Klanjec

History

Klanjec was founded as a suburb of the Cesargrad fortress. Cesargrad was first mentioned in sources in 1399. Klanjec first appears in historical documents in 1463, and the settlement got its name because of its location - at the entrance to the Zelenjak gorge (klanac). Eventually, Cesargrad came into the ownership of Toma Bakač Erdody. During the peasant uprisings of 1573, the fortress was first damaged when the commander of the peasant army, Ilija Gregorić, set it on fire. The development of the town was accelerated by the construction of the Franciscan monastery with the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was built by Sigismund and Nikola Erdody. As part of Varaždin County, it became the seat of a sub-county in 1851, and of a district in 1854. At the end of the 19th century, Klanjec had a population of slightly less than 700, had the status of a market town, and was still the seat of the district and the district court. In October 1886, through the efforts of the district judge Albert Jakopović, a reading room was founded in Klanjec. It operated until 1907, when the Reading Room of the Croatian Falcon was founded.