Molve

Molve is a Podravina village shaped by watermills, a Marian shrine, naïve art and the nearby Drava. Its name is associated with mills on the river and its tributaries, while the first reliable written record dates from 1330. The skyline is dominated by the large Classicist Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in the mid-19th century and widely known as the “Cathedral of Podravina”. A nearby Neo-Gothic chapel from 1900 houses the wooden Gothic statue of Our Lady of Molve, dated to around 1470, which established the village as an important pilgrimage centre. Molve’s artistic identity is represented by the Molvarski Likovni Krug Gallery, founded in 1994, the work of local painter Mijo Kovačić and the wider tradition of Croatian naïve art. Beyond the village, routes lead towards the Drava, Repaš Forest, Čingi-Lingi lake and the Mill Trail and Balaton–Lonjsko Polje cycle route. The discovery of a major natural-gas field in 1974, followed by production from 1978, added another decisive chapter. Molve consequently offers an unusually rich day trip combining monumental church architecture, an intimate pilgrimage chapel, Podravina painting and a river landscape.

Molve lies in Podravina amid the Drava, gravel lakes and Repaš Forest, while its name preserves the memory of former river mills. The settlement is reliably documented in 1330 and its parish was founded in 1665. Today’s skyline is dominated by the Church of the Assumption, built between 1855 and 1863, with a high altar delivered from a Tyrolean workshop in 1897. Molve’s Marian identity centres on a wooden Gothic statue of Our Lady of Molve, made around 1470 and kept in the chapel on Marijanska Street. The village is also a Podravina centre of naïve art: a gallery founded in 1994 represents the Molvarski Likovni Krug artists, and celebrated painter Mijo Kovačić was born here.