The Municipality of Rasinja was established in 1993.
It is part of the Koprivnica-Križevci County, located in the northwestern part of Croatia.
The municipality has a total population of 3,890 inhabitants (according to the 2001 census), living across 21 settlements: Belanovo Selo, Cvetkovec, Duga Rijeka, Gorica, Grbaševec, Koledinec, Kuzminec, Ludbreški Ivanac, Lukovec, Mala Rasinjica, Mala Rijeka, Prkos, Radeljevo Selo, Rasinja, Ribnjak, Subotica Podravska, Velika Rasinjica, Veliki Grabičani, Veliki Poganac, and Vojvodinec. In terms of ethnic composition, 80% of the population are Croats and 20% are Serbs. Other ethnic groups are not represented in the population structure of the municipality. The area of the municipality covers 102 square kilometers, with an average population density of just 38 inhabitants per km². The administrative center is located in the village of Rasinja, which has a population of 94.
Out of the total population, 65% are of working age, while 35% are dependent (children, elderly). Among the working population, 70% are individual farmers, living in so-called mixed households.
HISTORY
Rasinja is located at the base of the northern slopes of Kalnik, in the Drava River valley, halfway between Koprivnica and Ludbreg. It developed at the point where the Gliboki stream formed an important medieval road route from the Drava River, through Rasinja, along the valleys of the Gliboki and Glogovnica streams towards Apatovec and Križevci. The Municipality of Rasinja, in an administrative sense, consists of the municipal center and 21 hamlets, mostly situated on the slopes of Kalnik and along the Gliboki stream, spanning an area of 105 km². According to the 2011 census, the municipality had a total population of 3,800 inhabitants, while Rasinja itself had 948. The population is predominantly elderly, and the number of inhabitants has been steadily decreasing — down by a quarter since World War II.
The origin of the name “Rasinja” is not definitively established. Antun Kancijan notes that the Gliboki stream near the village was referred to in 1259 as “fluvio Rassinia,” meaning the Rasinja stream, making it likely that the settlement, dating back to the 12th century, was named after the stream. This is consistent with other nearby settlements being named after streams or rivers.
Rasinja was mentioned as early as the 12th century as the seat of a noble estate, as confirmed by the archaeological remains of Opoj-grad — one of the most renowned medieval burgs in northwestern Croatia. In addition to remnants of fortification architecture and construction material, it is a rich archaeological site for medieval pottery, although systematic research has yet to be conducted. Built in a triangular layout with defensive towers at the corners, Opoj-grad stood south of Rasinja near Veliki Poganac on the Budim site, overseeing the road along the Gliboki stream. Until the mid-20th century, a watchtower stood in Rasinja itself.
Despite its administrative and ecclesiastical importance, its noble estate, and its medieval fortification, Rasinja never developed a suburb. However, a marketplace (oppidum Razynyakeresztur) is documented as early as the 16th century, around which a small settlement grew — the origin of modern-day Rasinja.
Written records mention Rasinja in 1170, when Bishop Prodan is noted as the owner. He donated lands around Rasinja to the Knights Templar. A 1236 charter mentions a fortified town given by Ban Opoj de Gudkeled to the Templars. During the Tatar invasions in the 13th century, King Bela I granted the Rasinja estate to County Prefect Herbert Osl in 1248, naming the boundaries as Velika and Mala Rasinja (Razina Magna and Razina Minor). Rasinja changed owners often in the following years. By 1287 it belonged to County Prefect Povša; in 1329 a legal dispute arose over the estate between Stjepan, son of Herbort Osl, and Stjepan, son of Ibrahon. In 1369, Ivan pl. Gyophas is listed as owner, and in 1380, Mihailo de Rascyna.
In the 15th century, noble families Selak and Daraboš held the estate, while Opoj-grad was owned by the noble Bočkaj family, related to Ban Opoj. The 1439 records of the Rasinja parish mention Stjepan pl. Bočkaj as the owner, and in 1480, Baltazar Krčelić lists Petar and Sigismund pl. Bočkaj.
In the 16th century, following the arrival of the Habsburgs to the Croatian-Hungarian throne, Ljudevit Pekri captured Rasinja’s fortress in 1527. At the start of the 1500s, the Bočkaj estate was split: one part included Rasinja, Đelekovec, and Podravska Selnica; the other (the “Kuzminec estate”) included Kuzminec, Grabaševec, Antolovec, Zablatje, Torčec, Koledinec, and part of Cenkovec.
