You are here

Varaždin

The City of Varaždin is situated in North-Western Croatia, about 80 km far from Zagreb and 30 minutes drive time from Slovenian and Hungarian border, in the lowland area at the altitude of about 166 m, covering a surface of 59.45 km2. It is the capital of Varaždin County and it represents administrative, business, education, culture and health centre not only for County but for wider region.

City of Varaždin is well connected due highway, railway and airport with the other cities and countries which makes Varaždin traffic junction of NorthWestern Croatia. The Varaždin County encompasses 5 other towns and 22 municipalities. Municipality of Varaždin is the smallest regarding surface and makes only 5% of it’s territory but the biggest regarding number of inhabitants which makes 26% of the whole population of Varaždin County. Municipality of Varaždin includes town Varaždin which areas has only smaller development differences and 9 little settlements which have more rural character.

On the north of the city is river Drava with authentic river landscape protected as regional park and it’s part of Natura 2000. The whole territory of the Municipality lies on water so the activities are restricted, more or less depending on the water well protection area. In the last 25 years the air quality is better for two main reasons. First one is that the fuel for heating is no longer coal or wood but much cleaner gas. The second reason is economic crisis last decades that shut down few biggest industries that were responsible for the air pollution. Today one of the biggest problem is waste management.

Varaždin is well-known continental tourism destination with historical center, it’s renaissance streets and squares and baroque palaces, with widely known cemetery and the 16th century castle. With number of events and festivals such as Varaždin Baroque Evenings (international festival of classical baroque music), Špancirfest (international street festival with workshops and concerts) or Vafi (international festival of cartoons) it fosters urban and cultural tourism so Varaždin was in 2015 among other 10 Croatian cities candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2020.

Related Good Practices

SOME RELATED NETWORKS

Come in!

The joint policy challenge of the Come in! Transfer network partner cities is to mobilise citizens, foster civilian power and urban stewardship...

MAPS

The Action Planning network MAPS (Military Assets as Public Spaces) was focused on enhancing former military heritage as key elements for sustainable...
Latest activities

News

News from our networks – 19 February 2021

It’s Friday! Time for a quick selection of stories published by our URBACT city networks over the past week – from smart waste management to...

Article

Every single house is interesting!

There is a little square two-minutes from your flat. You have seen it many times on your daily route. You perhaps even recognised that it is somehow...
Events
M T W T F S S
 
1
 
2
 
3
 
4
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
 
10
 
11
 
12
 
13
 
14
 
15
 
16
 
17
 
18
 
19
 
20
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31