Legrad

Legrad stands on the right bank of the Drava near its confluence with the Mura, about 15 kilometres north of Koprivnica. Its position between two major rivers shapes both the landscape and an unusual history: after the Drava changed course, the settlement found itself on the Podravina side, although it remained part of Hungary’s Zala County until 1918. Immediately beside Legrad lies the Veliki Pažut special ornithological reserve, encompassing the Mura’s newer confluence with the Drava, willow and poplar woodland and river islands. The former confluence near Halasz Csarda has a birdwatching structure and an interpretive trail, while Lake Šoderica has developed into the municipality’s principal swimming and recreation area. Within Legrad, the Late Baroque Holy Trinity Church, completed in 1784, stands near a group of eighteenth-century devotional columns. The settlement was once a Zrinski frontier fortress, a privileged market town and a centre for boatmen’s, shoemakers’, weavers’ and millers’ guilds. A well-planned visit connects this mercantile history with cycling, birdwatching and a walk beside the meeting of the two rivers.

Legrad is a Drava-side village whose identity was permanently reshaped when the river cut through a northern meander in 1710, leaving what had been part of Međimurje on the right bank in Podravina. Before that shift, it was a forward Zrinski stronghold at the Mura–Drava confluence. Nikola Šubić Zrinski began expanding the fortification, and Juraj IV Zrinski completed it between 1567 and 1572. Within the historic Međimurje frontier, the fortress guarded the approaches against Ottoman raids and became the seat of the Legrad Military District in the late 16th century.