Marija Bistrica
| Marija Bistrica | |
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| Town | |
View of Marija Bistrica
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 Marija Bistrica
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| Coordinates: 46°0′19″N 16°07′07″E / 46.00528°N 16.11861°ECoordinates: 46°0′19″N 16°07′07″E / 46.00528°N 16.11861°E | |
| Country | Croatia |
| County | Krapina-Zagorje County |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Stjepan Muhek |
| Area | |
| • Town | 70 km2 (30 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 192 m (630 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Town | 1,071 |
| • Metro | 5,976 |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
| Postal code | 49 246 |
| Area code(s) | 049 |
| Website | www |
Marija Bistrica (Croatian pronunciation: [mǎrija bîstrit͡sa]) is a town and municipality in the Krapina-Zagorje County in central Croatia, located on the slopes of the Medvednica mountain in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region north of the capital Zagreb. The municipality has 5,976 inhabitants, with 1,071 residents in the settlement itself (2011 census).
Marija Bistrica has an old Marian shrine of the Black Madonna which is a place of pilgrimage and visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every year. On 3 October 1998, Pope John Paul II visited Marija Bistrica and beatified Croatian Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac in front of a crowd of 500,000 Croatians.
The first written mention of the settlement Bistrica dates back to 1209 AD, as the possession of Croatian-Hungarian king Andrew II. Documents from 1334 first mention the church of Sts. Peter and Paul.
In 1545 a local priest hid the wonder working statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus, which previously stood in a wooden chapel on the Vinski Vrh (Hill) nearby, within the church to save it from the Turks and took the secret of its hiding place to his grave. The statue was discovered in 1588, when according to the records bright light shone from the place where it was buried. In 1650 the statue had to be once again hidden to be rediscovered in 1684.
In 1710 the Croatian parliament vowed to fund a new altar in the church, which was done in 1715. In 1731 the church was expanded and reconsecrated to Our Lady of the Snows. In 1750 Pope Benedict XIV granted plenary indulgence to pilgrims who confess and accept the Eucharist in Bistrica.
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Wikipedia