Zlatar

Zlatar is a small Zagorje town beneath the slopes of Ivanščica, long established as an administrative, commercial and cultural centre for the surrounding villages. Its parish seat moved from Martinščina to Zlatar in 1699, and the present Church of the Assumption was built in 1762. On Zagrebačka Street, the Gallery of Original Art traces its beginnings to the 1971 exhibition “Painters of the Zagorje Circle” and has occupied its current premises since 1985. A collection of roughly 500 works, including pieces by Matija Skurjeni, Sava Sekulić, Dragan Gaži and Ivan Rabuzin, gives the town an unexpectedly strong visual-arts identity. From central Zlatar, visitors can continue to Belec, where the Church of Our Lady of the Snows contains gilded sculpture, elaborate Baroque altars and frescoes by Ivan Krstitelj Ranger. Zlatar itself has no railway station; the nearest one is at Zlatar Bistrica, about five to six kilometres away depending on the point measured. Local buses connect the town with that station and Marija Bistrica, making rail-based arrival from Zagreb or Varaždin practical with a transfer.

Zlatar developed beneath Ivanščica as the focal point for a district including Belec, Martinščina and other villages on the mountain’s southern slopes. Its administrative and commercial role grew especially strong in the 19th century, while the town’s parish history reaches back to the relocation of the parish seat in 1699. The 1762 Church of the Assumption defines the central skyline. Zlatar’s modern cultural identity is reinforced by the Gallery of Original Art at Zagrebačka 3, whose holdings comprise approximately 500 paintings and sculptures by numerous Croatian artists.