This century was also marked by frequent Turkish raids, and in 1532, after the defeat at Kőszeg, the Turks destroyed Opoj-grad. Due to its strategic position on a medieval Kalnik passage, Rasinja suffered raids in 1574, 1576, 1579, and 1603. In 1532, Juraj (Gjuro) Husti de Rascinia, a notable Croatian travel writer, was taken as a prisoner by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He later journeyed through Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, the Red Sea region, and India. Around 1550, he wrote his travelogue in Pécs — one of the earliest known in Croatian literature, preserved today in the Vatican Library, as part of Queen Christina of Sweden’s collection.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Rasinja estate frequently changed hands through female inheritance — passing through families such as Bakač Erdody, Moscon, Aursperg, and Gaiszruk — until 1778, when County Prefect Baltazar Inkey leased the estate for 30 years. The Inkey de Pallin family officially acquired the estate in 1800 after Mirko Inkey paid the final 20,000 forints to the Gaiszruk heirs.
The estate flourished under his son Ferdinand Inkey, Deputy Prefect of Križevci County, who married Countess Ludmila Deym in 1858. He was granted baronial status in 1875 and built the new manor in Rasinja. He also developed a model agricultural estate, a renowned horse stud, a brick factory in Rasinja (founded in 1860), and a distillery in Kuzminec.
After the abolition of feudalism in 1893 and the agrarian reform of 1919, the estate began to decline during the tenure of his son Mirko Inkey, who married Franjica Butera Vincentini in 1924. They had a daughter Ludmila Lili and a son Mirko. The estate remained in the Inkey family for 167 years until 1945, when part of the family emigrated to Austria and South Africa.
In the 18th century, the Inkey family resided in the old medieval manor with an irregular floor plan and a square tower. By the end of the 19th century, they moved to a new residence. The old manor was used by vineyard overseers, later as a municipal hall and village organization headquarters, until 1930 when it was sold to the family of Gjuro Takač (hence the local name Takačovo) and demolished just before World War II.
In the 19th century, the estate included the hamlets of Kuzminec, Prkos, Gorica, Imbriovec, Ferdinandov Dvor, Đelekovec, Grbaševac, Ludmili Dvor, and Gizelindvor — making it one of the largest estates in Križevci and later Varaždin County (after 1895).
In the 20th century, residents of Rasinja played a significant role in the labor movement and the anti-fascist struggle during World War II, as confirmed by the historical museum collections in Veliki Poganac and Ludbreški Ivanac.
The New Dvori Rasinjski Estate was built between 1883 and 1885 along the Gliboki stream and near fishponds, the parish church of the Holy Cross, and a small family cemetery designed in the spirit of late Romanticism. The Rasinjski manor consisted of three interconnected wings in the shape of an “H”. The oldest ground-floor wing was constructed around 1850 as an agricultural building, which served as the central wing connecting two parallel one-story wings from a later period. The two one-story buildings, the smaller northern and the larger southern one, were built during the Historicism period. This is confirmed by the Liber Memorabilium of the Rasinja parish, which recorded: “In 1883, Ferdinand Baron Inkey Pallensky began the construction of his castle, which in terms of building works was completed in 1885.”
The main southern façade of the southern wing was adorned with a series of architectural and sculptural elements that display Neo-Baroque stylistic features, while the eastern façade has retained a corner tower accentuated by a pointed roof and stylized rustication. After World War II, the building was used for the needs of a peasant labor cooperative, a school, the local office, a health station, and social housing. The central ground-floor wing was demolished at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
Today, the area of the entire municipality includes the lowland Drava region with fertile arable land and highly valuable gravel and sand deposits, the surroundings of the village of Kuzminec, and the central part of the municipality, which is the most vital and includes the settlements of Rasinja, Subotica Podravska, and Cvetkovec. The Podravina highway and railway line pass through this area. The well-known Rasinja fishponds, which support freshwater fish farming, are also located here. The area has all the prerequisites for more intensive development of continental, especially rural tourism.
