Ptuj



Ptuj is a city in Eastern Slovenia on the Drava River. It is known for its historic buildings and its Kurentovanje festival.

Understand
Ptuj is one of the oldest town in Slovenia, with settlement dating back 2000 years. Its history reaches back to the Stone Age, but the city experienced its greatest flowering in the Roman period. The name originates in the times of Emperor Trajan, who granted the settlement city status and named it Colonia Ulpia Traiana Poetovio. Roman Poetovio developed into an important military, commercial, customs and administrative center. Forty thousand people lived in the Ptuj area in this period, a number never since reached. It was later burned by the Huns and occupied by the Avars and the Slavs. In the period of the Slav prince Pribina, it was incorporated into the Frankish state. Later, it became the property of the Salzburg archdiocese and experienced the Hungarian attacks. The city recovered and when city rights were granted, it was able to build a wall around the city. The first city statutes from 1376 provided the legal regulation of the city and contributed to its economic power. This declined under the pressure of Turkish attacks and major fires, floods, and epidemics.

Today, it is an important center of the lower Podravje region of Slovenia. It is a city of fairs, wine cellars and thermal springs.

Get in
By car, Ptuj can be reached from Maribor and the A1 highway by the A4 highway. There are also frequent bus and train connections between the two cities.

There are also bus and train connections to Ljubljana.

Eurobusways do a transfer to Ptuj, on the way between Budapest and Ljubljana.

You can see a regional bus timetable here.



See




The various parts of the museum are:



Do


Ptuj is known for fairs since Middle Ages, when fairs lasted for weeks. Nowadays the fairs are contracted to only 3 days a year - Jurijev sejem (23 April), Katarinin sejem (25 November) and Ožbaltov sejem (5 August).

Whatever you do, don't forget to bargain! On this day a Medieval market is also organized and it is a thing that shouldn't be missed out.
 * Carnival - Kurentovanje — Since 1960, Ptuj has been the stage for the annual traditional carnival event called Kurentovanje, the biggest organised carnival event in Slovenia. The membership in the Federation of European Carnival Cities (FECC) since 1991, has without any doubt helped the Ptuj carnival to distinguish itself from other carnivals and gain an international reputation. At the same time, the carnival has grown enriched by new carnival figures and concepts. If Kurentovanje used to be a one-day ethnographical-carnival event, it has grown into an eleven-day carnival festival of ethnographical, carnival and musical performances. Ptuj, traditional and carnival centre of Slovenia, combines Kurentovanje together with other carnivals or "fašenk" in neighbouring villages of Markovci, Cirkulane, Dornava, Videm, Cirkovci, Bukovci. The word Kurentovanje is derived from the traditional carnival mask Kurent or Korant, as it is systematically called by traditionalists. The most prominent mask belongs to the so-called group of animal masks - furry masks. That means that its outfit consists of a fur coat made of different domestic animal skins (especially of sheep skin), of a chainbelt with five bells (previously, only one enormous bell), of a wooden club with a hedgehog skin at one end called "ježevka" to be carried in its hand. The former vegetative demon represents today an important identification symbol for a wider local community, region and even the state.
 * Ožbaltov sejem (Oswald's fair) — In the old town of Ptuj happens once a year, on the 5th August (except if it is Sunday, then it happens on Monday, the 6th). It is very interesting and you can see (and buy) almost everything - traditional wooden products, traditional products made of honey, dried fruits, clothes, antiquities and many more (and more and more :)
 * Jurjev sejem (George’s Fair) —It opens the season for traditional fairs in Ptuj. It takes place on the streets and squares of the town on April 23. There are approximately 150 manufacturers and sellers from all over Slovenia that gather on this fair and offer a great variety of products.
 * Katarinin sejem (Catherine's Fair) — The last of three fairs, which take place on the streets and squares of the town. It happens on November 25 and there you can see a large number of sellers offering a variety of goods (also second hand goods).

Go next
Ptujska Gora is a small village 15 km southwest of Ptuj with a church dating from the 15th century noted for its Gothic art. It is also provides excellent views of the Drava flatlands and Haloze hills and the spot is popular with hikers and cyclists.