View source for Ptuj

{{Infobox settlement
| name                            = Ptuj
| native_name                     = 
| settlement_type                 = Town
| motto                           = <!-- images and maps -->
| image_skyline                   = {{multiple image
  | border = infobox
  | perrow = 1/2/2/1
  | total_width = 290
  | align = center
  | caption_align = center
    | image1 = View of Ptuj Castle 01.jpg
    | caption1 = View of old town over the [[Drava|Drava River]]
    | image2 = Ptuj Town Hall.jpg
    | caption2 = Town Hall
    | image3 = Jurij Ptuj.jpg
    | caption3 = [[St. George's Church (Ptuj)|St. George's Church]]
    | image4 = Courtyard of Ptuj Castle.jpg
    | caption4 = [[Ptuj Castle|Castle]] Courtyard
    | image5 = Ptuj Monastery.JPG
    | caption5 = Minorite Monastery
    | image6 = View of Ptuj (1).jpg
    | caption6 = View from [[Ptuj Castle]]
}}
| color                           = 
| image_caption                   = 
| image_flag                      = Zastava Ptuja.svg
| image_shield                    = CoA of Ptuj.svg
| image_map                       = 
| map_caption                     = 
| pushpin_map                     = Slovenia
| pushpin_label_position          = left<!-- position of the pushpin label: left, right, top, bottom, none -->
| pushpin_map_caption             = Location of the city of Ptuj in Slovenia
<!-- Location -->| subdivision_type                = Country
| subdivision_name                = {{flag|Slovenia}}
| subdivision_type1               = Traditional region
| subdivision_name1               = [[Styria (Slovenia)|Styria]]
| subdivision_type2               = [[Statistical regions of Slovenia|Statistical region]]
| subdivision_name2               = [[Drava Statistical Region|Drava]]
| subdivision_type3               = Municipality
| subdivision_name3               = [[City Municipality of Ptuj|Ptuj]]
<!-- Politics -->| government_footnotes            = 
| government_type                 = 
| leader_title                    = Mayor
| leader_name                     = Nuška Gajšek ([[Social Democrats (Slovenia)|SD]])
| established_title               = First mention
| established_date                = [[AD 69]]
| established_title1              = Town privileges
| established_date1               = 1376
| founder                         = [[Vespasian]]
| named_for                       = <!-- Area -->
| unit_pref                       = Metric
| area_footnotes                  = 
| area_total_km2                  = 25.6
<!-- Elevation -->| elevation_m   = 232
| elevation_ft                    = 761
<!-- Population   -->| population_as_of = 2023
| population_footnotes            = 
| population_note                 = 
| population_total                = 17984
| population_density_km2          = auto
| population_metro                = <!-- General information -->
| timezone1                       = [[Central European Time|CET]]
| utc_offset1                     = +01
| timezone1_DST                   = [[Central European Summer Time|CEST]]
| utc_offset1_DST                 = +02
| coor_pinpoint                   = <!-- can be used to specify what the coordinates refer to -->
| coordinates                     = {{coord|46|25|10|N|15|52|10|E|region:SI|display=inline,title}}
| blank_name                      = 
| blank_info                      = <!-- Area/postal codes & others -->
| postal_code_type                = <!-- enter ZIP code, Postcode, Post code, Postal code... -->
| postal_code                     = 2250
| area_code                       = 
| registration_plate              = MB
| website                         = {{Official URL}}
| footnotes                       = 
| official_name                   = 
| other_name                      = 
}}

