Maribor

First mentioned as a castle in 1164, as a settlement in 1209 and as a city in 1254, and under Habsburg rule until 1918, when Rudolf Maister and his men secured it for the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. It is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest in Lower Styria, the economic, administrative and cultural centre of the east. The name is a compound of Middle High German march, borderland, and burc, fortress, Marpurch around 1145, and Marburg an der Drau in German ever since. It was European Capital of Culture in 2012.