8 congress myths you didn’t dare to ask ABOUT, or know whom to ask
MYTH 1: Maribor is still a fairly unknown city.
BUSTED: Couldn’t be further from the truth! Maribor was the Alpine town of the year 2000, European Capital of Culture in 2012, the city was granted the 2012 World Festival & Event City Award and gained the honorary title of The European rafting city in 2012, as well as being the European Youth Capital of 2013.
MYTH 2: When in Maribor one can taste a dessert made from the Oldest Vine in the World
CONFIRMED: The oldest vine in the world still grows in front of the Old Vine House in Maribor. The confirmed age of “Žametovka”, or the “Modra Kavčin” vine, is over 400 years, which won it a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest noble vine in the world still bearing grapes. From this October on, visitors to Maribor can taste a dessert made from the oldest vine in the world. “The old vine kiss” is a cake from shortcrust pastry with almonds, raisins, honey and wine…a delicious dessert you can’t taste anywhere else.
MYTH 3: The celebration of St. Martin’s Day in Maribor is the largest open-air celebration of St. Martin’s Day anywhere in Slovenia.
CONFIRMED: Every year the event brings together several thousand visitors who enjoy the traditional Styrian cuisine.
MYTH 4: Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia, is difficult to access.
BUSTED: Maribor has good traffic infrastructure and can easily be reached by car, train or bus. There are many airports in the vicinity of Maribor, the nearest one being Graz Airport in Austria (60 km), followed by Zagreb Airport in Croatia (130 km) and Ljubljana’s Jože Pučnik Airport (150 km). Maribor also has its own airport, Edvard Rusjan Airport, with a smaller frequency of international flights.
MYTH 5: Slovenia’s biggest ski area, the Mariborsko Pohorje resort, has the longest night-skiing trail in Slovenia.
CONFIRMED: The Mariborsko Pohorje ski centre offers more than 41.5 km of well-kept slopes for all kinds of skiers, from beginner to expert. The slopes range from 325m to 1,327m above sea level. You can enjoy the longest night-skiing trail in Slovenia, as the Pohorje ridges offer 27km of cross-country ski runs.
MYTH 6: The Maribor-Pohorje congress destination is suitable for carrying out events with 1,500 participants and more
BUSTED: The destination is ideal for smaller, boutique events and team building programmes carried out in a green environment. The largest facility, the Congress Centre Habakuk, has a total of six meeting rooms and can accommodate up to 830 participants.
MYTH 7: The earliest Maribor castle stood on Piramida hill, to which only a small chapel at the top of the hill today adorns its memory
CONFIRMED: The noble Spanheim family built the castle at the beginning of the 12th century for protection against the Hungarians. The castle was on the Drava march border and it was from that settlement and market town that it took its Marchpurg, or Marburg, name. In the year 1528 the castle burnt down, but it was renovated in a Renaissance style around the year 1560. In 1790, however, it was finally pulled down and from the remains of the building materials a stone pyramid was built, which also gave the hill its name – Piramida.
MYTH 8: Maribor is known for sporting achievements.
CONFIRMED: To name just a few – Filip Flisar, a Maribor native, became the World Ski Cross Champion in January 2015. Maribor named an elementary school and a town square after the legendary Leon Štukelj, an Olympic gold medallist who lived to be 100 years old. Maribor also has the most successful football club in the country, reaching the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League annually, while Maribor Pohorje annually hosts the FIS Ski World Cup “The Golden Fox”.
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