Pregrada

History

The name Pregrada is first mentioned on August 9, 1334, in the statutes of the Zagreb Kaptol. The parish is certainly much older because it was listed as the oldest one in the Archdiocese of Zagorje. How the town got its name is still a matter of dispute. There are two hypotheses about the creation of the name. The first one was given by Gjuro Szabo, a Croatian historian, who interprets that the bed of the river Kosteljina, which passes through the town, was blocked by some kind of partition, and that's how the place got its name (pregrada = en. partition). The second version originates from Maristele Sabljić who says that the owner of Kostel, Prince George of Brandenburg (Juraj Branderbuški), stationed his defense companies "in front of the city" (cro. pred gradom), on the slopes of Kunagora, and thus the name Pregrada was born. Both versions have their basis, but there is no reliable evidence. In the Middle Ages Pregrada belonged to the Kostel fief. The first written information about Kostel can be found in the Statutes of the Zagreb Kaptol. However, the history of Kostel fiefs can be traced back to the arrival of the Counts of Celje, who received the land of Kostel and other properties in Croatian Zagorje from King Sigismund in 1308. After the death of the last successor of the Celjski family in 1456, Kostel became the property of Ivan Vitovac. As his descendants sided with the German emperor Maximilian, then Croatian-Hungarian ruler Matthias Corvinus (Matija Korvin) confiscated all the properties in Zagorje and gave them to his son John Corvinus (Ivaniš Korvin). Kostel changes its owners again when John's widow Beatrice Frankopan marries Prince George of Brandenburg (Juraj Brandeburški) who was the owner of Kostel for a short time. Due to his extravagant…