The third zone encompasses the sub-Kalnik region, which has great potential for the development of livestock farming and forestry. Numerous associations and organizations operate within the municipality, some with a centuries-old tradition. These include:
Firefighting associations: DVD Rasinja, Kuzminec, Koledinec, Gorica, Subotica Podravska, and Cvetkovec;
Sports associations: NK Jadran Galeb from Kuzminec and Koledinec, NK Sabarija from Subotica Podravska, NK Rasinja, and NK Tehničar from Cvetkovec; Hunting associations: LD Vepar Rasinja, LU Vepar Veliki Poganec, and LD Zec Kuzminec. Among these associations, we are especially proud of the Croatian Peasant Singing Society “Sloga” from Kuzminec, founded in autumn 1902 by Josip Androlić, a teacher at the Kuzminec primary school; the Women’s Choir Rasinja from Rasinja; and the Women and Girls’ Society “Croatian Soul” from Rasinja. The Pensioners’ Association and the Croatian Red Cross are also very active and have numerous members in all villages of the municipality. Various activities are organized by the Rasinja Municipal Tourist Board and the Winemakers’ and Vineyard Association “Soviljnjak” from Rasinja.
The Parish Church of the Holy Cross in Rasinja (1635–1790) is an example of sacred architecture in northwestern Croatia, which A. Horvat described as “between Gothic and Baroque”. This single-nave structure with a semicircular sanctuary and a bell tower at the front was built on the foundations of an older Gothic church destroyed by the Turks in 1532. Reconstruction of the church began in 1635 and continued until 1790. This is evidenced by visible elements of the earlier Gothic building, such as the pointed triumphal arch between the sanctuary and nave, and the system of buttresses supporting the sanctuary’s outer walls. Above the sanctuary stood a now-demolished choir loft where members of the noble Inkey family and distinguished guests attended Mass. The church was thoroughly restored in 2001.
The existence of the Orthodox religious community after major migrations caused by the Turkish advance westward is evidenced by sacred buildings in Duga Rijeka, Mali Poganec, and Veliki Poganec, built during the time of Maria Theresa. The oldest is the parish Church of St. George the Great Martyr in Veliki Poganec from 1722, a single-nave late Baroque building housing a highly valuable iconostasis from 1799, the work of the renowned Osijek iconographer Jovan Četirević Grabovan. This was followed by the construction of the branch Orthodox Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit and St. Archdeacon Stephen in Duga Rijeka in 1760 and the Church of the Holy Apostles and St. Archdeacon Stephen in Mali Poganec in 1977.
The Parish Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Kuzminec (1760–1765, 1787) is the most important sacred monument in the Rasinja region. The site contains an unexplored medieval archaeological site suggesting the existence of a moat and fortified castle. Written records from 1659 mention a wooden church within the castle, surrounded by ramparts and moats. During the tenure of parish priest Josip Kunić (1759–1789), the church underwent Baroquization and was completed in its current form in 1787. This masonry single-nave structure with a semicircular sanctuary, attached sacristy, and Baroque bell tower features a modest exterior. In contrast, the interior is richly decorated with illusionistic paintings depicting scenes from the lives of the twin saintly physicians Cosmas and Damian, painted between 1770 and 1784 by late Baroque master Jožef Anton Lerchinger, a member of the renowned Pauline painting school in Lepoglava and a student of Ivan Ranger. Next to the parish church in Kuzminec, Italian builder Valentin constructed a parish house in 1761 in strict late Baroque Classicism. On the first floor of the southern façade is a shallow-relief sundial with simple lines.
The existence of a parish school in Rasinja is mentioned as early as the beginning of the 16th century. A two-year secular school was established in 1826 under the supervision of the Archbishop’s Spiritual Table in Zagreb. From 1838, it became a three-year school. Classes were held in a thatched one-story building until 1857, when the school burned down. After that, the residents of Rasinja, Subotica, Cvetkovec, and Bolfan, with help from Ferdinand Inkey, built a new school building with one classroom, two rooms, and a kitchen for the teacher.
At the end of the 19th century, Rasinja had a Boys’ Primary School, which after 1928 became a Higher Civic Primary School. Around 1935, Rasinja had both a State Boys’ Primary School and a State Girls’ Primary School, while Veliki Poganec had an Orthodox primary school. Since 1956, the Rasinja primary school has operated in the main building of the Inkey manor, and from the 1956/57 school year, it has offered eight-grade instruction. In 1993, a new modern Andrija Palmović Primary School was built on the western edge of the village, surrounded by a beautifully arranged ethno-park with traditional flower plantings and objects maintained by teachers and students. The school is named after Andrija Palmović (1847–1882), a famous Croatian poet and painter born in Rasinja in the mid-19th century.
In addition to the central school in Rasinja, branch schools operate in Kutnjak, Kuzminec, Subotica Podravska, and Veliki Poganec.