The city of PODIM, the Golden Fox and the oldest grapevine in the world!
Maribor is the second biggest and most important Slovenian city. It is a proud home to the university, whose historical beginnings reach into the 18th century, but it is also an economic, cultural and touristic centre of north-eastern Slovenia and a vibrant european start-up hub. Maribor spreads out underneath the world-known skiing centre Pohorje and across both banks of the Drava. The city is quickly developing into one of the more visible touristic centres of the Alps-Adriatic region and the credit for this goes to the nine key interesting facts about Maribor:
1. Venue of the largest start-up conference in the Alps-Adriatic region
Welcome to startup city of Maribor
”The PODIM Conference is the biggest national event of the start-up scene with international reach. Considering that start-up projects are ambitiously entering the global market of work and capital, this is one of the activities that importantly invigorates economic activity. Because jobs and revival of the economy are two of the key priorities of the Municipality of Maribor, the latter decided to significantly support individuals who possess the bravery and the knowledge to launch innovative start-up companies. At the same time, it will also support the PODIM Conference and the Start:up Maribor programme, both of which help these individuals on their path to success. So, I invite you to attend the PODIM Conference.”
dr. Andrej Fištravec, mayor of the Municipality of Maribor
Connecting knowledge, research and development
“One of the basic focuses of the University of Maribor is connecting knowledge, research and development with the economy to prepare actual projects that will successfully compete on the market. However, the knowledge we create and transfer can also achieve bigger results in an entrepreneurship- or innovation-oriented society. I myself see the PODIM Conference, which is one of the largest entrepreneurship conferences in the region, as an environment for creating an entrepreneurial and innovative society; as a tool for encouraging entrepreneurial mentality, no matter what kind of a job we do. All of us must be enterprising. This is why I invite you to join us at the PODIM Conference, where we will share entrepreneurship experience to create value added."
prof. dr. Igor Tičar, Rector of the University of Maribor
2. City of the oldest grapevine in the world
Maribor proudly keeps and takes care of its grapevine, which is in the Guinness book of records as the oldest grapevine in the world. It has been growing in the old city centre for more than 400 years. In its honour, the House of the Old Grapevine built a museum where you can try its wine or enjoy a guided tour of the rich wine heritage and museum exhibits.
3. The venue of the Ski World Cup for women
For nearly five decades, the Maribor Pohorje hill has been hosting the Golden Fox – the Ski World Cup for women. “Golden foxes” with the most individual wins are the legendary Vreni Schneider, Anja Parson and Erika Hess. Slovenian Tina Maze, one of the best skiers in the world, also celebrated slalom and overall victories at the Golden Fox in 2013.
4. Home to world-renowned athletes
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Amongst sports enthusiasts from all across the world, Maribor is also known as the birth place of one of the best Slovenian football players, Zlatko Zahović, the freestyle skier Filip Flisar and tennis player Mima Jaušovec.
Zahović celebrated victories in the Portuguese football club Porto, but he also played for Benfica, Olympiakos and Valencia, with which he played in the finals of the Champions League in 2001. Maribor is also proud of Flisar, who won the FIS world championship in the ski cross discipline in Kreischberg this year.
5. Home to world-renowned culture professionals
Maribor, proclaimed as the European Capital of Culture in 2012, is also the birthplace of a world-renowned theatre director, Tomaž Pandur, and Karmina Šilec, the manager of the youth choir Carmina Slovenica. Carmina Slovenica is a vocal theatre that performs spectacular shows on stages all across the world, incorporating music, movement, acting and other stage elements.
6. A city of wine and excellent food
Maribor is at the junction of many wine and culinary roads that ascend the wine-growing hills that embrace the city. Genuine local restaurants, tourist and wine farms, and quality restaurants in the city are an inexhaustible source of gastronomic excursions. Excellent white wines and genuine Styrian food never disappoint – be it with excellent meats, pumpkin seed oil, Styrian sour soup, buckwheat porridge, štruklji from strudel dough or the famous Pohorje omelette for desert.
7. A finely tuned coexistence of city bustle and nature
Few cities have such a finely tuned and organic connection of the urban city centre and unspoiled nature as Maribor has. The green trail weaves the city with Pohorje and, in night lighting, offers an incredible view of the Pohorje ski slope, Kozjak, Drava river and wine-growing hills. And when you visit Maribor and the Habakuk Hotel, its famous congress and wellness centre, you can truly only relax and enjoy.
8. The city of the world-known Lent festival
Every June, more than half a million visitors from the entire world gather in Maribor on the banks of the Drava river to socialize and enjoy the Lent festival. One of the biggest European open-air intercultural festivals spoils its visitors with excellent music, theatre, dance, stand-up comedy and culinary delights. World-renowned artists perform on its stages and remain in memory long after the festival lights have been turned off. Amongst others, Ray Charles, B. B. King and James Brown have already enthralled the public in the Styrian capital.
9. One of the first cities with a Vienna-Trieste railway connection
The area where Maribor stands today was already inhabited in the late bronze and iron ages. Its original name, Marchpurg, first appeared in historical sources from the 12th century, which is also when the city received its city rights. But Maribor experienced strong economic development in the middle of the 18th century, when it became one of the first in Europe to receive an important railway connection between Vienna and Trieste.
Join us at the PODIM Conference taking place in one of the most beautiful European cities, the city of Maribor!
