CROATIAN TOURISM – Varaždin

Since its conception and development during the Middle Ages until today, Varaždin has always been a city loved by its residents and admired and praised by its visitors. When you arrive in Varaždin, you are overcome with joy and satisfaction. That is a city that invites you to carefully discover it, a city that will awaken your imagination because, within a few steps, you will discover the wealth of the centuries gone by, meet the artists and entrepreneurs, as well as the friendly hosts. What makes Varaždin different from other cities is its exceptional historic and art heritage with the best preserved and richest Baroque urban unit. Palaces, important public buildings, valuable houses and villas built in Baroque, Rococo, Classicism and Art Nouveau style have been preserved, as well as one of the oldest European town halls on a relatively small area along the Old City complex. Varaždin does not show its unique urban identity only through its preserved Baroque architectural unit of the historic core, but also with the warmth of its harmonised city squares and romantic streets. The wealth of the sacral heritage tells a story of Varaždin as a city of bell towers. The bell tower of the Church of St. Nicholas, the city protector, is especially interesting. The Baroque Church of St. Nicholas was built on the foundation of an earlier Romanesque-Gothic church, and its unique Gothic tower with its shape and style is an unusual sight in continental Croatia. The tower has a built-in coat of arms of the City of Varaždin from 1464. Above it there is a remnant of the previous church with an interesting detail – a stone bear that ties this structure with the legend of its creation. Varaždin Tourist Board