Historical-geographical understanding of the development of settlements and roads in the Southeastern Zagreb Foothills from the 13th to the 16th century

Abstract

This paper describes the development of settlements and roads in the Southeastern Zagreb Foothills from the 13th to the 16th century. The Foothills are a microregion bordered by the river Sava in the south, Zagreb in the west, the Medvednica in the north, and the Zelina Foothills in the east. In the High and Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, this microregion was located in the eastern parts of the Zagreb County and did not have any specific name, unlike today, when it is colloquially known as the Sesvete Foothills, the Foothills, or the Sesvete Area, after the Sesvete district of Zagreb. Today, it is the most densely inhabited area where the foothills meet the Sava plain, while its central hilly parts, with numerous mountain stream valleys and their tributaries, were the most densely populated area in the High and Late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The first settlements in this area developed below fortresses or seats of parishes in the 13th century in the hilly parts of the Zagreb Foothills, but later settlements, in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, developed mostly along the main plains roads. These roads connected the Austro-German lands in the west with the Slavonian and Hungarian counties in the Sava-Drava interfluve and the Podunavlje to the east, and the central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary with the eastern Adriatic ports. All settlements were part of four large estates, which encompassed almost the entire Southeastern Zagreb Foothills area.