'''Ptuj''' ({{IPA|sl|ˈptùːj|lang|Sl-Ptuj.oga}}; {{langx|de|Pettau}}, {{IPA|de|ˈpɛtaʊ̯|pron|De-Pettau.ogg}}; {{langx|la|Poetovium/Poetovio}}) is the [[List of cities and towns in Slovenia|eighth-largest town]] of [[Slovenia]], located in the traditional region of [[Styria (Slovenia)|Styria]] (northeastern [[Slovenia]]). It is the seat of the [[City Municipality of Ptuj|Municipality of Ptuj]]. Being the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, it has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman military fort, located at a strategically important crossing of the [[Drava]] River along a prehistoric trade route between the [[Baltic Sea]] and the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]].<ref name="princeton">{{cite news|last1=Sasel|first1=J.|title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, POETOVIO (Ptuj) Yugoslavia.|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=poetovio|access-date=25 June 2017|work=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites}}</ref>

==History==
{{Quote box
| width = 24em
| align = right
| bgcolor = #B0C4DE
| title = Historical affiliations
| fontsize = 86%
| quote =
{{flagicon image|Vexilloid of the Roman Empire.svg}} [[Roman Empire]] (69–476AD)<br />
{{flagicon image|Simple Labarum.svg}} [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] (476–552)<br />
[[Lombards]] (552–568)<br />
[[Pannonian Avars]] (568–623, 658–700)<br />
[[Samo's Empire]] (623–658)<br />
[[Early Slavs]] (700–795)<br />
[[Francia]] (795–840)<br />
[[Pannonian Slavs#Principality|Balaton Principality]] (840–874)<br />
{{flagicon image|Wappen Erzbistum Salzburg.png}} [[Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg|Archbishop of Salzburg]] (977–1555)<br />
{{Flag|Habsburg Monarchy|[[Duchy of Styria]]}} (1555–1804)<br />
{{Flag|Austrian Empire}} (1804–1867)<br />
{{Flag|Austria-Hungary}} (1867–1918)<br />
{{flag|State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs}} (1918)<br />
{{flag|Kingdom of Yugoslavia}} (1918–1941)<br />
{{flagicon image|Flag of Germany (1935–1945).svg}} [[Nazi Germany]] (1941–1944)<br />
{{flag|SFR Yugoslavia}}{{refn|Known as: ''Democratic Federal Yugoslavia'' (1944–1945); Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1963); Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1963–1992)}} (1944–1991)<br />
{{flag|Slovenia}} 1991–Present
}}

===Early 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]].<ref name="tourism">''PtujTourism.si''. "[http://www.ptuj-tourism.si/o_ptuju/zgodovina_ptuj.php?lang=en The History of Ptuj]". Accessed November 8, 2006.</ref>

===First mentions===
By the 1st century BC, the settlement was controlled by [[Ancient Rome]] as part of the [[Pannonia]]n 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|Legio XIII ''Gemina'']] where it had its legionary fortress or ''[[Castra|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 Save|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.<ref name="tourism"/>

===Middle Ages===
In 570 the city was occupied by [[Pannonian Avars|Eurasian Avars]] and [[Early Slavs|Slavic tribes]].<ref name="tourism"/> Ptuj became part of the [[Francia|Frankish Empire]]<ref name="tourism"/> after the fall of the Avar state at the end of 8th century. Between 840 and 874 it belonged to the Slavic [[Principality of Lower Pannonia|Balaton Principality]] of [[Pribina]] and [[Kocel]]j. Between 874 and 890 Ptuj gradually came under the influence of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg|Archbishopric of Salzburg]] which had both spiritual and temporal rule over the town;<ref name="tourism"/> [[town privileges|city rights]] passed in 1376 began an economic upswing for the settlement.

===Habsburg Monarchy and Austria-Hungary===
After the re-establishment of the Habsburg rule in 1490, following [[Matthias Corvinus]]'s conquests, the Archbishop of Salzburg was stripped of the remaining temporal authority over the town and the surrounding areas; Ptuj (known in German as Pettau) was officially incorporated into the [[Duchy of Styria]] in 1555.<ref name="tourism"/>

Pettau was a battleground during the [[Ottoman wars in Europe]] and suffered from fires in 1684, 1705, 1710, and 1744.<ref name="tourism"/> Its population and importance began to decline in the 19th century, however, after the completion of the [[Vienna]]-[[Trieste]] route of the [[Austrian Southern Railway]], as the line went through [[Maribor|Marburg (Maribor)]] instead.

