Grad(The Castle) - Trg Svobode(Liberty square) - Svetozarevska ulica(Svetozarevska street) - Lent - Vodnikov trg(Vodnik square) - Strossmayerjeva ulica(Strossmayerjeva street) - Mladinska ulica(Mladinska street) - Trg generala Maistra(General Maister square)
Lent
Usnjarska ulica (Tannery Street) runs along the
Drava. Its name reminds us of the leather and tannery
workshops that once stood at the wall and along the
river. Usnjarska ulica turns into Vojasniska ulica
(Barracks Street). The entire district, up to the Round
Tower, is known as Lent, a
former docking pier for covered barges and rafts. It
was a lively and picturesque area, surrounded by
warehouses, trading houses, pubs, and inns. When the
Drava was dammed up in Melje in order to direct its
waters through the channel to the hydropower station
in Zlatolicje, the water level became elevated enough
to threaten Lent, already economically depleted by the
electric power stations on the Drava river which had put
an end to the rafting business on the Drava. At one time,
as many as a thousand rafts and eight hundred covered
barges moored there. On the river, many boats laden with
fruit used to dock. The famous inn "Benetke"
(" The Venice"), now but a memory, stood
nearby.
In the 1980s long-needed
renovations were begun in the Lent area. Old buildings
are being made habitable, architecturally innovative new
housing and business facilities are being constructed. A
new heartbeat is being felt in Lent, with its small pubs,
coffee bars, smart shops, art galleries, crafts
workshops, and various businesses.
Among all this activity one finds
the attractive restaurant Stara
trta ("The Old Vine", Vojasniska 8),
scenically located on the river bank. Aside from its
noted ambience, its most interesting feature is a large
fourhundred-year old vine on its facade which,
interestingly, still bears grapes every autumn. Along
Vojasniska ulica, next to the Drava, we reach Okrogli
stolp (the Round Tower, also called the .- Monastery
Tower.)[19].whose origins date back to the fourteenth
century. In 1540 it took its present shape. On its
eastern side is a building complex once occupied by the
Minorite Monastery (20), first mentioned in 1270. The
former Minorite Church, which fell into disrepair when
Emperor Franz Josef II disbanded the monastery is on the
upper terrace, along Vojasniski trg. For the past two
centuries it has served as a storehouse.
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