Virovitica

Virovitica lies south of the Drava, at the foot of the Bilogora hills. A medieval market and the seat of a small county, it was long connected with the queens of Hungary, who held its estate. In 1242 King Béla IV issued the Golden Bull of Zagreb here, granting privileges to the town of Gradec after the Mongol invasion.

In the fifteenth century the Marczaly brothers built a fortress around the former royal palace. Ottoman raids threatened Virovitica from the 1530s, and in 1552 the town surrendered to the forces of Ulama, the sanjakbey of Požega. Under Ottoman rule it served as a frontier fortress and an administrative centre. Habsburg forces captured it in 1684, and a town magistracy was established in 1698. The estate passed to the Pejačević family in 1750, during a period of renewed settlement and recovery.