According to the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, 86% of the population of Pettau's Old Town was [[German language|German]]-speaking, while the population of the surrounding villages predominantly spoke [[Slovene language|Slovenian]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru, vol. 4: Štajersko |date=1904 |publisher=C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna |location=Vienna |page=4}}</ref> After the collapse of [[Austria-Hungary]] at the end of [[World War I]], Pettau was included in the short-lived [[German Austria|Republic of German Austria]].

===Establishment of Yugoslavia===
After the military intervention of the Slovenian general [[Rudolf Maister]], the entire territory of [[Styria (Slovenia)|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.

===World War II===
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 [[South Tyrol]] and [[Gottschee|Gottschee County]], who had themselves been evicted according to an agreement between [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini]]. These German immigrants, along with the native German ''Pettauer'', were [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50)|expelled]] to [[Austria]] in 1945; many later settled in [[North America]].

Since 1945, Ptuj has been populated almost completely by [[Slovenes]].

==Culture==
[[File:Kurenti na Ptuju.jpg|thumb|165px|[[Kurentovanje|Kurenti]] in Ptuj]]

===The Kurent or Korant Carnival===
Ptuj is the center place of a ten-day-long [[carnival]] in the spring, an ancient [[Slavic mythology|Slavic pagan]] rite of spring and fertility, called [[Kurentovanje]] or Korantovanje. Kurent is believed to be the name of an ancient god of [[hedonism]] - the Slavic counterpart of the Greek god [[Priapus|Priapos]], although there are no written records.

Kurent or Korant is a figure dressed in sheep skin who goes about the town wearing a mask, a long red tongue, cowbells, and multi-colored ribbons on its head. The Kurent(s) from Ptuj and the adjoining villages also wear feathers, while those from the [[Haloze]] and [[Lancova Vas]] wear horns. Organized in groups, Kurents go through town, from house to house, making noise with their bells and wooden sticks, to symbolically scare off evil spirits and the winter.

==Landmarks==
[[File:Ptuj Town Hall.JPG|thumb|200px|Ptuj Town Hall]]
[[File:Ptuj Tower.JPG|thumb|200px|Town Tower and Theatre]]
[[File:Ptuj, city cinema.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Ptuj City Cinema]] (opened on 3 March 1897) is the oldest still active commercial movie theater in the world.<ref name="Ptuj1">{{cite web|url=https://sloveniaguide.si/en/events/podravje/ptuj/ptuj-city-cinema/|title=Ptuj cinema|publisher=sloveniaguide.si|date=19 October 2025}}</ref><ref name="Ptuj2">{{cite web|url=https://www.kinoptuj.si/o-kinu/|title=Najstarejše še aktivno kino prizorišče v Sloveniji|publisher=kinoptuj.si|date=3 March 2017|language=sl}}</ref><ref name="Ptuj3">{{cite web|url=https://www.dlib.si/stream/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-SW0X6IXO/8724f625-7b8f-43ff-8321-801e702dcffd/PDF|page=4|title=Erlebende Photographien (column 1)|publisher=Pettauer Zeitung|date=7 March 1897|language=de}}</ref>]]

The [[parish church]] in the settlement is dedicated to [[Saint George]] and belongs to the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor]]. It is a three-naved [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] building from the 13th and early 14th century, but the structure incorporates parts of a much earlier structure, dating to the mid-9th century.<ref>[http://rkd.situla.org/ Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage] reference number ešd 582</ref>

* [[Ptuj Castle]]
* [[Old Cathedral of St. George, Ptuj|St. George's Church]]
* [[Little Castle, Ptuj|Little Castle]]
* [[Ptuj Town Hall]]
* [[Ptuj Town Theatre]]
* [[Town Tower, Ptuj|Town Tower]]
* [[Dominican monastery, Ptuj|Dominican monastery]]
* [[Orpheus Monument]]
* [[Franciscan monastery, Ptuj|Franciscan monastery]]
* [[Upper Mansion]]
* [[St. Oswald's Church, Ptuj|St. Oswald's Church]]

