’s development, which can be proved by ample archaeological finds, the oldest of which originate from the New Stone Age, the Neolithic (6,000 – 3,500 B.C.). Even earlier, in the Palaeolithic, it is supposed that there were hunters and food gatherers to be found here, who used to move along the wide open spaces from the mountainous localities to the wooded hunting grounds in the vicinity of the river Drava. As a matter of fact, Virovitica is, from the oldest times, situated in a geographically important position, on the crossing of the roads which had a significant impact on its development. The present-day highway, Podravska Magistrala, follows the route of the old Roman main highway that divides the larger, predominately low land, earlier a swampy part to the north, along the river Drava and the border with Hungary, from the southern, mountainous part of the first hills of the mountain Bilogora. Coloman’s Charter made Virovitica the King’s estate and one of the most important settlements in Slavonia where rulers liked to pay visits. King Bela IV also came to Virovitica, and it was here that he pronounced Gradec, the present-day Zagreb, the Royal Borough in 1242. He also issued a Charter giving freedom of the city to Samobor. The importance of Virovitica can be further proved by the data that in the second half of the 13th century, to be precise in 1269, the rank of the district prefect of Virovitica was first mentioned. This was to remain up to the advent of the Turks who occupied Virovitica in the summer of 1552 and their rule had been going on for 130 years, during which time they turned the city into a military fortification, previously having completely destroyed all the remains of the medieval city of Virovitica. Only one material proof of that time was preserved: a monolith column 82 cm in height, with a capital looking like curved tongues at the upper end. Today it serves as a support of the Baroque holy-water font in St.Rok’s church. In the 18th century Virovitica underwent a revival, when the Franciscan monastery and St.Rok’s church were built, with finest examples of Baroque sacral art in continental Croatia, as well as the Pejačević Palace, and imposing example of Baroque secular art. In 1804, the Barons Pejačević built a Baroque-Classicist palace in the place of the former fortification of Virovitica, surrounded by a park that dominates the centre of the city. The building of the First Croatian Savings Bank is an exceptional monument from the 19th century, built according to the Viennese construction standards with historicist features. Since 1745 Virovitica has again been made the seat of the restored Virovitica County, which lasted up to 1874 when, following the disastrous fire that destroyed Virovitica in 1871, the seat was moved to Osijek. After King Sigismund pawned it in the 15th century, Virovitica lost the status of a market town, and it became the estate owned by the family Marczaly. The large estate changed owners many times until, in 1921, Virovitica regained the status of a city. Then it was again made the seat of the Virovitica-Podravina County after the establishment of counties in 1993 as one of the more important centres between the Varaždin and Osijek regions. Virovitica continued developing a distinctive and rich social and cultural life, where the Franciscans, having been present in Virovitica for almost seven and a half centuries, played a very important role. In this city many well-known people were born: the famous mathematician and astronomer Mirko Danijel Bogdanić, Slavicist Tomo Maretić, writer Miroslav Feldman, journalist and writer Franjo Fuis, operatic singer Franjo Paulik, philosopher and rector of the Zagreb University Stjepan Zimmerman. Virovitica is also the city where many famous persons have lived and worked: Croatian composer, the Franciscan Fortunat Pintarić, musician Jan Vlašimsky, composer, organist, choir leader and music critic Kamilo Kolb, writer Ksaver Šandor Gjalski, the great composer and founder of the Zagreb Biennale Festival Milko Kelemen. The reading club “Kasino”, founded 130 years ago, developed into a number of associations and institutions that are currently imprinted on the social and cultural life of the city: the HPD Rodoljub, City Music Band, Municipal Library and Reading Room, The Virovitica Theatre ... More than half a century ago the Municipal Museum was founded, and an art club has been active for a quarter of the century, bearing the name of Nikola Trick, one of the most famous members of the family of painters, Trick, that marked the 20th century visual arts in Virovitica. In 1899 the first local paper was issued in Virovitica, “The Virovitičan”, one of the few at that time to be printed in the Croatian language, and this journalist tradition has been continuing to the present times. It is exactly this paper that has preserved the distinctive language of the autochthonous inhabitants of Virovitica called Mikeši. As is the case with the name of the city itself, which is still subject to controversial explanations, Mikeši as the name for the old inhabitants could be derived from their boasting to have been excellent craftsmen. We could derive the name from the expression MI KRALJEVI ŠUSTERI (meaning WE THE KING’S SHOEMAKERS in the local dialect), which refers to the fact that the citizens of Virovitica, being excellent shoemakers, received great privileges from Queen Maria Theresa. Or, it could have been on account of Mika, or Mikeš from Virovitica, the enterprising coachman or carter, who used to drive many people all over Slavonija – and when anyone asked these people who they were and where they came from, they would reply “Mika’s or Mikeš’s from Virovitica”. Or it could originate from the name of Mika Mandić, the municipal councilman from Ljubljanska Street, who kept complaining all the time – consequently people who used to complain and grumble would be told they behaved “like that Mika Mikeš Mandić”. Or finally, Mikeši could simply mean cunning cats, where the term “mikeš” would be a simple translation from the Czech language! |
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