Pozega

Pozega sits in a bowl of hills in western Slavonia and its centre is a large baroque square with a Holy Trinity column raised after the plague of the 1740s, the standard central European response to an epidemic that passed. The town was retaken from the Ottomans in 1688 and rebuilt in the decades after, and the Jesuits founded a school here that became one of the older secondary schools in Croatia. The hills around - Papuk to the north, Dilj to the south - are wine country, and Grgurevo in March fills the square with a market and music. Papuk itself is a UNESCO global geopark.

History

Požega first appears in the Gesta Hungarorum of the anonymous notary of King Béla III (1172-1196), among three forts of Slavonia; its elongated hexagonal fortress on a hill in today's centre was probably built in the 11th century, the county is documented from 1210 and the town in a charter of Andrew II of 11 January 1227. It was a residential estate of the queen, outside the authority of the ban, and its citizens enjoyed the privileges of a free royal town. The church of the Holy Spirit was built in 1235 and the church of St Lawrence is first mentioned in 1303. Ottoman raids weakened the town from the late 14th century, walls replaced the moat in the 15th, and in 1537 the Ottomans took it; it had 110 houses then and 160 craftsmen by 1579. On 12 March 1688 the citizens, led by the friar Luka Ibrišimović, freed the town - now celebrated as its day - and after a last Ottoman year it came under the Habsburgs in 1691. A grammar school opened in 1699, only the fifth in Croatia, the Jesuits built a theatre in 1727, the first pharmacy opened in 1740 and the Academia Posegana in 1760 (Wikipedia, Požega, Croatia).

Highlights

• A baroque square with a plague column - raised after the 1740s epidemic.
• Rebuilt after 1688 - when the town was retaken from the Ottomans.
• An old Jesuit school - among the earliest secondary schools in Croatia.
• Wine hills around - Papuk to the north, Dilj to the south.

When to go

May to October; Grgurevo is in March. Half a day.

Practical notes

The town is quiet and off every tourist route. Museum hours are limited. There is little accommodation. The interest is the square and the setting rather than any major monument.

Nearby

Papuk geopark is north; Kutjevo and its cellars are east.

Key facts