Bus from LESKOVAC to MARIBOR

Leskovac is a city settlement and administrative center of the Jablanica Administrative District.

The settlement dates back to the Roman Empire. The medieval name of the settlement is Glubočica.

The legend says that under the hill near the present city there was a lake, and when its drying was occurred there was a plant of hazel (hazelnut), after which the city was named more than 700 years ago. The present name of the city as the name of the settlement was first mentioned in 1308 in the Charter of King Milutin.

During the NATO bombing of the FRY in 1999, Leskovac and its surroundings were bombarded almost daily. During a raid on April 12, 1999, a railroad bridge in Grdelicka Gorge hit the passenger train, which was crossing the bridge at that time. In this attack, several dozen civilians were killed.

In Leskovac there is the National Library Radoje Domanovic, which was created from the City Reading Room, founded in 1869. The library was designated in 1961 for the home library of the Jablanica District. The library now has over 80,000 books and other publications distributed in different sectors, among which are the loan and children's department, the foreign book, as well as the local department that was established in 2012 as a legacy and is named after Nikolai Timchenko and has over 15,000 titles.

On May 2, 1948, the National Museum was founded in Leskovac, comprised of three departments - ethnographic-archaeological, national liberation struggle with the workers' movement and the Textile Industry Museum. The museum then moved to a new building on May 10, 1974, which opened the possibility for the development of museum activities, and today it has more departments for archeology, history, art history, ethnology, conservation and souvenir making.

Maribor is the second-largest city in Slovenia with about 95,500 inhabitants, it's also the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria and the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor.

Maribor was first mentioned as a market near the castle Castrum Marchburch ("March Castle") in 1204, and received town privileges in 1254. It began to grow rapidly after the victory of Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty over King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. Maribor withstood sieges by Matthias Corvinus in 1480/1481 and by the Ottoman Empire in 1532 and 1683.

Maribor has a humid continental climate, bordering on oceanic climate. Average temperatures hover around zero degrees Celsius during the winter. Summers are generally warm. Average temperatures during the city's warmest month (July) exceed 20 degrees Celsius, which is one of the main reasons for the Maribor wine tradition.

Many historical structures stand in Maribor. Of the remains of city walls surrounding the old downtown, the most prominent are the Judgement Tower, the Water Tower, and the Jewish Tower. Maribor Cathedral was built in the Gothic style in the 13th century. Maribor Synagogue was built in the 14th century, and is the second oldest synagogue of Europe. Today it serves as a centre for cultural activities. Other prominent Medieval buildings are Maribor Castle, Betnava Castle, and the ruins of Upper Maribor Castle on Pyramid Hill. Town Hall was constructed in the Renaissance style, and the Plague Column in the Baroque style.

The city hosts the University of Maribor, established in 1975, and many other schools.

Every June, the two-week Lent Festival (named after the waterfront district called Lent) is held, with hundreds of musical, theatrical and other events. Every year the festival attracts theatre, opera, ballet performers, classical, modern, and jazz musicians and dancers from all over the world, and of course many visitors. There is also mime, magic shows are being held and acrobats perform during the festival.

Maribor is known for wine and culinary specialities of international and Slovene. There are also many popular restaurants with Serbian cuisine. The Vinag Wine Cellar (Vinagova vinska klet), with the area of 20.000 m2 and the length of 2 kilometres, keeps 5,5 millions litres of wine. The house of the oldest grapevine in the world (Hiša stare trte) at Lent grows the world's oldest grapevine, which was in 2004 recorded in Guinness World Records. The grapevine of Žametovka is about 440 years old.