Ptuj

Sister cities

• Varaždin
• Ohrid
• Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire
• Aranđelovac
• Burghausen
• Banská Štiavnica

History

Ptuj is the oldest recorded town in Slovenia. There is evidence that the area was settled in the Stone Age. In the Late Iron Age it was settled by Celts. By the 1st century BC, the settlement was controlled by Ancient Rome as part of the Pannonian province. In 69 AD, Vespasian was elected Roman Emperor by the Danubian legions in Ptuj, and the first written mention of the city of Ptuj is from the same year. Poetovium was the base-camp of Legio XIII Gemina where it had its legionary fortress or castrum. The name originated in the times of Emperor Trajan, who granted the settlement city status and named it Colonia Ulpia Traiana Poetovio in 103. The patristic writer Victorinus was Bishop of Poetovio before his martyrdom in 303 or 304. The Caesar Constantius Gallus was divested of his imperial robe and arrested in Poetovio before his subsequent execution in Pola (354) (Amm.Marc. Hist. XIV) The battle of Poetovio in 388 saw Theodosius I's victory over the usurper, Maximus. The city had 40,000 inhabitants until it was plundered by the Huns in 450. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, Pettau was included in the short-lived Republic of German Austria. After the military intervention of the Slovenian general Rudolf Maister, the entire territory of Lower Styria was included into the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (Yugoslavia). During the interwar period, the number and the percentage of those identifying as Germans in the city, which was renamed Ptuj, decreased rapidly, although a relatively strong ethnic German minority remained. After the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Ptuj was occupied by Nazi Germany. From 1941 to 1944 the town's Slovenian population was dispossessed and deported. Their homes were taken over by German speakers from…

Most-observed species

• Mute Swan

  Cygnus olor (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  641
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  627
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  601
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  452
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  447
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  444
• Great Cormorant/European Shag

  Phalacrocorax carbo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  433
• Great Crested Grebe

  Podiceps cristatus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  427

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2024-08-13
  5 km W of Rasinja, Croatia
• M 2.9 — 2024-03-07
  2 km E of Zagreb, Croatia
• M 3 — 2021-04-20
  3 km NNW of Dubrava, Croatia
• M 2.7 — 2021-01-03
  4 km ENE of Novo ?i?e, Croatia
• M 3 — 2020-06-17
  5 km NNW of Dubrava, Croatia
• M 3 — 2020-04-23
  5 km WSW of Kašina, Croatia