Varaždin

Jalkovec is a village in northern Croatia, located southwest of Varaždin. The population of the village in the 2011 census was 1,309.

Béla III was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1172 and 1196. He was the second son of King Géza II and Géza's wife, Euphrosyne of Kiev. Around 1161, Géza granted Béla a duchy, which included Croatia, central Dalmatia and possibly Sirmium. In accordance with a peace treaty between his elder brother, Stephen III, who succeeded their father in 1162, and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, Béla moved to Constantinople in 1163. He was renamed to Alexios, and the emperor granted him the newly created senior court title of despotes. He was betrothed to the Emperor's daughter, Maria. Béla's patrimony caused armed conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary between 1164 and 1167, because Stephen III attempted to hinder the Byzantines from taking control of Croatia, Dalmatia and Sirmium. Béla-Alexios, who was designated as Emperor Manuel's heir in 1165, took part in three Byzantine campaigns against Hungary. His betrothal to the emperor's daughter was dissolved after her brother, Alexios, was born in 1169. The emperor deprived Béla of his high title, granting him the inferior rank of kaisar.

A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.

The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom around the year 1000; his family led the monarchy for 300 years. By the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world.

Andrew II, also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1205 and 1235. He ruled the Principality of Halych from 1188 until 1189/1190, and again between 1208/1209 and 1210. He was the younger son of Béla III of Hungary, who entrusted him with the administration of the newly conquered Principality of Halych in 1188. Andrew's rule was unpopular, and the boyars expelled him. Béla III willed property and money to Andrew, obliging him to lead a crusade to the Holy Land. Instead, Andrew forced his elder brother, King Emeric of Hungary, to cede Croatia and Dalmatia as an appanage to him in 1197. The following year, Andrew occupied Hum.

The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller, was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and was headquartered there until 1291, thereafter being based in Kolossi Castle in Cyprus (1302-1310), the island of Rhodes (1310-1522), Malta (1530-1798), and Saint Petersburg (1799-1801).

Croatian is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language used by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina, and other neighboring countries. It is the official and literary standard of Croatia and one of the official languages of the European Union. Croatian is also one of the official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a recognized minority language in Serbia and neighboring countries.

The Counts of Celje or the Counts of Cilli were the most influential late medieval noble dynasty on the territory of present-day Slovenia. Risen as vassals of the Habsburg dukes of Styria in the early 14th century, they ruled the County of Cilli as immediate counts (Reichsgrafen) from 1341 and rose to Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1436.

George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, known as George the Pious, was a Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach from the House of Hohenzollern.

Count is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Especially in earlier medieval periods the term often implied not only a certain status, but also that the count had specific responsibilities or offices. The etymologically related English term "county" denoted the territories associated with some countships, but not all.

The House of Erdődy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló is the name of an old Hungarian-Croatian noble family with possessions in Hungary and Croatia. Elevated to the Hungarian nobility in 1459, the family was subsequently raised to the rank of Count in 1485. In 1565, the family was then recognised by the Habsburg monarchy, which granted them the title Reichsgraf / Gräfin. The family was raised again in 1566 to the rank of Reichfürst; but the death the following year of the recipient prevented the title from being registered and so it did not become hereditary.

Franz Leopold von Nádasdy auf Fogaras (1708–1783) was an Austrian Field Marshal, and Ban of Croatia.

Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. It originated in the Île-de-France and Picardy regions of northern France. The style at the time was sometimes known as opus Francigenum ; the term Gothic was first applied contemptuously during the later Renaissance, by those ambitious to revive the architecture of classical antiquity.

Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it often depicts the head of a prominent person, and the reverse tails.

The kuna was the currency of Croatia from 30 May 1994 until 31 December 2022. It was replaced by the euro in 2023. The kuna was subdivided into 100 lipa. It was issued by the Croatian National Bank and the coins were minted by the Croatian Mint.

Rococo, less commonly Roccoco, also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, and trompe-l'œil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement.

George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, known as George the Pious, was a Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach from the House of Hohenzollern.

Ferdinand Fellner was an Austrian architect.

