| Petrinja | |
| Official Name: | Grad Petrinja Town of Petrinja |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Pushpin Map: | Croatia |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Petrinja in Croatia |
| Coordinates: | 45.4406°N 16.2783°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | Region |
| Subdivision Name1: | Continental Croatia (Banovina) |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Sisak-Moslavina |
| Leader Party: | HDZ |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Magdalena Komes |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 379.3 |
| Area Urban Km2: | 39.4 |
| Elevation M: | 106 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Total: | 19950 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Population Urban: | 12963 |
| Population Density Urban Km2: | auto |
| Timezone: | CET |
| Timezone Dst: | CEST |
| Utc Offset: | +1 |
| Utc Offset Dst: | +2 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 44 250 |
| Area Code: | 044 |
| Registration Plate: | SK |
Petrinja (pronounced as /hr/) is a town in central Croatia near Sisak in the historic region of Banovina. It is administratively located in Sisak-Moslavina County.
On December 29, 2020, the town was hit by a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4, causing significant damage to the town.
The name of Petrinja has its roots in Greek πέτρα - pétra, meaning "stone" through Latin petrus. Another possibility is that Petrinja was named after the church of St. Peter from the time of the Diocese of Sisak.[2] It is said that the town existed in Roman era in the area of Zrinska Gora, which is very rich in stone.
West of Petrinja is Petrova gora (Peter's mountain), site of the 1097 Battle of Gvozd Mountain between King Petar Snačić of Croatia and Coloman of Hungary.
The first written record of Petrinja as an inhabited settlement is the one about the benefits awarded to the inhabitants of Petrinja by the Slavonian duke Koloman in 1240. This old medieval Petrinja belongs to the time of warring with the Ottoman Empire.
The old fortress was abandoned and destroyed in 1543, to prevent it from coming under Ottoman control.[3] In 1592, Petrinja was given a new location with the construction and building of an Ottoman fortress at the confluence of the Petrinjčica and Kupa rivers. The fortress was to serve the Ottomans in their offensives in central Croatia, such as the 1593 battle of Sisak.
On August 10, 1594, the fortress was first liberated by the Croatian army. Therefore, August 10 has become the day of gratitude towards God and St. Lawrence, and this saint has been chosen for the patron saint of the parish and the town of Petrinja. Over time, Petrinja attracted craftsmen and merchants whose arrival marks the beginning of the town's development.
In the year 1773, Austrian empress Maria Theresa decided that Petrinja was to be a craft guild center for the entire territory of the Military Frontier.[4]
Petrinja was part of Napoleon's Illyria from 1809 till 1813 when the town became a significant trade and traffic center. In the same period, the French army planted the linden trees that stand to this day.
The influence of Croatian national revival in the 19th century was felt in Petrinja. That was the time of the founding of the Town Orchestra (1808), Music Department (1841), Library and reading-room (1842), Teachers' Training School (1862), Croatian Choir "Slavulj" (1864), Town fire-brigade (1880), First printing-house (1881).
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Petrinja was a district capital in the Zagreb County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
From 1929 to 1939, Petrinja was part of the Sava Banovina and from 1939 to 1941 of the Banovina of Croatia within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
During the Second World War, with the establishment of the so-called Independent State of Croatia (a fascist puppet state), Petrinja and the surrounding area were the scene of persecution of the Serbian, Jewish and Roma minorities, but also of harsh repression of many Croatian anti-fascists, in a context of armed struggle between partisans and local collaborators of the Axis forces.[5]
Recent history has witnessed the war in Croatia during which many people (Croats first, then the Serbs in 1995) were exiled from their hometown of Petrinja in the period from September 1991 to August 1995.[6]