Mesto Maribor, Prvih sto let

A settlement with the name Maribor, first appeared as a market and only later as a town, in connection with the castle, which gave the city its distinctive name. After identifying the "Landesbuch", which has been frequently cited in the past, as questionable source, it turned out that it was not possible to speak of the existence of the castle during the reign of the Spanheims over the area, and the construction of the latter followed only after the assumption of power by the Styrian border count Ottokar III after 1147. Bernhard Spanheim, from whom Otokar inherited, used Hompoš Castle as the seat of administration of the Podravje estates, whose nobles of the same name appear in his entourage. The noble family first associated with Maribor Castle belonged to the Styrian ministry and likely come to Maribor Castle only after it became Styrian. This means that the year 1164, when the name of Maribor, then still a castle at that time, was first recorded in a document on 20 October, should be taken as a relatively credible indicator of the time of the castle's construction. Only a few years later, the knights of Maribor were also named after the castle. The latter then very quickly, apparently with the great support of the landlord, consolidated their position and gained the castles of Viltus and Limbuš, on which they also created a side branch. The Hompoš family, as the older noble family present in the wider areas of Maribor, did not disappear either, in the 13th century they still owned the Hompoš Castle, and in addition, as it seems, they created a side branch (or at least closely related) with the Meljski family. The systematic and systematic action in this area of the Styrian landlords is also evidenced by further developments. Even before the end of the 12th century, sources indirectly mention a settlement of the non-agrarian character, which was able to grow so quickly thanks to the support given to the project by the first Duke of Styria, Ottokar I. (IV.). As early as around 1190, we know a list of twenty-five names that could, with a certain caution, be counted among the inhabitants of the square. However, Maribor markt was not created in a entirely vacant area. There can be no real doubt about the existence of an older settlement, with a naturally non-urban character. Nor about the fact that this pre-Maribor place was not called Maribor but had an unknown name. The existence of only a primordial settlement is best evidenced by the history of the Maribor parish. The most likely picture of this happening is as follows. The original (pre)parish seat was in Kamnica, where from the beginning of the 12th century (and it is probably even older) we can see the court and the (parish) church. In the area of the later monastery of the Friars Minor, however, at that time stood a chapel, probably dedicated to John the Baptist, meaning it performed the function of baptismal chapel. This pre-Maribor settlement was therefore located in the area of today's Vojašniški Square and Lent. The urban settlement was systematically established on a slightly elevated river terrace above the old settlement. According to the first indirect mention of the place as a settlement of Trg, we can conclude that the year 1209, when Maribor is first undoubtedly marked as a square, marks the time of the creation of the urban settlement relatively well. We can also find out about the year 1254, when the city was first referred to in a document as an urban settlement. As the analysis has shown, from the second quarter of the 13th century onwards, we can speak of Maribor as a place with an organized administration, a city judge, and the place also attracted the first Jewish settlers at this time, who are always a clear proof of the economic and other power of the place. The first half of the 13th century was also the time when the seat of the parish was moved to Maribor from Kamnica, and the townspeople built a new church dedicated to St. Thomas and St. John the Baptist. The old baptismal chapel, which stood in the village "pre-Maribor" settlement, was left to the Friars Minor, whose arrival in the town and the establishment of the monastery was due to the townspeople and not of some noble family, as is the case in e.g. Ptuj and Celje. In addition, the first half of the 13th century is also expected to see the arrival of the first Jewish settlers, who by the end of the century were already so numerically and economically strengthened that they built a synagogue, which is still preserved in its foundation, thus representing the oldest preserved synagogue in the southeastern Alpine area. From the first half of the 13th century onwards, a whole bunch of courts owned by various ecclesiastical institutions grew up in and around the city. They represent not only the economic and administrative center from which individual institutions managed their properties and looked after their interests, but also became an important component of urban life. Some, such as the Vetrinjski dvorec, the Žički Court, the Salzburg Court in the city or the Admont Račji Court on the outskirts, have remained an important part of the city's veduta to this day. The first half of the 13th century is also a time when we can assume that an interesting trend began. The lesser knighthood, which resided and administered individual smaller administrative feudal outposts and was also named after them, began to pass among the townspeople. Although they are listed in documents as such, i.e. as burghers, they are listed from the third quarter of the 13th century onwards, but it is necessary to trace the beginnings of this trend at least to the second quarter of the century, if not a little further back. These (former?) knights then rise to the position of leading townspeople in the city, we meet them regularly listed in the lists of the town's oath-takers. As early as the first half of the 13th century, documents allow us to identify two families who then played a leading role in the city's hierarchy for a hundred years. One is a family descended from a certain Markvard, who was first listed as a (provincial?) official, and the second family descended from the ranks of Eberhard, the (towns?, markts?) judge. The two families then take turns acting as city judges, the members also becoming holders of provincial offices, both families begin to accumulate landed estates and reach far beyond the rest of the bourgeois families of the time in question. In general, it can be stated that in the hundred years between middle of the 13th and the middle of the 14th century, the office of a city judge, with one exception, was reserved for members of four families, in addition to the two mentioned above, also the Cvetnik and Küng families. And if, when considering the townspeople who came from the ranks of the surrounding chivalry, we noticed that they immediately appear among the city swearers, that is, among the urban elite, in the case of these four (and especially the first two enumerated) families, we can speak of an elite within the elite. In more than a hundred years after the creation of the urban town, the city of Maribor has thus established itself as the second most important place in the Styrian region, a place that was often chosen by the Styrian dukes for the holding of the provincial assembly. As a result, the place experienced an extraordinary, almost meteoric rise. The results of this are reflected even more in the 14th century than in the 13th century, when the preservation state of archival material was significantly higher. The foundations for this "golden age", however, were laid precisely at the time that was the subject of our research.