Baroque music refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transition, the galant style. The Baroque period is divided into three major phases: early, middle, and late. Overlapping in time, they are conventionally dated from 1580 to 1650, from 1630 to 1700, and from 1680 to 1750. Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, and is now widely studied, performed, and listened to. The term "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl". The works of George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach are considered the pinnacle of the Baroque period. Other key composers of the Baroque era include Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella, Antonio Vivaldi, Tomaso Albinoni, Johann Pachelbel, Henry Purcell, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, François Couperin, Johann Hermann Schein, Heinrich Schütz, Samuel Scheidt, Dieterich Buxtehude, and others.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Varaždin is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in northern Croatia. The diocese is centred in the city of Varaždin. It is a new diocese, having only been erected on July 5, 1997 from the Archdiocese of Zagreb. Bishop Marko Culej was the first to be head of the diocese. Bishop Bože Radoš is the current bishop of Varaždin.

The Church of St. George in Varaždin is Serbian Orthodox church in Croatia. The church is dedicated to Saint George. Work on church were completed in 1884. The church is located inside of Varaždin's main market place.

The House of Erdődy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló is the name of an old Hungarian-Croatian noble family with possessions in Hungary and Croatia. Elevated to the Hungarian nobility in 1459, the family was subsequently raised to the rank of Count in 1485. In 1565, the family was then recognised by the Habsburg monarchy, which granted them the title Reichsgraf / Gräfin. The family was raised again in 1566 to the rank of Reichfürst; but the death the following year of the recipient prevented the title from being registered and so it did not become hereditary.

Vatroslav Jagić was a Croatian scholar of Slavic studies in the second half of the 19th century.

A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters. Precipitation is usually distributed throughout the year but often does have dry seasons. The definition of this climate regarding temperature is as follows: the mean temperature of the coldest month must be below 0 °C (32.0 °F) or −3 °C (26.6 °F) depending on the isotherm, and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above 10 °C (50 °F). In addition, the location in question must not be semi-arid or arid. The cooler Dfb, Dwb, and Dsb subtypes are also known as hemiboreal climates.

The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notably in 1918 and 1936. Later, German climatologist Rudolf Geiger (1894–1981) introduced some changes to the classification system, which is thus sometimes called the Köppen–Geiger climate classification.

An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as Cfb, typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters, with a relatively narrow annual temperature range and few extremes of temperature. Oceanic climates can be found in both hemispheres generally between 45 and 63 latitude, most notably in northwestern Europe, northwestern America, as well as New Zealand.

In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and "precipitates" or falls. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but colloids, because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers.

The Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service is a public entity for meteorology, hydrology and air quality in Croatia.

Baroque music refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transition, the galant style. The Baroque period is divided into three major phases: early, middle, and late. Overlapping in time, they are conventionally dated from 1580 to 1650, from 1630 to 1700, and from 1680 to 1750. Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, and is now widely studied, performed, and listened to. The term "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl". The works of George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach are considered the pinnacle of the Baroque period. Other key composers of the Baroque era include Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella, Antonio Vivaldi, Tomaso Albinoni, Johann Pachelbel, Henry Purcell, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, François Couperin, Johann Hermann Schein, Heinrich Schütz, Samuel Scheidt, Dieterich Buxtehude, and others.

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career spanning more than 60 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.

Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured his melodic, blues-based lines set against Latin American and African rhythms played on percussion instruments not generally heard in rock, such as timbales and congas. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine listed him at No. 20 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists. He has won 10 Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards, and was inducted along with his namesake band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

The Animals are an English rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature song and transatlantic number-one hit single "The House of the Rising Sun" as well as by hits such as "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", "It's My Life", "Don't Bring Me Down", "I'm Crying", "See See Rider" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." The band balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm-and-blues-oriented album material and were part of the British Invasion of the US.

Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore, plus Nicky Wire. They form a key part of the 1990s Welsh Cool Cymru cultural movement.

Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke was an American singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s. He has been called "a key transitional figure bridging R&B and soul", and was known for his "prodigious output".

The A4 motorway is a motorway in Croatia spanning 97.0 kilometres (60.3 mi). It connects the nation's capital, Zagreb, to the city of Varaždin and to Budapest, Hungary via the Goričan border crossing. The motorway represents a major north–south transportation corridor in Croatia and is a part of European routes E65 and E71. The A4 motorway route also follows Pan-European corridor Vb.

A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or a translation for autobahn, autoroute, etc.

D2 state road is a trunk state road in the northern areas of Croatia that spans from the border crossing with Slovenia at Dubrava Križovljanska in the west via Varaždin, Koprivnica, Virovitica, Našice, Osijek, Vukovar, ending at the Ilok–Bačka Palanka Bridge border crossing with Serbia. The road is 347.9 km (216.2 mi) long.

