Welcome to Maribor!
Maribor is the second most important center and the second largest city in Slovenia. It has about 114,000 inhabitants who live embraced in its wine-growing hills and the Mariborsko Pohorje mountain. Maribor is near the Slovenian border with Austria, beside the Drava River, and at the center of five natural geographic regions. It is the capital of Štajerska, Slovenian Styria.
Maribor is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city in the traditional region of Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, the seat of the Drava statistical region, and the Eastern Slovenia region. Maribor is also the economic, administrative, educational, and cultural center of eastern Slovenia.
Maribor was first mentioned as a castle in 1164, as a settlement in 1209, and as a city in 1254. Like most Slovene ethnic territories, Maribor was under Habsburg rule until 1918, when Rudolf Maister and his men secured the city for the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, which then joined the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1991 Maribor became part of independent Slovenia.
Maribor, along with the Portuguese city of Guimarães, was selected as the European Capital of Culture for 2012.