==Town quarters==
* Center
* Breg–Turnišče
* Ljudski Vrt
* Jezero
* Panorama
* Rogoznica
* [[Grajena]]
* [[Spuhlja]]

==Notable people==
* [[Brigita Brezovac]] (born 1979), bodybuilder
* [[Nastja Čeh]] (born 1978), Slovenian international footballer
* {{Interlanguage link|Laris Gaiser|sl}} (born 1977), geopolitical analyst and expert of international relations
* [[Tim Gajser]] (born 1996), motocross racer
* [[Luigi Kasimir]] (1881−1962), artist
* [[Benka Pulko]] (born 1967), long-distance motorcycle traveler, writer, photographer, humanitarian and Guinness World Record holder
* [[Miha Remec]] (1920−2020), science fiction author
* [[Angela Salloker]] (1913−2006), actress
* [[Aljaž Skorjanec]] (born 1990), dancer and choreographer
* Viktor Skrabar (1877–1938), lawyer and archaeologist<ref>{{cite web |title=Skrabar, Viktor (1877–1938) |url=https://www.slovenska-biografija.si/oseba/sbi576359/ |website=Slovenska biografija |publisher=Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti |access-date=September 23, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=130 let Pokrajinskega muzeja Ptuj – Ormož: Povod za nastanek je bil ohranitev arheološke zbirke |url=https://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/arhitektura-in-oblikovanje/130-let-pokrajinskega-muzeja-ptuj-ormoz-povod-za-nastanek-je-bil-ohranitev-arheoloske-zbirke/682403 |access-date=September 23, 2023 |work=RTV SLO |date=September 23, 2023}}</ref>
* [[Aleš Šteger]] (born 1973), poet
* [[Victorinus of Pettau]] (died 303), bishop and martyr
* [[Dejan Zavec]] (born 1976), boxer

==International relations==
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Slovenia}}

===Twin towns and sister cities===

Ptuj is [[Twin towns and sister cities|twinned]] with:

* {{flagicon|SRB}} [[Aranđelovac]], Serbia
* {{flagicon|SVK}} [[Banská Štiavnica]], Slovakia (2002)
* {{flagicon|GER}} [[Burghausen, Altötting|Burghausen]], Germany (2001)
* {{flagicon|NMK}} [[Ohrid]], North Macedonia (2006)
* {{flagicon|FRA}} [[Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire]], France (1998)
* {{flagicon|CRO}} [[Varaždin]], Croatia (2004)

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Ptuj Castle Ouroboros 27102006 01.jpg|[[Ouroboros]] at Ptuj Castle
File:Ptuj from the castle.JPG|Seen from the castle
File:Ptuj Castle inside.JPG|[[Ptuj Castle]]
File:Ptuj3.jpg|A street in the center of Ptuj
File:Ptuj panorama 01.jpg|Panoramic view from [[Ptuj Castle]]
File:Ptuj panorama 02.jpg|Panoramic view of Ptuj
File:Ptuj_-_Orfejev_spomenik_1.jpg|[[Orpheus Monument]] at Slovene Square
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{sister project links
 |wikt=no |c= |n=no |q=no |s=no |b=no |v=no
 |voy=yes |d=Q15906
 |commonscat=yes
}}

* {{Official website}}
* [https://www.geopedia.world/#T12_L362_F2473:5484_x1766742.3516980412_y5848268.509531957_s13_b2345 Ptuj] on [[Geopedia]]
* [https://ptuj.info/en/ ptuj.info] (Tourism website)

{{Ptuj}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ptuj| ]]
[[Category:Cities and towns in Styria (Slovenia)]]
[[Category:Populated places in the Urban Municipality of Ptuj]]
[[Category:Spa towns in Slovenia]]