D3 is a state road in western parts of Croatia connecting Rijeka on the Adriatic coast to Zagreb, Karlovac and Varaždin, as well as to Goričan border crossing to Hungary. Furthermore, the D3 road is used as a parallel road to a number of motorways in Croatia, namely the A4 motorway north of Zagreb, the A1 motorway between Zagreb and Bosiljevo 2 interchange south of Karlovac and finally the A6 motorway between Bosiljevo 2 interchange and Rijeka and it connects to nearly all motorway interchanges on that route either directly or via connecting roads. The road is 218.4 km (135.7 mi) long.

D35 is a state road in the northwestern Croatia connecting Sveti Križ Začretje and the A2 motorway Sveti Križ Začretje interchange to Varaždin and the A4 motorway Varaždin interchange. The road is 46.0 km (28.6 mi) long.

A bus is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for charter purposes, or through private ownership. Although the average bus carries between 30 and 100 passengers, some buses have a capacity of up to 300 passengers. The most common type is the single-deck rigid bus, with double-decker and articulated buses carrying larger loads, and midibuses and minibuses carrying smaller loads. Coaches are used for longer-distance services. Many types of buses, such as city transit buses and inter-city coaches, charge a fare. Other types, such as elementary or secondary school buses or shuttle buses within a post-secondary education campus, are free. In many jurisdictions, bus drivers require a special large vehicle licence above and beyond a regular driving licence.

The counties of Croatia are the first-level administrative subdivisions of the Republic of Croatia. Since they were re-established in 1992, Croatia has been divided into 20 counties and the capital city of Zagreb, which has the authority and legal status of both a county and a city. As of 2015, the counties are subdivided into 128 cities and 428 municipalities. The divisions have changed over time since the medieval Croatian state. They reflected territorial losses and expansions; changes in the political status of Dalmatia, Dubrovnik and Istria; and political circumstances, including the personal union and subsequent development of relations between the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and the Kingdom of Hungary.

Dalj is a village on the Danube in eastern Croatia, near the confluence of the Drava and Danube, on the border with Serbia. It is located on the D519 road, south of its intersection with the D213 road and the Vukovar–Erdut railway.

Koprivnica is a city in Northern Croatia, located 70 kilometers northeast of Zagreb. It is the capital and the largest city of the Koprivnica-Križevci county. In 2011, the city's administrative area of 90.94 km2 had a total population of 30,854, with 23,955 in the city proper.

Osijek is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja County. Osijek is on the right bank of the Drava River, 25 km (16 mi) upstream of its confluence with the Danube, at an elevation of 94 m (308 ft).

Stadion Varteks is a football stadium in Varaždin, Croatia, and the home ground of Croatian First Football League club NK Varaždin and lower leagues club NK Varteks.

The 2009 World Men's Handball Championship took place in Croatia from 16 January to 1 February, in the cities of Split, Zadar, Osijek, Varaždin, Poreč, Zagreb and Pula. Croatia was selected from a group of four potential hosts which included the Czech Republic, Greece and Romania.

The Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe. With a length of 710 kilometres (440 mi), 724 kilometres (450 mi) including the Sextner Bach source, it is the fifth or sixth longest tributary of the Danube, after the Tisza, Sava, Prut, Mureș and perhaps Siret. The Drava drains an area of about 40,154 km2 (15,504 sq mi). Its mean annual discharge is seasonally 500 m3/s (18,000 cu ft/s) to 670 m3/s (24,000 cu ft/s). Its source is near the market town of Innichen/San Candido, in the Puster Valley of South Tyrol/Alto Adige, Italy. The river flows eastwards through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria into the Styria region of Slovenia. It then turns southeast, passing through Croatia and, after merging with its main tributary Mur, forms most of the border between Croatia and Hungary, before it joins the Danube near Osijek.

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposite team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is considered the world's most popular sport.

Nogometni klub Varaždin, commonly referred to as NK Varaždin or simply Varaždin, is a Croatian professional football club based in Varaždin that competes in the Croatian Football League, the top tier of Croatian football.

NK Varteks is a Croatian professional football club based in the city of Varaždin, founded by supporters of NK Varaždin who were dissatisfied with the name change from NK Varteks to NK Varaždin, club's financial difficulties and failure to make salary payments, which caused players to jump to other teams.

Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the goal of the opposing team. A standard match consists of two periods of 30 minutes, and the team that scores more goals wins.

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball through the defender's hoop, while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team, called the batter, tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate.

Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a closed, vulcanized, rubber disc called a "puck" into the other team's goal. Each goal is worth one point. The team which scores the most goals is declared the winner. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, one of whom is the goaltender. Ice hockey is a full contact sport, and is considered to be one of the more physically demanding sports.

KHL Varaždin, former known as KHL Varaždin, is a Croatian ice hockey team that is located in Varaždin.

Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" and "doubles". Badminton is often played as a casual outdoor activity in a yard or on a beach; formal games are played on a rectangular indoor court. Points are scored by striking the shuttlecock with the racquet and landing it within the other team's half of the court.

The University of Zagreb is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe. The University of Zagreb and the University North are the only public universities operating in Northern and Central Croatia.

The University North is a public university in Croatia that operates in two university centres, Koprivnica and Varaždin. It is the fifth largest university in Croatia based on the number of students and the only public university operating in Northern Croatia alongside the University of Zagreb. The university was founded in 2015 by merging the University of Applied Sciences in Varaždin and the Media University in Koprivnica, thus becoming the eighth Croatian public university.

Koprivnica is a city in Northern Croatia, located 70 kilometers northeast of Zagreb. It is the capital and the largest city of the Koprivnica-Križevci county. In 2011, the city's administrative area of 90.94 km2 had a total population of 30,854, with 23,955 in the city proper.

Zagreb is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slovenia at an elevation of approximately 122 m (400 ft) above sea level. The population of the Zagreb urban agglomeration is 1,071,150, approximately a quarter of the total population of Croatia, while at the 2021 census the city itself had a population of 767,131.

Ivan Belostenec was a Croatian linguist, lexicographer and poet.

Mirko Breyer was a known Croatian writer, bibliographer and antiquarian.

Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe. Its coast lies entirely on the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Italy to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city, Zagreb, forms one of the country's primary subdivisions, with twenty counties. The country spans 56,594 square kilometres, and has a population of nearly 3.9 million.

Kristijan Đurasek is a Croatian professional road bicycle racer, who is currently suspended from the sport. He has been competing since 2005, and has represented Croatia at two Summer Olympic Games, in 2012 and 2016.

Juraj Habdelić was a Croatian lexicographer, writer and Jesuit priest.

Branko Ivanković is a Croatian former footballer who played as a midfielder, and the current head coach of the Oman national team. After a 12-year playing career at Varteks, Ivanković started his coaching career at the same club in 1991. He led the Iran national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Luka Ivanušec is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Prva HNL club Dinamo Zagreb and the Croatia national team.

Marija Jurić, known by her pen name Zagorka, was a Croatian journalist, writer and women's rights activist. She was the first female journalist in Croatia and is among the most read Croatian writers.

Ljubomir Kerekeš is a Croatian film, theatre and television actor.

Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski was a Croatian historian, politician and writer, most famous for the first speech delivered in Croatian before the Parliament. Considered a renowned patriot, Kukuljević was a proponent of Illyrian movement and avid collector of historical documents, primarily those for his work in Croatian historiography and bibliography.

This is a list of municipalities in Croatia which have standing links to local communities in other countries known as "town twinning" or "sister cities".

A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.

Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country occupies an area of 83,871 km2 (32,383 sq mi) and has a population of 9 million.

Bad Radkersburg is a spa town in the southeast of the Austrian state of Styria, in the district of Südoststeiermark.

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of over 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

Koblenz is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multinational tributary.

Italy, officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands; its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region. Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione, and some islands in the African Plate. Italy covers an area of 301,230 km2 (116,310 sq mi), with a population of about 60 million. It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome.

Montale is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Pistoia in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of Florence and about 8 kilometres (5 mi) east of Pistoia.

Ptuj is a town in northeastern Slovenia that is the seat of the Municipality of Ptuj. Ptuj, the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman military fort. Ptuj was located at a strategically important crossing of the Drava River, along a prehistoric trade route between the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria and it was part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. In the early 20th century the majority of the residents spoke German, but today the population is largely Slovene. Residents of Ptuj are known as Ptujčani in Slovene.

Ravensburg is a city in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg.

Schaffhausen, historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimated population of 36,000 as of December 2016. It is located right next to the shore of the High Rhine; it is one of four Swiss towns located on the northern side of the Rhine, along with Neuhausen am Rheinfall, the historic Neunkirch, and medieval Stein am Rhein.

Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Hungary has a population of 9.7 million, mostly ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian, the official language, is the world's most widely spoken Uralic language and among the few non-Indo-European languages widely spoken in Europe. Budapest is the country's capital and largest city; other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs, and Győr.