Ptuj

A vacation in Ptuj, known in German as Pettau, takes you to the oldest town in Slovenia. A castle towers over red rooftops on the Drava, wines age beneath the old town in one of the country's oldest cellars, and every winter the shaggy Kurenti drive away the cold with their bells.

Location and History

Ptuj lies in Lower Styria on the banks of the Drava, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) southeast of Maribor. The Romans founded Poetovio here, an important city with a legionary camp and several Mithraic sanctuaries, the remains of which can still be seen. In the Middle Ages, Ptuj belonged to the Archbishops of Salzburg and later to the Habsburgs, and it remained an important trading post at the bridge over the Drava. The flat Ptuj Plain and the vineyard-covered hills of the Haloze and the Slovenske Gorice stretch out around the town. East of town lies Lake Ptuj, a reservoir where birds rest and water sports enthusiasts come to play.

Sights in Ptuj

The castle on the hill houses the regional museum, with weapons, musical instruments, and a large collection of carnival masks. The old town, with its City Tower, the Orpheus Monument (a Roman tombstone), and St. George's Church, is easy to explore on foot. The Ptujska Klet winery, whose cellars date back to the 13th century, is considered Slovenia's oldest wine cellar and stores very old vintages in its archive. The highlight of the year is Kurentovanje in the weeks before Ash Wednesday: hundreds of Kurenti in sheepskins, with horns, long red tongues, and heavy bells on their belts, parade through the streets to drive out the winter. The tradition has been on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list since 2017. On the edge of town, the Terme Ptuj spa resort draws visitors with its thermal pools.

Food, Getting There, and Best Time to Visit

The cuisine is Styrian-Pannonian: pumpkin seed oil, sauerkraut, gibanica, and doughnuts at carnival time, along with white wines such as Šipon and Welschriesling. Ptuj is on the A4 motorway and on the rail line from Maribor to Hungary and Croatia. The best time to visit is February for the carnival and April through October for wine and sightseeing; the grape harvest takes place in fall.