page_title: Velika Gorica
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Velika Gorica / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Spomenik poginulim braniteljima
context_page_description: Velika Gorica is the largest and most populous city in Zagreb County, Croatia. The city itself has a population of 31,341, while the municipality has a population of 63,517 inhabitants.
  Velika Gorica is the centre of the historical Turopolje region. Franjo Tuđman Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Croatia, is located in the area of Velika Gorica.
context_section_description: Velika Gorica and surrounding plain area by the Sava river have always been fertile and lush so it is no wonder it has been constantly inhabited since Neolithic. First major settlement was Andautonia, founded in 1st century where village of Šćitarjevo stands nowadays. It was an important Roman port on Sava river and city on roads connecting Siscia with Emona and Poetovio. The Roman town was large at the beginning of the 5th century.
  Croats came to these parts in the 8th century and remains from early Croat culture were found in numerous places around city of Velika Gorica. Velika Gorica is first mentioned in 1228 as a seat of parish. In 1278 noblemen from Turopolje joined into a union called Plemenita opčina turopoljska ("Noble municipality of Turopolje"). Plemenita opčina turopoljska was granted a rule over Turopolje by Croatian monarchs and exists still today with mainly ceremonial and not political role.
  In the late 19th and early 20th century, Velika Gorica was a district capital in the Zagreb County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
  The 20th century was by far the most important one in history of Velika Gorica as it grew from a small village of 2,871 inhabitants to an important and one of the largest cities in Croatia with population over 60 thousand inhabitants. Until 1995 Velika Gorica was part of City of Zagreb and since then it has a city status of its own.
  During the Croatian War of Independence the city played an important role because of two airports in its near distance. Velika Gorica's 153rd brigade of Croatian Army fought on battlefields all around Croatia.
caption: A monument to fallen soldiers in the Croatian War of Independence.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 75", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:08:24 20:10:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Tag 0x1001": "2048", "Image Tag 0x1002": "1536", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image ExifOffset": "320", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1106", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3650", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:24 18:40:12", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:24 18:40:12", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "768", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1024", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1536000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "81920/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}