Varaždin (pronounced [ˈʋâraʒdiːn] or [ʋaˈrǎʒdin]; Hungarian: Varasd, also known by alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, 81 km (50 mi) north of Zagreb.

[6] The total population of the city is 46,946 and it includes the following settlements:[3] The administrative sections of Varaždin are local committees (mjesni odbori).

These are:[7] The first written reference to Varaždin, whose historical name is Garestin, was on 20 August 1181, when King Béla III mentioned the nearby thermal springs (Varaždinske Toplice) in a legal document.

Due to Ottoman raids, the town was structured defensively around the old fortress, and acquired the shape of a typical medieval Wasserburg.

Over the following centuries Varaždin had several owners, the most influential being Beatrice Frankopan (1480–1510), wife of Margrave Georg of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who built the town hall; her successor was Baron Ivan Ungnad (1493–1564), who reinforced the existing fortification.

[a] The stronghold was spared but the fire jumped the city walls and ravaged the suburbs close to the river Drava.

Austrian archduke Ernest wrote to Varaždin County officials on July 9, 1582 to provide free lumber for the citizens who had lost their homes in the fire.

[19] Sigismund Trautmanstorf(de), a member of Austria's nobility, reports a fire on May 1, 1648, fuelled by high wind, that destroyed more than a half the town within its walls - several hundred of houses disappeared.

Beside the inner town buildings, the entire suburb outside the upper gates was also destroyed in the fire, from the east all the way to the stronghold's toll gates; this included part of the main street and Vidovski konec street, toward Biškupec village (about 3 km south of Varaždin[23]); the next day the fire caught Vidovski konec and burned all its buildings down.

[24] In 1767, the Croatian Royal Council - newly installed in town - gave order to the Varaždin town authorities to uphold restriction on drying flax and hemp fiber on house stoves, on smoking around barns and stables, and on replacing wooden chimneys by brick-built ones, the latter an expensive task: 1768 records show that that concerned most of Varaždin's chimneys, a fire hazard compounded by that the people hardly ever cleaned them.

Members of the town's administration showing up at fire sight were to take charge of the operation, duties were assigned to firefighters and their performance monitored.

Thus in 1774, the Hungarian chamber demanded from Varaždin town authorities that burned-down homes of Sračinec village be replaced with raw brick buildings.

But the commoners (primarily merchants and artisans) remained - and turned their town into one huge building site: by 1780 the number of homes equaled that prior to the fire.

By the 19th century Varaždin had been completely rebuilt and expanded, with flourishing crafts and trade, and later the manufacture of silk and bricks.

Soon after the start of World War II in Yugoslavia, on 12 July 1941, Varaždin was declared Judenfrei by the Ustaše, becoming the first city in Croatia to earn this dubious distinction.

[28] The former village of Biškupec, whose population was tracked as a separate settlement between 1857 and 1948, when it reached 635 inhabitants, was integrated into the city of Varaždin since the 1953 census.

In 1523, Margrave Georg of Brandenburg built the town hall in late baroque style, with the Varaždin coat of arms at the foot of the tower, and it has continued in its function until the present day.

Varaždin's Cathedral, a former Jesuit church, was built in 1647, and is distinguished by its baroque entrance, eighteenth-century altar, and paintings.

Worth particular mention is Varaždin's Croatian National Theatre, built in 1873 and designed by the Viennese architects Herman Helmer and Ferdinand Fellner.

A baroque music festival has been held annually in Varaždin since 1971, and attracts some of the finest musicians and their fans from Croatia and the world.

The cemetery dates back to 1773 and it was long time an ordinary place until 1905, when Herman Haller had an idea to make it more park-like with large trees and alleys for citizens to stroll through.

The reconstruction of the cemetery was done between 1905 and 1947, and its current landscape and architecture dates from these works, It is now a protected cultural and natural park.

It has hosted artists like Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana, The Animals, Manic Street Preachers, Solomon Burke and others.

[36][37] In October 2023, the state-owned energy company, Bukotermal, announced the discovery of an underground lake of superheated water at an average 142 °C (288 °F), with the potential to support a 16MW geothermal power plant near the towns of Lunjkovec and Kutnjak.

[38] Apart from A4 highway that runs between Zagreb and Goričan (Hungarian border), there are three state roads that reach the area of Varaždin: D2, D3 and D35.

This list contains some of the notable people who were either born in Varaždin, lived in the city for a longer time or were in some significant way related to it.

Varaždin is twinned with:[47][48] Bjelovar, Bjelovar-BilogoraSlavonski Brod, Brod-PosavinaDubrovnik, Dubrovnik-NeretvaPazin, Istria Karlovac, KarlovacKoprivnica, Koprivnica-KriževciKrapina, Krapina-ZagorjeGospić, Lika-Senj Čakovec, MeđimurjeOsijek, Osijek-BaranjaPožega, Požega-SlavoniaRijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar Sisak, Sisak-MoslavinaSplit, Split-DalmatiaŠibenik, Šibenik-KninVaraždin, Varaždin Virovitica, Virovitica-PodravinaVukovar, Vukovar-SrijemZadar, ZadarZagreb, Zagreb